Laws are the bones of a society, but culture is its breath. And right now—as our communities face violence and oppression, with lives under siege—what we breathe matters.
At Women’s Foundation California, we know policy change alone will not save us. If we want a liberated future, we must tend to the soil where policy takes root: the stories we tell, the images we make, the songs we carry into the streets.
Culture is where hearts are won, where minds open, where we decide who belongs.
That’s why we launched the Culture Change Fund in 2019, the first collaborative of its kind centering gender justice through cultural strategy. In six years, we have invested $10 million into artists, organizers, and storytellers who are shifting narratives from abortion access to climate justice, from Georgia to Michigan to California.
Together, they have:
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Reached over 1.5 billion people online and in community spaces
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Created award-winning films, viral campaigns, murals, podcasts, and gatherings
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Built a living blueprint for how philanthropy can fund cultural organizing to win the long game
And we have seen what happens when culture precedes policy: the ground shifts, and new possibilities take hold.
In this political moment, when regressive forces wage culture wars against our lives and futures, our commitment to culture rooted in liberation, care, and belonging is more urgent than ever.
This work is not just resistance. It is creation. It is imagining a world where we all belong, and then making it irresistible.
Read the stories. Witness the vision. Join us in building the culture that makes justice possible.