Philanthorpy Spotlight: San Diego Women’s Foundation

In 2000, a small group of San Diego volunteers imagined a group that would encourage the involvement and guidance of women in philanthropy and founded the San Diego Women’s Foundation. Created as a supporting organization of the San Diego Foundation, the foundation continues to grow, with each member devoted to a yearly contribution of $2,000 for at least five years.

Education is extremely important to the SDWF and roundtables on charity and community issues are the center and platform of the foundation’s grant making. The foundation’s grant-making process offers each member a thorough understanding of the philanthropic process. Each grant, $25,000 or greater, has one of six focus areas as its objective: civil society; economic and employment development; arts and culture; health and human services; education and the environment.

Today, the organization has 250 members and, as of 2008, more than $1.5 million has been awarded to community partners for their work in developing programs or bettering existing ones.

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