Leadership & Community Power
Our vision is a state where all women, girls, and gender-expansive people are valued as solution-builders and leaders within their communities.
We build community power by investing in leadership, field-building, and movements that center women, girls, and gender-expansive people at the intersection of identities most impacted by systemic injustice.
About This Impact Area
Community power is the fuel our state needs to change systems and achieve equitable and just
outcomes for all communities. We invest in breaking barriers and building power so women and girls see pathways to leadership in every sector.
By supporting the capacity-building and sustainability of organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and women of color, LGBTQ+ people, and women in Greater Minnesota, we build power within and across our state’s communities.
What the Data Shows
Research shows that gender, racial, and other types of diversity in leadership bring clear benefits, from economic innovation to deeper community support for democratic institutions.
Women in Corporate Leadership
Women have made gains, but Minnesota corporate leadership remains overwhelmingly male.
In 2020, women held 25% of corporate board of director seats in these top companies, which has trended up from 15% since 2014. At the current rate, it would take 54 years to reach gender parity. Women of color and Native American women held only 4% of these director seats in 2020.
Percentage of women in corporate leadership roles in the top Minnesota corporations:
The Gender Gap within Political Leadership
The number of women in the Minnesota Legislature reached a historic high of 72 women in the 2020 election. In 2021, the Minnesota Legislature swore in its most racially diverse group of lawmakers yet. Legislators of color and Indigenous legislators increased to 25 (13 women) in the 2021-2022 session, up from 21 (11 women) in 2019-2020. However, women of color remain underrepresented relative to their proportion of the state’s population.
Women in the Minnesota Legislature:
Women in Nonprofit Leadership
While women are the majority of nonprofit sector employees, they are not represented in leadership.
In Minnesota, 21% of employed women work in the nonprofit sector, compared to just 6% of male workers. However, from 2015-2019, only 34% of Minnesota nonprofit leaders were women, down from 43% from 2010-2014.
Source: MN Department of Employment and Economic Development, May 2019
“We have an amazing opportunity for transformation. We have an amazing opportunity to build life affirming institutions instead of what we currently have.”
Kandace Montgomery
Genius of Black Women Presentation
How We Build Power
In addition to investing in programs, we use research and communications to educate and mobilize Minnesotans to recognize bias and injustice, build power, expand opportunities, and create equity.
Workplaces can create inclusive policies to ensure that women at the intersection of identities, including Black, Indigenous, women of color, women with disabilities, older women, and LGBTQ+ women are making key decisions. In addition to business, nonprofits, and elected office, leadership takes place in local communities where women innovators, entrepreneurs, and culture-bearers are creating solutions. Making space and investing in women, girls, and gender-expansive people will ensure that solutions created by people and families most impacted will be successful.
Young Women Are Leaders
Raie Gessesse, former Young Women’s Cabinet Member and WFMN Policy Fellow, shares
why she is part of the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota and why supporting other young women of color as leaders is critical for our state’s success.
“In order to start uplifting our young women and teaching them that they are capable, attitudes and behaviors ingrained into our society need to change.”
Raie Gessesse
Young Women’s Cabinet Alumna, Former Policy Fellow
Impact Initiatives & Research
Latest Updates in Leadership
Mar 10, 2023
Claiming Our Power: Young Women’s Initiative Day at the Capitol
Oct 18, 2022
Katharine L. Kelly & Vanessa Goodthunder Honored with 2022 Mary Lee Dayton Catalyst for Change Awards
Sep 26, 2022
History and Language Ground Leadership of Vanessa Goodthunder
Our Statewide Impact
Interactive Grants Map
Discover more about Women’s Foundation grantee-partners, statewide. Click on the icon in the upper right of the map to expand the legend and see other options for viewing. Use the drop-down menu in the legend to filter grantee-partners by fund, location, or impact area.
View a larger version of WFMN Grantee-Partner map created with eSpatial mapping software.
Explore Ways to Give
Your support fuels the innovative community-based, community-led work happening across the state. Explore our funding opportunities.