What We Do
WDN members are committed to focusing on where the progressive movement needs to be and then finding the places where they can use their power to have the most impact.
Member and former Board Chair, Diane Hullet
What We Do… what makes us unique
The Women Donors Network is a learning community of activist philanthropists who are dedicated to a progressive global agenda.
We create community, educational opportunities, and action strategies that help philanthropists better use their wealth and influence to effect progressive social change. This is accomplished through the exchange of knowledge, information, and experience and collaborative action among a stable and expanding group of women who share key values. As of the spring of 2008, the membership consists of nearly 175 women from around the country.
WDN members leverage both individual giving and group philanthropy for greater impact. Each year our members collectively give away well in excess of $100 million, an amount that rivals many large foundations. WDN places a high value on movement building to ensure that change is sustainable.Originated in 1991 as a project of Resourceful Women to focus on the unique concerns and needs of its members who were active philanthropists, WDN emerged in 1999 as an organization in its own right, under the sponsorship of the Tides Center. On June 1, 2003, the Women Donors Network became an independent 501(c)(3) organization.
Our Vision… an inclusive and balanced global society
WDN envisions sustainable and caring communities worldwide that are built on respect for diversity, mutual understanding, biodiversity, and the equitable distribution of wealth and power. We work to build a progressive movement that ensures substantial and enduring change of prevailing systems of inequality, exclusion, and oppression. WDN embraces the core progressive ideals of peace; human rights; feminism; and social, political and economic, and environmental justice.
Our Values Translate Into Action Around 7 Themes
- Building a community of activist philanthropists
- Civic Participation and Progressive Infrastructure
- Social and Economic Justice
- Education, Culture, Social Justice
- Environment and Food Justice
- Global and Peace Issues
- Health and Human Rights
