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 $8.9 million to 70 nonprofit organizations. We have built an endowment of more than $4.8 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.

Education – Through our educational offerings and committee participation, our Members become better informed, more deliberate strategic philanthropists.

Research – We embrace research to inform our decisions and educate the public, our Members and policy makers.

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. While all our grants have fallen in our four Fields of Interest – Educational Attainment, Economic Empowerment, Physical and Mental Health and Safety and Justice — in 2012, we began to concentrate for several years on one narrower focus with two-year grants. WGA’s Education and Advocacy functions followed suit. The goal is greater impact in our communities.

Recent Focus

When the pandemic hit our community, we heard directly from our grantees that the need was great and they needed our help immediately. We responded quickly with one-time unrestricted grants to meet their greatest needs. Our goal was not innovative new solutions but to invest in our grantees’ core mission funding, seeking to sustain their tried-and-true programming as they journeyed through uncertain times. We continue to hear from them about the after-effects of the pandemic and the inflationary economy.

Learn more about Our Grantmaking and our Grants History.

Learn more about our past areas of focus below.

Focus Area (2017 - 2021) 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.

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