Grantmakingin fy22 (apr. 1, 2021 - mar. 31, 2022), the foundation awarded $2.48 million in grants to create safety and opportunity and build pathways to economic security for women and girls who experience the greatest disparities in outcomes, particularly low-income women and girls, women and girls of color, and women and girls from greater minnesota. In 2020, wfmn permanently shifted all grantmaking to general operations to allow organizations greater flexibility in a time of uncertainty and heightened need in response to the emergent needs of communities impacted by the covid-19 pandemic and racial injustice. (Continued on sch. O)the effects of the pandemic are not only short-term but will impact grantee-partners and program participants for years to come. Long-term recovery for organizations, programs, and participants is incumbent upon multi-year support, continued listening, flexibility in programming, and increased capacity to sustain and thrive.The foundation's $2.48 million investment across minnesota in fy22 included:* 257 grants to 160 nonprofit organizations and 14 individuals* 164,940 women and girls served the women's foundation of minnesota has the following grantmaking funds: girlsbest (girls building economic success together) fund, community response fund, fund for safety, and the young women's initiative of minnesota (ywi MN). A commitment to communities in greater minnesota and a value of inclusivity are reflected in the demographics of all the funds. 1. Girlsbest (girls building economic success together)launched in 2002, girlsbest awards multi-year grants to programs that build the opportunity and future economic success of minnesota's girls, ages 12-18. Priority is given to programs that include outreach to underserved, underrepresented populations of girls around the state, including low-income girls, girls of color and american indian girls, and girls from greater minnesota. Grantees are funded in one of four program tracks: academic; entrepreneurial; employment development & high-paying/high-skill careers; and public education & advocacy. Grantee-partners increase girls' awareness of systemic gender and racial inequities, grow their sense of being change agents, foster their development as leaders, and build their capacity for individual and collective activism to increase girls' readiness to achieve economic well-being.In the 20 years since launching girlsbest, wfmn has funded six multi-year cohorts of grantee-partners across the state. Through these cohorts, wfmn has provided planning and implementation grants totaling more than $5.1 million to 134 girl-led and girl-driven programs statewide and impacted more than 45,202 young women across minnesota. In fy22, wfmn approved $300,000 in grants to support the second year of the sixth cohort of girlsbest grantee-partners across the state with 20 multi-year and three SEED grants for planning. Multi-year grants are renewed for up to three years, based on an annual grant review and approval of progress towards goals. Planning grants are limited to one year. The grant period is June 15, 2021, to June 14, 2022.Last year, girlsbest impacted the economic well-being of 2,089 girls and gender-expansive youth through grants to our partner organizations. Key outcomes from our program evaluation of cohort v (2018-2020) grantee-partners illustrates the model's effectiveness: - high school graduation: girlsbest participants have an 98% high school graduation rate, compared to 50-83% in minnesota overall, depending on ethnicity. - Post-secondary enrollment: among graduates 93% of girlsbest participants who are graduating seniors were on track to pursue post-secondary education, compared to 31-73% in minnesota overall, depending on ethnicity. - Unintended pregnancy: 99% of girlsbest participants avoided teen pregnancy rate. In the current cohort vi program evaluation, the pregnancy rate of participants was 10 per 1,000, compared to 25 per 1,000 of girls in minnesota overall in 2019 (the most recent data available), increasing their ability to attain post-secondary education and access career opportunities.2. Community response fundthrough community response fund grantmaking, the foundation responds quickly to emerging community needs and funds programs that ensure women's safe and healthy lives. Because inequity looks different in every community, we use our intersectional equity framework to look at how gender, race, place (geography), and additional identities (ethnicity, sovereignty, class, age, ability, lgtbq+, immigration) intersect in order to target the most innovative solutions for gender and racial justice. Priority is given to organizations that ensure safe and healthy lives for women, girls, gender-expansive people, and families.In response to the pandemic, wfmn leveraged this responsive grantmaking infrastructure to award four rounds of emergency grants totaling $1 million to organizations leading in their communities as first-responders in a crisis. To address the continuing pandemic and deepening systemic disparities and inequities, wfmn invests in organizations leading transformative work at the intersection of gender and racial justice including those leading skills building, culturally relevant responses and healing for gender-based violence, and meeting the increased need for holistic well-being and reproductive justice as rights and access are threatened. 3. Wfmn fund for safetysafety is the underpinning for equity for all women and girls; it improves their health outcomes, impacts their leadership, and increases their economic opportunity. With the MN girls are not for sale campaign to combat sex trafficking (2011-2019), wfmn catalyzed a sea change in our communities' response to sex trafficking. The wfmn fund for safety continues and expands wfmn's investment in women's safety as it works with communities to end gender-based violence, a continuum that includes including sex trafficking, domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, as well as state and structural violence. Wfmn invests in the organizations, leaders, and the movement to create a minnesota where women, girls, and gender-expansive people are free from every form of violence and can experience their homes, schools, and communities as safe places. During our last fiscal year, wfmn awarded $336,000 to 14 organizations. By resourcing the continued progress of the movement and supporting existing and emerging programming by and for underrepresented cultural communities, wfmn is investing in organizations, leaders, and the movement to build stability for community-sustaining programs. In virtual site visits, grantee-partners shared that they are seeing a decrease in grant funding availability, alongside greater costs and need for services caused by the heightened isolation of the covid-19 pandemic. Of the safety partners, 14 percent are receiving wfmn funding for the first time, 36 percent work in rural and greater minnesota, 57 percent are led by black, indigenous, and women of color. Funded programs will directly serve an estimated 9,502 women, men, girls, boys, and gender-expansive people across the state.4. Young women's initiative of minnesota (ywi MN) launched in 2016, ywi MN is a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment and a public-private partnership with the governor's office of the state of minnesota to achieve equity in opportunities with and for young women of color, american indian young women, young women from greater minnesota, lgbtq+ youth, and young women with disabilities. Ywi MN is on a mission to create a minnesota where every young woman thrives with economic opportunity, safety, and leadership. As an eight-year, $11 million statewide initiative, ywi MN is focused building equity in opportunities with young women and gender-expansive people, ages 12-24, from eight communities facing the greatest systemic disparities in our state: black, indigenous, young women of color, young women from greater minnesota, lgbtq+ youth, and young women with disabilities. A public-private cross-sector partnership is essential for changing inequitable systems that create barriers for young women's ability to thrive, despite their potential. No state in the country has established a formal statewide initiative for young women (ages 12-24) in partnership with a governor until now. Ywi MN is built on girl-focused work wfmn has led since 2002, including our girlsbest (girls building economic success together) program and our MN girls are not for sale campaign to end sex trafficking in minnesota. Ywi MN is driven by and with young women and gender-expansive leaders and supported by cross-sector partners including business, government, education, and organizational leaders on the executive council for the young women's initiative.

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