Women’s History Month: Impactful Organizations Build Strong Communities

To celebrate Women’s History Month, Philanthropy Roundtable is highlighting four organizations that support women and their families in a variety of ways from family preservation and trauma restoration to policy education and civic leadership training. Organizations that help vulnerable women overcome challenges as well as those that provide resources on civic engagement and how policymaking affects our daily lives are critical to creating strong communities where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential.


Charities that empower women and their families

• Every Mother’s Advocate (EMA) envisions a world where mothers are no longer separated from their children due to preventable causes but are equipped and empowered to raise their children in stable and nurturing homes. EMA values prevention – they believe family separation that stems from poverty can be prevented by working closely with community partners, businesses and individuals in their areas of expertise to provide mothers with people of influence. They facilitate trauma-informed, evidence-based curricula along with crafting individual plans for each mother in the program.

EMA facilitates a court-approved prevention program designed to advocate for moms in crisis and help them preserve their families. The program starts by pairing moms at risk of losing their children to foster care with a professional team of EMA Care Coordinators and a volunteer ĒMA Advocate. This care team builds a meaningful relationship and provides holistic support to ensure that every mother has an opportunity to thrive and families stay together. Read more about EMA’s outcome-based model in Philanthropy Roundtable’s Opportunity Playbook.

• Hope Women’s Center (HWC) is a trauma-informed, faith-based nonprofit that helps over 1,200 vulnerable women and teen girls each year. It provides holistic support, including mentorship and education, for women in a variety of challenging life situations. HWC is on a mission to encourage, equip and engage these women while simultaneously providing for their needs – emotional, physical and spiritual.

Almost four decades ago, HWC was founded in Apache Junction, Arizona, as a crisis pregnancy center. Since then, it has expanded into six locations. HWC assists women and teen girls struggling with unplanned pregnancies, substance abuse, poverty, family conflict, emotional distress, human trafficking and other forms of abuse. It also intervenes on a girl’s behalf when Arizona’s Department of Children’s Services is involved. Each program at HWC is trauma-informed and addresses the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of not only each woman in the organization’s care, but their families, too. In these ways, it provides care at every stage of life. Learn more about HWC by visiting the Opportunity Playbook.


Organizations that educate women on civic engagement

• Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and advancing policies that improve people’s freedom, opportunity and well-being by alerting women on how policy issues impact them and their loved ones. IWF has several policy centers including the Center for Energy & Conservation, Center for Progress and Innovation, Education Freedom Center, Independent Women’s Law Center and Center for Economic Opportunity.

Through the work of these centers, IWF educates Americans on a wide range of policy issues related to government spending, health care costs and accessibility, energy, education, law, environment, national security, the workplace and more.

To inform and engage its audience, IWF frequently appears on media programs, gives congressional testimony, publishes op-eds and connects community leaders through events and other opportunities. IWF’s storytelling efforts, like their Champion Women Profile Series, highlight women leaders across the country with diverse experience and expertise who have shown courage and poise as they have stood firm in their beliefs. Learn more about IWF’s efforts here.

• The Policy Circle (TPC) is a nonprofit organization that provides a variety of programs and tools to equip women to be impactful and innovative civic leaders in their communities.

In 2015, Angela Braly, Kathryn Hubbard and Sylvie Légère attended a public policy forum and were surprised by the lack of women in the conversation. They responded by creating TPC’s grassroots framework that is strategically built to develop confidence so women can voice their informed opinions and “go beyond the headlines” when discussing ideas. One way TPC fosters confidence is through its Civic Leadership Engagement Roadmap (CLER), which is a three-month program that provides women with one-on-one coaching, networking, peer groups and direct contact with local policy leaders, exposing them to a diverse range of community involvement.

By building TPC around fact-based civil discourse, it has grown into a thriving women’s network of more than 3,500 women in 42 different states and four countries. To learn more or join the conversation, check out The Policy Circle Briefs, which are designed to “drive conversation, ignite personal responsibility, question the role of government and increase civic engagement.”

To find more organizations that are strengthening our communities, visit Philanthropy Roundtable’s Opportunity Playbook.