At the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), we’re committed to leveraging every tool in our arsenal to champion gender justice. Our approach has always been to uplift and center BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) leaders, as well as individuals with lived expertise of our core issues, and respond to the identified needs of marginalized communities.
The inaugural Community Impact Fund (CIF)—administered by the Child Care and Income Security team but with decision-making power shared by a committee of state-based organizations and community members—has a vision of widening and strengthening the movement for progressive and equitable gender justice policies.
The Design and Advisory Committee guided the development and execution of the CIF over twelve months from June 2023 to June 2024. Members of the Design and Advisory Committee are: OLE`(New Mexico), Semilla Project (New Mexico), Patty Ortiz (community member, Sparking Change storyteller, New Mexico), Metanoia (South Carolina), YWCA of Greater Charleston (South Carolina), and Chantelle Mitchell (community member, Sparking Change storyteller- South Carolina).
As a group, they identified the problem the Fund would solve, the target population to benefit from the Fund, developed theories of change, the types of solutions that would be funded, and ultimately decided who received the grant funding. At the end of twelve months, and after careful proposal review and scoring, the Committee made the exciting decision to fund two organizations, one in South Carolina and one in New Mexico, advocating for policies that improve compensation for early childhood educators within their state.