Mission
$1.2 Million Impact
In 1986, a group of visionary women founded The Atlanta Women’s Fund as part of the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta with a collective donation of $10,000. In 1998, that fund had grown in importance and credibility, becoming an independent organization, The Atlanta Women’s Foundation (AWF). Since our founding in 1998, AWF has invested over…
Read MoreChanging Lives Changing Generations
With May being Mental Health Awareness Month and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, we wanted to highlight one of our Promoting Women and Girls’ Mental Health & Wellbeing Project grantees, House of Dawn. House of Dawn provides a stable home for pregnant and parenting teen moms and their children under adult supervision. AWF funding supports House…
Read MoreBudgeting for Life
This past summer, AWF launched our latest grant program – Breaking Barriers, Building Women: Economic Empowerment Program, which focuses on higher education and asset building for low-income women in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties. One of the current organizations that is a part of the grantee cohort is Buckhead Christian Ministry (BCM). This…
Read MoreInspiring Women to Lead
In the U.S., March is Women’s History Month and it is an opportunity to celebrate the inspiring women who have contributed to and shaped our country and the world. At AWF, we not only recognize past and present contributions of women, but look to the future as well. Today we launch the 2019 class of…
Read MoreBuilding Better Futures Through Education
This month we’re hearing from Kerry McArdle, Executive Director of Literacy Action, on the importance of adult education and literacy. Literacy Action is a part of the grantee cohort for our Breaking Barriers, Building Women: Economic Empowerment Program and is this year’s recipient of our annual Sue Wieland Embracing Possibility Award. Literacy Action is this…
Read MoreWhy Women on Board
High-Functioning Nonprofit Board Members Learn What Works – and Utilize Knowledge & Leadership Skills to Make an Impact by Terri Theisen, Theisen Consulting Eighteen years ago, the forward-thinking leadership of The Atlanta Women’s Foundation launched the Women on Board initiative as a way to expand women’s leadership and influence in community organizations. The special…
Read MoreEconomic Empowerment
$100. That is the median net-worth for single African American women. For single Hispanic women, it’s $120. When a woman has limited to no assets, how can she cope with a financial emergency or build for the future? She can’t. But at AWF, we are working to make a change. We’re excited to announce the…
Read MoreThe (Mental) Weight of Poverty
“One of the most consistently replicated findings in the social sciences has been the negative relationship of socioeconomic status with mental illness: the lower the socioeconomic status of an individual, the higher the risk of mental illness” (Hudson 2005, 1). The lives of women in generational poverty are filled with many challenges, often compounding each…
Read MoreAsset Building Key to Breaking the Cycle of Poverty
As April is National Financial Literacy Month, we want to talk asset building, as an aspect of financial literacy, and the critical role it plays in helping low-income women become economically self-sufficient. In the five-country metro Atlanta area, there are 320,000 women and girls living in poverty, who lack sufficient resources to avoid living paycheck…
Read MoreJoin AWF for a Day of Service
AWF corporate partner Novelis is hosting a home build for a single mother and her two daughters through AWF grantee partner Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. AWF staff will be participating on Friday, July 7, 2017 and we invite any of our donors, supporters and volunteers to join us. (Additional dates are also available.) We’re excited to…
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