About Us

Mission

Women’s Foundation of Alabama is a communitydriven foundation impacting the world around us by accelerating economic opportunity for women.

Vision

We envision a society where power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, or place.

Values

Insight, Advocacy, Impact, Equity, Inclusion.

Board Welcome

As I reflect on what 2022 signified for Women’s Foundation of Alabama and the hundreds of thousands of women statewide whose power and potential stand to be unleashed, the words that resonate most are catalyze, multiply, and accelerate.

We are blazing a path for the next generation of women to build upon.

Thanks to your support, 2022 marked our first full year of operating as a statewide foundation. With this expanded footprint came expanded opportunity. As you will read in this year’s Annual Report, Women’s Foundation of Alabama produced the state’s first ever economic impact study spotlighting the invaluable role women play in Alabama’s economy and the tremendous opportunity for growth if barriers that preclude women’s full participation in the workforce are addressed.

The Foundation deployed more than $800,000 in community investments, fueling boots-on-the-ground organizations that work to remove barriers for women and families, including our first-ever round of funding for the Girls at the Center Fund focused on serving young women. Leaning deeper into the philosophy that when women lead, change follows, we celebrated the graduation of our third class of Women’s Policy Institute Fellows, propelling our grassroots army to advocate and effectuate change in even more communities across the state.

We also continued our streak of legislative victories by securing four more wins for the women of Alabama, including a historic $17.8 million state investment in child care, the expansion of maternal health coverage to 30,000 more women, increased funding for our two-generation Economic Mobility Model with the Alabama Community College System, and the creation of the Alabama Workforce and Wage Gap Task Force which provided data-driven recommendations to lawmakers for closing the gender wage gap and bolstering female workforce participation.

These groundbreaking findings, system level changes, and transformational funding opportunities would not have been possible without your support.

With your generosity, we continue to shape a new narrative for what’s possible. We move from sitting at the table, to setting the table. Please enjoy this report detailing the work and impact you helped to shape, and thank you for supporting our mission to accelerate economic opportunity for the women and girls of Alabama.

Dawn Helms Sharff, Chair, Board of Directors

Last year, we announced a pivotal shift in scope, formally becoming Women’s Foundation of Alabama. With your support we expanded from a five-county footprint and now touch the lives of women across 46 counties, solidifying our organization’s statewide presence and boldly leaning into our mission to advance women’s economic power.