Deepening Our Impact and Engagement Across Colorado
A plan sitting on a shelf has no purpose. People bring it to life.
The Women’s Foundation updated our strategic plan in 2017. Deepening our engagement and impact statewide is an important goal. A WFCO founding mother and former First Lady of Colorado Dottie Lamm emphasized the need for a statewide focus when we launched in 1987, and it has remained a cornerstone of our unique community foundation ever since.
From the rolling prairies of Eastern Colorado to our purple mountain majesties, the women and families in our state are as
varied as the landscapes. Women in rural areas have less access to job training and livable wage careers. Latinas face the greatest income disparities. Immigrant women are less likely than U.S.-born women to hold high school diplomas. Women veterans, especially those with disabilities, and their family members often need to adjust to a new normal.
Yes, many hard-working women face challenges, but we see them as community assets who can make even greater contributions to the future of our state and their families – if barriers are removed systemically and holistically.
Our statewide strategies require continual adjusting as demographics, economies, and opportunities change and grow. In 2019, we are taking bold steps and adding resources to embed The Women’s Foundation in communities statewide more authentically. We will:
- Focus on listening, learning, community building, and advocacy to cultivate and inspire passionate supporters.
- Bolster our infrastructure with a full-time statewide engagement manager to lead WFCO’s nonpartisan community
education and advocacy efforts, connect volunteers with our Denver-based team, and inspire more robust and diverse participation in communities beyond Metro Denver. - Add three part-time employees in Southern Colorado, Northern Colorado, and the Vail Valley to guide and support our regional committees.
- Explore new statewide research strategies to steer our grantmaking and nonpartisan public policy efforts as well as
inform legislators, nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies. - Identify additional opportunities, such as our Greater Vail Valley Women’s Fund, to involve more communities in strategic, regional grantmaking efforts.
My commitment is also personal. As a storyteller, I am energized and motivated by the inspirational stories of the diverse women across our state who make their way out of no way – each and every day. I will conduct site visits with our direct-service grantees across the state to better understand how The Women’s Foundation and our community of giving can improve economic opportunities. I will share those stories broadly to cultivate philanthropy and power prosperity for the women across Colorado.
Our foundation was built on the shoulders of generous donors and dedicated volunteers in communities across our state. Likewise, our strategies touch every woman in Colorado. Whether you reside in Fort Morgan or Fort Garland, you belong and have a home at our unique statewide community foundation.
