Our 2023 Impact

The Women’s Foundation supports the ongoing leadership development and grassroots advocacy of the Young Women’s Cabinet as experts of the issues they face in their own lives. As part of the Young Women’s Initiative, a partnership between the Women’s Foundation and the Office of the Governor and Lt. Governor, Cabinet members create and advocate for a policy agenda that centers women, girls, gender-expansive people, and other groups pushed to the margins.

As part of Women’s History Month in 2023, the Women’s Foundation hosted Claiming Our Power: Young Women’s Day at the Capitol, and the Governor and Lt. Governor declared March 9th Young Women’s Initiative Day in Minnesota.

Read more: 2023 Legislative Session Concludes with Historic Wins for Gender & Racial Justice

“We use a strengths-based model, and we try to really cultivate those strengths that people bring in when they walk through our doors. That’s been really phenomenal – how women go from being a victim to being somebody who is really in charge of their own freedom.” – Comfort Dondo, Founder of Phumulani

Phumulani – Minnesota African Women against Violence – provides education, advocacy, and leadership to sexual abuse and domestic violence survivors of color throughout Minnesota. Named for a Zulu word meaning “lover of peace,” Phumulani is creating healing circles for women and girls specific to the 54 African immigrant cultural communities represented in Minnesota. They are also implementing a community-integrated approach to engage men and boys in the prevention of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

Founded and led by survivor and advocate Comfort Dondo, the organization had been operating for just two years when they first became a WFM grantee-partner in 2019. They continue to grow to meet community needs and strengthen their reach by working with the Minnesota Department of Health and Minneapolis Police Department to improve their crisis response with people from African immigrant communities. As a leader and key coalition partner with the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition (MIWSAC), Phumulani grows and sustains leadership opportunities across and within cultures.

Read more about our impact in Safety.

WFM invests in access, education, and policies that value the right to make decisions about one’s own body and meet the healthcare needs of women, girls, and gender-expansive people. Grantee-partner Our Justice removes barriers for accessing reproductive services in Minnesota. Their work is founded on the vision of reproductive justice – the ability for any person to determine their own reproductive destiny and how it’s linked to not only their decisions, but their options within the system.

Learn more about our impact in Holistic Well-Being & Reproductive Justice.

“EMPOWER has helped me with finding information I needed, tools to do my schoolwork in the shop, and honestly just the comfort of knowing there are other women involved in these courses makes me feel better about being able to accomplish this course.” – Minnesota North College, Diesel Mechanics Student

Through We Thrive, the Women’s Foundation supports wealth-building and builds the capacity of organizations leading programs in entrepreneurship and education with Black, Indigenous, women of color, women who have low incomes, women 25 and older, and women in greater Minnesota.

Read more: We Thrive Grants Support Education in Technical Fields