Women’s foundation invites Californians to celebrate Women’s History Month by celebrating women’s organizations doing extraordinary work
San Francisco, California, March 8, 2015—Today, on International Women’s Day and eight days into Women’s History Month, the Women’s Foundation of California launched the People’s Momentum Award (#pplmomentum), an online voting contest that allows Californians to choose which organizations to reward for their work advancing women’s rights.
The women’s rights nonprofit organization with the most votes by midnight, Tuesday, March 30, will take home a $10,000 grant. All Californians are invited to nominate their favorite organization and cast their vote in this online event that is bringing diverse communities together to celebrate women’s contributions and women-led solutions to challenging social problems our state and communities face.
Women’s Foundation of California is hosting this contest for the second time for two reasons: to inspire a philanthropic spirit in California and to bring visibility to women’s community-based organizations in California that are doing extraordinary work to improve the lives of women and families.
Last year, 337 organizations were nominated and more than 65,000 votes were cast, bringing greater visibility and funding opportunities to participating organizations, many of which are operating on threadbare budgets. Women’s organizations are historically underfunded: Less than seven percent of all philanthropic dollars go to organizations supporting girls and women.
“We wanted to bring community and media attention to great organizations that are working on behalf of women and families on issues that affect all Californians,” said Surina Khan, CEO of the Women’s Foundation of California. “These are critical issues such as access to reproductive healthcare and rights, ending domestic violence, immigration rights, parental leave, increasing the minimum wage, equal pay and quality childcare. We want to make a statement that these organizations need and deserve our support and continued funding.”
The People’s Momentum Award is sponsored by Wells Fargo, Southwest Airlines and Lyft.
Southwest Airlines is the official airline of the Women's Foundation of California.
About the Women’s Foundation of California
The Women's Foundation of California is a publicly supported community foundation that invests in women as a key strategy for creating a California where all communities are economically secure and can thrive. Since 1979, the Foundation has awarded more than $36 million to 1,260 community-based organizations in each region of the state.