If you’re passionate about supporting women—like we are—the Women’s Fund at Austin Community Foundation is one of the most impactful ways to make a difference in Central Texas.
The Women’s Fund is a collective-giving network supporting the economic mobility of women by providing unrestricted grants to local nonprofits. When you invest in the Women’s Fund, your generosity is compounded with the donations of others, enabling us to grant more than half a million dollars each year. These grants go to organizations tackling the biggest needs impacting women in our community.
Each year, we refine our grantmaking process, adapting to reflect best practices for trust-based philanthropy, the input of the Women’s Fund Grants Committee members, and our grant partners. Plus, everything we do is data-informed, allowing us to put our collective investments where they can serve the greatest needs.
2025 Women’s Fund Grants Committee Kick-Off
As an investor, you have the opportunity to serve on the Women’s Fund Grants Committee. If you’ve never volunteered with the grants committee, it’s an opportunity to dive deep into the nonprofits throughout our region and learn about their work in a way you might otherwise never experience. Signups for the grants committee begins in the summer and we meet throughout the fall.
We’re so proud of the grantmaking focus of the Women’s Fund–it’s at the heart of everything we do. And in an effort to grow and learn more about the needs in our community, we’ve expanded our work to include education and advocacy around the issues that align with our impact areas of child care, education, housing, unintended pregnancy prevention, and women’s health.
Throughout the year, we host events like grant partner tours, film screenings, and book clubs. For our most recent book club in the fall, we read The Art of Community: Seven Principles for Belonging by Charles Vogl. Insights from the book have been central to discussions among our steering committee as we move deeper into the year. We’ve been sharing our goals to not only continue growing our collective impact in our larger community through grantmaking, but also to be more intentional in growing our own smaller community of fellow Women’s Fund investors.
Panel discussion at Lone Star Three screening
As 2026 unfolds, we’ve already been planning more ways to connect and engage with each other, with more casual monthly gatherings where we can get to know each other better, alongside more programmed events like our film screening and discussion of the documentary Lone Star Three.
And, we want to include every investor in shaping what our community grows into this year and beyond. We’ll be inviting investors to share input through quick email surveys and feedback loops at the end of each gathering we host.
If you’re already part of the Women’s Fund or if you’ve just been curious about joining us, we believe this is going to be a transformative year for our group. We invite you to join us as we build more meaningful connections and continue to advance economic mobility for women in our community.
