Women’s Fund of Rhode Island

Grant Making

Our grant cycle is currently CLOSED. Our next application period will open sometime in early 2026.

During our 2024-25 cycle Women’s Fund of Rhode Island (WFRI) made grants totaling $150,000 each year for innovative proposals to achieve gender equity and help level the playing field for women and girls in Rhode Island. Several of the grants included a racial justice component and all are relevant to concurrent health and racial disparities.

WFRI uses social change grantmaking to achieve gender equity and social justice, focus on systemic solutions, and address the unique needs of women and girls. Since its launch in 2001, the WFRI Grant Program has awarded more than $1M to organizations and programs in Rhode Island that empower women and girls. These grants are made possible through the generosity of donors of the WFRI.

To give you a sense of what we mean by funding gender equity through systemic change, our most recent grant recipients and awarded programs include:

Amos House ($20,000)- funding the Bridge to Career Opportunities program to improve employment and economic outcomes for 25 low income women facing financial insecurity
ARISE ($20,000)- to support youth-led development, testing, and impelmentation of a new civic advocacy curriculum, which focuses specifically on issues of gender inequity
Planned Parenthood of Southern New England ($20,000)- to strenthen policy and advocacy work and grow a larger/more diverse base of supporters to further shape the reproductive rights and gender equity movement, particularly within the Southeast Asian community
Women's Health and Education Fund ($20,000)- operating expenses for Rhode Island's only abortion fund
Young Voices ($17,572)- funding GRL PWR, a youth-led BIPoc women and non-binary empowerment group focused on policy change within the Providence Community
Coalition to End Homelessness ($17,476)- Renewed funding for Voices of Homelessness and Constituent Advisory Committee
Refugee Dream Center ($17,476)- funding the Afghani Women Intregation Project
SafeBae ($17,476)- to comprehensively engage school and parent communities to reduce relationsip violence through youth engagement

In addition, through special funding provided by the New York Women's Foundation and the Aditi Foundation, WFRI partnered wth Rhode Island for Community & Justice to provide $59,400 in support of their Young Wome's Equity Coalition.

Our Grant Program

Launched in 2001
Supporting programs that empower women and girls to address gender inequity
More than $1,125,000 has been distributed to gender lens programming to date
Made possible by donations to Women’s Fund of Rhode Island

WFRI Grant Priorities

Systems change ideas that work to level the playing field for women and girls in Rhode Island

Civic engagement and leadership
Economic self-sufficiency and justice, particularly fair/equal pay and increased/living wages
Women and girls health and well-being, particularly freedom and access to reproductive health and/or freedom from sexual harassment

Eligibility

WFRI's grant-making supports systemic change. Proposals need to demonstrate one or more of the following:

A capacity to address root causes of problems, challenges and issues
Impact on societal attitudes or behaviors
Positive long-term change for women and girls
Expanded choice for women and girls
Empowerment of women and girls to challenge the status quo
Changes in policies and systems to provide full participation by women and girls

WFRI will fund the following types of organizations:

Non-profit organizations and groups that demonstrate tax-exempt status under the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Code 501 (c) 3
Groups or organizations that submit an application through a fiscal sponsor, e.g. a tax-exempt organization under IRS Code 501 (c) that agrees to accept funds on its behalf
Schools receiving funding from the government
Eligible Organizations or groups that serve women and girls in Rhode Island

Funding Restrictions

We will not fund the following:

Federal, state, county, and city government agencies
Religious organizations for religious purposes. Although there is no restriction on funding faith-based organizations, all WFRI-funded projects /services must be secular
For-profit business ventures
Endowment or capital campaigns
Individuals or scholarships
Fundraising events or conferences
Debt reduction
Medical research
Campaigns to elect candidates to public office
Projects that discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or any veteran's status.

Grant Making