News
Grassroots Organizations Activate Their Communities in Advance of Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
We are almost to election day for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Tomorrow, April 4, voters will decide who will fill the seventh supreme court seat vacated by conservative Justice Patience Roggensack. Because it currently stands 4-3 conservatives to progressives, whoever is elected will determine the court’s ideological leaning. The Wisconsin Supreme Court has been […]
ABC Funds the First Women of Color-Led, Employee-Owned Abortion Clinic in the U.S.
Valley Abortion Group (VAG) is a women of color-led group of local providers opening a clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico that will focus on providing patient-centered abortion care later in pregnancy. Providing Abortion Care in Late Stage Alaska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Colorado, Vermont, and Oregon are the six states where abortion is technically legal […]
“We Can’t Go Away” Alabama Clinic Continues to Provide Critical Care Post-Roe
There haven’t been any active abortion clinics in Alabama since June 24, 2022. Alabama is a trigger state so a near-total abortion ban went into effect hours after the reversal of Roe v. Wade, forcing Alabama’s three independent abortion providers to close their doors or reinvent themselves. Reproductive health clinic West Alabama Women’s Center is […]
The Movement-Member-Staff Partnership That Sparked WDN’s First Series on Reparations
In 2022 WDN’s Jean Hardisty Initiative hosted its first-ever series on reparations in partnership with Liberation Ventures, Groundswell Fund, and the Fund for Nonviolence. How this dynamic, informative, and inspiring learning series came to be is a story unto itself. Our Programs & Initiatives Manager Summer Migliori Soto (she/they) joined us to share the journey […]
Small Towns, Big Promise: Organizing Local Arizona
The gaps in local political infrastructure in her home county of Pinal, Arizona became apparent to Natali Fierros-Bock when she joined her first legislative district meeting. She quickly stepped up as their Chair and a couple of years down the line went on to run for office together with her future co-founder Pablo Correa. Balancing their […]
Supporting Black-Led Movements: An Alternative to Inequitable Funding
Dr. Jean Hardisty was a writer, scholar, public speaker, activist, and member of WDN for 21 years. Self-described as a “baby boomer who grew up in a genteel, white, upper-middle-class Southern family, went to the right boarding school, and attended the right cotillions,” Jean radically departed from her conservative roots and dedicated herself to fighting […]
Funding Where Democracy-Building, Grassroots Power, and Reproductive Rights Intersect
How do we continue sustaining long-term strategies and capacity-building while meeting the needs of the moment? In our final funding round for 2022, we granted $300,000 to three organizations at the intersection of civic empowerment, grassroots base-building, and reproductive rights (either because they have a reproductive justice strategy or because they’re building progressive power within […]
We Just Wrapped Our Annual Conference, Here Are the Highlights
We gathered at WDN Connect 2022 as a community of audacious women and filled our days and nights together with knowledge-sharing, commitment, and celebration. We were grounded in the memories of the past and inspired to grow into the future. It is abundantly clear that we are feminists, activists, donors, and doers working side by […]
Indigenous Leaders Share How We Can Reclaim Our Past, Present, and Future
Our country, this stolen land, harbors generations of white supremacy and oppression. Yet it also contains the medicine for moving forward. What if the best times are not behind us? What if they are ahead? Indigenous communities are putting the “home” back in homeland by reclaiming what was stolen from them and practicing traditional culture, […]
Grantee Spotlight: Disinformation Defense League – Liberating Communities from Disinformation
The Disinformation Defense League (DDL) is a national network of grassroots organizations that builds defenses against disinformation and misinformation campaigns targeting communities of color. WDN’s Participation and Representation initiative’s funding has helped them deliver narrative-based interventions, develop COVID-19 messaging and programming, and evaluate community needs. In the lead-up to the midterm elections and beyond, they […]
