SOUTH YARMOUTH—During its recent grant cycle, The Women and Girls Fund of The Cape Cod Foundation awarded $50,000 in grants to three local nonprofit organizations serving women and girls across the region: Latinx in Action, The Cordial Eye Gallery and Artist Space, and YMCA Cape Cod. The grants support an entrepreneurial program for immigrant women, a workforce development initiative for aspiring creative professionals, and a mentoring and college and career readiness program for high school students.
The Foundation also recently awarded a proactive grant of $3,000 to the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women to fund transportation for Cape Cod residents to attend Women’s Advocacy Day at the State House.
The Foundation established this permanent endowment fund in 2022 to build flexible resources to support programs and initiatives that strengthen the lives of women and girls throughout the region, now and in the years to come. To date, the Fund has awarded $153,000 in grants to 13 nonprofit organizations. The Foundation also committed to raising $1 million for the fund by the end of 2027 and has since raised $531,559 toward that goal.
In the first three years of grantmaking, The Foundation focused on funding initiatives that will help break the cycle of poverty for women by increasing economic opportunity and self-sufficiency through trainings and educational programs and break down barriers for girls by providing new, expanded, or more accessible educational opportunities, out-of-school programs, and mentorship opportunities.
This year, The Women and Girls Fund adapted its grantmaking process from reactive and open-applications toward a proactive and by-invitation process. The Advisory Committee and Foundation staff conducted needs-assessment research and held listening sessions with local organizations to identify projects for funding consideration that aligned with the fund’s grantmaking criteria, values, and priority communities.
For more information or to donate to The Women and Girls Fund, visit capecodfoundation.org.
The Cape Cod Foundation is a community foundation whose mission is to build permanent charitable resources for community betterment through informed grantmaking and civic leadership. Founded in 1989, the organization celebrated its 35th Anniversary in 2024. Since inception, the Foundation has distributed more than $106 million in scholarships to local students and grants to nonprofit organizations. www.capecodfoundation.org