Women's Foundation of Genesee Valley

Purse to Person Women have long given their hands, their hearts and their minds to bring about change in the lives of their fellow women around the world. And today, more than ever, they are also giving their dollars. This is the power of the Women’s Foundation of Genesee Valley. We are a 501(c)(3) organization serving the more than 1 million people living in Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Wayne, and Yates counties. We award grants to programs making a real difference in the lives of women and in the future of girls. Increasing a woman’s ability to support herself and her children is the primary goal of our grant-making. Hands, hearts and minds are important. But, with your help, we provide the funding to organizations that help women and girls to help themselves. Consider this: the number of women in the wealthiest tier in the US is higher than ever before. And these women are more likely than ever before to use that wealth to help other women. We invite women of all financial means to open their heart—and their purse—to help their fellow women. Your heart holds the power to change someone’s life. And your purse holds the power to change the world. VISION The Women’s Foundation of Genesee Valley will be recognized as one of the leading organizations in the greater Rochester area focused on women’s economic self-sufficiency, by: - Advocating for women and girls through fundraising, education, research and high-impact grant making - Partnering and collaborating with key institutions, agencies, foundations and corporations - Striving for excellence in all that we do - Delivering measurable results - Promoting greater social change and making a true difference in the lives of low income women MISSION We promote economic self-sufficiency for women and girls through grant making and education. HISTORY The Women’s Foundation of Genesee Valley was established in 1994 to manage a permanent endowment that would create lasting social change by investing in programs that benefit women and girls. Women in our community volunteer to raise, manage and distribute the funds. Since inception, the Foundation has awarded over $1.2M to programs that have proven successful in helping women and girls achieve economic self-sufficiency. In 2004, the Women’s Foun­da­tion of Gene­see Val­ley pub­lished the first com­pre­hen­sive study on the eco­nomic sta­tus of women in the Rochester region using data from to 2000 U.S. Cen­sus. This research has been updated using the 2010 U.S. Cen­sus data. In addi­tion, the Self-Sufficiency Stan­dard was used to explore income ade­quacy; that is, the level of income nec­es­sary for a given fam­ily to ade­quately meet basic needs. We found that women were dis­pro­por­tion­ately affected by poverty and income inadequacy.