The Women’s Foundation of the South
3rd April 2023 · 0 Comments
The Women’s Foundation of the South (WFS) has jumped into the deep divide of the intersection of race, gender, equity, justice and inclusion. While some people in America aim to oppress BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) to stem the tide of population diversification in the U.S., the WFS is taking a radical approach to transforming how philanthropy prioritizes its funding.
What’s radical about the WFS’ approach to charitable giving? There has never been a philanthropic foundation dedicated to Women and Girls of Color (WGOC) across 13 southern states led by grantmaking experts of color. The New Orleans-based nonprofit took on a mission that some thought was impossible.
WFS Founding President and CEO Carmen James Randolph put into action her heartfelt desire to help women and girls of color when she and three other women launched the WFS in August 2021.
Randolph is an experienced leader in philanthropy known for championing sustainable transformation from the intersections of gender, race and social justice. After working in charitable organizations for more than two decades, she saw the need for a foundation that helps women and girls of color in the South get the chance not only to survive but thrive.
Randolph and Christy Slater (the VP of programs who formerly worked at the Kellogg Foundation) know firsthand WOC’s (Women of Color) difficulty getting funded. While they worked at charitable organizations, they advocated for giving grants to WOC.
Even when every T was crossed, every I dotted, and applications were perfect, WOC-led organizations still needed to be funded.
Randolph’s and Slater’s recommendations for funding WOC-led organizations and businesses were often ignored, and, in some cases, philanthropic leaders doubted their abilities to carry out their duties. Even when they began planning for the launch of WFS, naysayers didn’t believe they would be successful.
They were wrong. The WFS raised four million dollars in less than two years, mostly from individual donors and a few corporations. And after the WFS’s first five months of existence, the organization distributed nearly $200,000 to 28 women of color nonprofit leaders in Louisiana.
WFS leaders recently spoke about the need for a foundation that explicitly uplifts and supports WGOC in the South during a luncheon for Black media professionals. Woman-of-color-led nonprofits in the South receive the least funding from philanthropic sources. Only 0.25 percent of funding is granted to women/girls of color.
Statistics tell the story of a group of Americans long disenfranchised. Women/Girls of color in the South have felt the sting of discrimination and marginalization at every intersectionality of life.
A Georgetown University study indicates that Southern states consistently rank at the bottom regarding women’s rights and opportunities in America.
Also, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that 13 Southern states underperformed on metrics relative to women’s quality of life. The WPR graded the southern states on an academic scale: A for the best-performing states and F for failing.
The majority received an F, D, and C for economics, employment and earnings, political participation, poverty and opportunities, reproductive rights, health and well-being, and work and family regarding women. Virginia was an outlier in two pillars. The state earned a B for Employment and Earnings and a B- for poverty and opportunities but received two D-s, a C-, and C for the other pillars.
As for Louisiana, on a scale of 1-10 used to measure women’s rights and opportunities, Louisiana was dead last, with a 1.67, followed by Mississippi’s 1.82. Indeed, none of the 13 states ranked above a 5 or even above the national average of 4.86. All 13 failed women, particularly women of color.
The WFS wants to heal Southern WGOC while investing in these females’ health, wealth, and power. The economic potential of Black women-led businesses and entrepreneurs is often overlooked, but supporting their ventures will not only help them and the United States, writ large.
WOC-led businesses employ more people of color and create more diverse workforces. Before the pandemic, Black women were among the fastest-growing entrepreneurs starting new companies that outpaced other racial and ethnic groups. Yet, despite the rapid growth, the WFS notes deep inequities in access to capital.
Black women entrepreneurs only receive 0.2 percent of venture capital funding despite owning 1.5 million businesses that generate over $44 billion annually. WFS recognizes the untapped potential of Black women entrepreneurs and has concluded that investing in them makes economic sense for the financial health of the U.S.
WFS also aims to HEAL WGOC in the South. It is an undisputed fact that women of color are at the forefront of social justice and equality movements. They experience racism, trauma, and otherization daily, but they push on.
The need for rest and healing among women of color is paramount to their success. The WSF created the WOC @ Rest leadership development retreat as a restorative power experience where 28 WOC leaders participate in a two-day immersive retreat and listening session.
HEAL is also an acronym for the underlying principles of the work WFS does: hasten opportunities for transformative investment in women and girls of color in the South; entrust in Southern WOC leaders, WOC-led nonprofit organizations, and small businesses by investing in healing-centered and capacity-building approaches; amplify stories, solutions, and innovations to change the narrative about women and girls of color in the South; and leverage investment in the equitable progress being driven by Southern WOC leaders, entrepreneurs, and WOC-led nonprofit organizations to change the economic trajectory of 2.5 million WGOC by 2031.
The WSF aims to recruit 300 women of color leaders in statewide coalitions (25 leaders in each of the 13 states), including Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, Missouri, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Virginia. And the foundation is doing it. WSF expanded its programming to Mississippi and Arkansas and plans to reach its 13-state footprint over the next five years.
Underneath its philanthropic mission, WSF is really a grassroots movement that aims to identify and forge relationships with nonprofits in the South that work on behalf of and are led by women of color. All women are welcome to support WSF’s mission of uplifting WGOC. The organization’s Board of Directors is multi-ethnic. The organization’s leadership and members include indigenous women, Latina women, Black women, and White women. WFS is also mindful of the needs of trans women of color.
WFS is shifting philanthropy in the South while building a movement of solidarity in sisterhood. It’s an idea whose time has come. Randolph saw a need in the deep red South and is acting upon it.
On critical issue after critical issue, voting rights, pay equity, reproductive and environmental justice, health and wellness, gender and racial equality, what happens in the South sets the tone for the rest of the country, Randolph wrote in a letter.
Randolph and her crew are visionaries who see potential in a neglected group of economic generators: WGOC. To expand the WFS’s reach, the charitable organization launched its Learn With Us series last year. The four 30-minute episodes feature women of color leaders in Louisiana speaking about their personal experiences on topics ranging from Black Maternal Mortality and Black Infant Mortality rates to the Power of Community Engagement and Speaking Truth to Power.
This article originally published in the April 3, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
