What We Do
Our Work
It takes just one small action to create a powerful ripple effect of change.
When you invest in a woman, you invest in her children and generations to follow. WGA funds, educates and advocates for women and girls to strengthen our families, communities and future. As our work and Membership grow, so too does our ability to expand our reach and impact.
Since 2002, WGA has awarded more than $9.6 million to 74 nonprofit organizations. We have built an endowment of more than $5.9 million, ensuring local women’s and girls’ needs will be addressed for years to come.
“When we fund something, our hope is that solutions outlast funding.”
Kiki Karpen, past Co-Chair, Grants Leadership Team
While central to our goals, strategic grantmaking is just one part of our work.
We focus on five core areas to create powerful circles of change:
Strategic Grantmaking – Our rigorous grantmaking process utilizes the varied talents of our Member Volunteers. We seek out innovative, collaborative efforts that may be scaled and measured to achieve long-term impact. Our evaluation teams work with grantees throughout the grant cycle to assess progress and help work through any challenges.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – We are actively inclusive and seek to bring together many viewpoints. We believe we’re stronger, together.
Advocacy – WGA explores ways to influence public policy through non-partisan activities collectively and as individuals. Our Members advocate for causes that impact the well-being of women and girls in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns Counties.
Strategic Grantmaking
Our rigorous grantmaking process utilizes the varied talents of our Member Volunteers. We seek out innovative, collaborative efforts that may be scaled and measured to achieve long-term impact. Our evaluation teams work with grantees throughout the grant cycle to assess progress and help work through any challenges.
Advocacy
WGA explores ways to influence public policy through non-partisan activities collectively and as individuals. Our Members advocate for causes that impact the well-being of women and girls in Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam and St. Johns Counties.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
We are actively inclusive and seek to bring together many viewpoints. We believe we’re stronger, together.
Research
We embrace research to inform our decisions and educate the public, our Members and policy makers.
Education
Through our educational offerings and committee participation, our Members become better informed, more deliberate strategic philanthropists.
Focus & Impact
Informed by research, WGA focuses on root causes, sustainable solutions and long-term impact. Research, outcomes and impact drive all our core areas of work. Our grants – given collectively and with purpose – achieve meaningful change throughout Northeast Florida. As stewards of WGA and our community, impact is constantly evaluated and informs all of our philanthropy, education, advocacy and activities.
Strategic philanthropy has been core to our grantmaking approach since 2002. All of our grants fall into one or more of our four Fields of Interest – Educational Attainment, Economic Empowerment, Physical and Mental Health and Safety and Justice. Our goal is greater impact in our communities. Learn more about our present and past areas of focus below.
Learn more about Our Grantmaking and our Grants History.
Focus Area (2025 - Present) Addressing Violence Against Women & Girls
Many girls in NEFL are in peril: 1/3 report feeling unsafe at school; 2/3 report verbal bullying; 35% report cyberbullying. Girls, specifically ages 12-17, are the most at-risk to human trafficking. Duval County has significantly higher rates of child abuse and neglect than the state of Florida. In 3 of the 6 counties in Northeast Florida, suicide rates have increased among girls under 17. After learning these and other statistics, members chose WGA’s new focus area for its grants and community efforts for 2025 and beyond: Addressing Violence Against Women & Girls.
Our 4 areas of emphasis are:
- HELP GIRLS be safer and more empowered at home, school, and online.
- EDUCATE THE COMMUNITY about violence against women and girls.
- BROADEN SHORT- TERM SERVICES for female victims (and their children); shelter is critical but may only be the beginning.
- EXPAND LONG-TERM SUPPORT enabling transition to self-sufficiency (and independence from the abuser).
Focus Area (2017 - 2024) Breaking the Cycle of Female Poverty: Intervention and Prevention
In Florida, 40 percent of families with children living in poverty are female-headed households. And children who grow up in the bottom fifth of national family income are more likely to remain in poverty as adults. Nationally and locally, programs that show promise of breaking the cycle have demonstrated that attention to just one problem facing these women is not enough to achieve lasting success. It takes a comprehensive, integrated approach that may address physical and mental health issues, adequate education and job training, needs for child care and transportation and learning to manage money, among other issues.
WGA’s strategy has three components:
- Educate our members, our partners and the community at large about existing barriers and effective solutions
- Advocate for public policy changes that eliminate barriers for women and girls seeking to move out of poverty and prevent women and girls from falling into poverty
- Make grants to nonprofit partners for intervention programs which enable women and girls to move out of poverty and prevention programs which keep women and girls from falling into poverty
Focus Area (2012-2016): Mental Health
In 2012, WGA Members elected to concentrate all of WGA’s philanthropic resources on a single strategic focus: improving access to mental health services for women and girls. It was an easy decision, due to staggering need.
- At the time, Florida ranked 50th among the 50 states for per capita spending on mental health
- Within the state, Northeast Florida had the second lowest per capita funding
- Mental disorders impact men and women differently, but treatment approaches are often not gender-specific
Mental Health Final Impact report
Executive Summary
Full Report
WGA awarded nearly $2 million in two-year grants between 2012 and 2016 (the last grants finished in 2018). When the final impact was tallied, we had provided access to mental health services for 8,800 women and girls, increased gender-specific training for mental health professionals and created a ripple effect within the community that continues to this day. Terms like “trauma informed care” and “gender-responsive counseling” entered people’s vocabularies. We demonstrated that concepts like wraparound services (meeting needs such as housing, daycare and safety) and innovative approaches to increasing access improved outcomes. In turn, these became models that other agencies replicated.
Because we linked our grantmaking with education, collaboration, advocacy and partnering with other agencies and organizations, the impact of our efforts was far greater than the individual women and girls we helped. By shining a light on a difficult issue, we changed our community, and many of us as individuals. Our work in Mental Health has been a true example of strategic philanthropy, far exceeding our initial expectations.
WGA awarded nearly $2 million in two-year grants between 2012 and 2016 (the last grants finished in 2018). When the final impact was tallied, we had provided access to mental health services for 8,800 women and girls, increased gender-specific training for mental health professionals and created a ripple effect within the community that continues to this day. Terms like “trauma informed care” and “gender-responsive counseling” entered people’s vocabularies. We demonstrated that concepts like wraparound services (meeting needs such as housing, daycare and safety) and innovative approaches to increasing access improved outcomes. In turn, these became models that other agencies replicated.
Because we linked our grantmaking with education, collaboration, advocacy and partnering with other agencies and organizations, the impact of our efforts was far greater than the individual women and girls we helped. By shining a light on a difficult issue, we changed our community, and many of us as individuals. Our work in Mental Health has been a true example of strategic philanthropy, far exceeding our initial expectations.
In Her Own Words
“By taking a deep dive into mental health, WGA got the attention of a lot of other stakeholders, and started a community conversation that is ongoing and showing results.”
– Dr. Laura Lane, former Chief Operating Officer, Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. (JCCI)
“We really did move the needle. We picked a really hard, dark topic and brought it to the surface. (The WGA Mental Health Initiative) made me more than proud.”
– Peggy Schiffers, past co-Chair of Grants Committee
“I’ve struggled with depression for years. You created a safe place so I could share things I’ve never told anybody. I use the skills and confidence I’ve developed every
day.”
– Client served through WGA funding support