The people closest to the challenges should help shape the decisions.
Women’s Fund SouthCoast creates pathways for women, girls, and gender-expansive people to build leadership, direct resources, influence public policy, and shape their communities.
We connect learning with opportunities to exercise power—through grantmaking, community research, advocacy, and public dialogue.
Leadership That Moves Communities Forward
Leadership takes many forms: a young person deciding which community solutions deserve funding, an older woman advocating for more accessible services, or a resident bringing lived experience into a policy conversation.
Our work helps people develop the knowledge, relationships, resources, and opportunities to turn their ideas into action.
Leadership is more than being heard. It means having influence over what happens next.
Youth Leadership & Civic Engagement
Building the next generation of leaders, advocates, and philanthropists.
Our youth initiatives connect young people with opportunities to investigate community issues, practice philanthropy, develop policy recommendations, and advocate for change.
Through the Young Women’s Initiative and Young Women’s Advisory Council, young women and gender-expansive youth of color in New Bedford and Fall River put their experiences and ideas to work for their communities. As part of the National Philanthropic Collaborative of Young Women’s Initiatives, we connect SouthCoast youth leadership with a broader movement for gender, racial, and economic justice.
In 2026, New Bedford’s young philanthropists directed $20,000 to four community organizations.
Our Youth Investment Council, convened in partnership with Atrius Health Equity Foundation, brings young people across genders and races together to help guide up to $355,000 in grants supporting youth leadership, civic engagement, and organizing to improve health outcomes in New Bedford.
Across these initiatives, young people build relationships, shape funding decisions and community recommendations, and develop leadership they can carry into education, work, public service, and community life.
Wise Women
Experience is expertise. Connection can become collective action.
Leadership development should be available across generations.
Through Wise Women, we bring older women together to build relationships, identify shared concerns, and explore ways to advocate for themselves and their communities.
Conversations have surfaced issues including aging in place, navigating healthcare, respect and representation, and financial security.
By connecting personal experiences with shared challenges, participants build a foundation for community voice and action. Their knowledge helps shape a fuller understanding of what equity requires at every stage of life.
Interested in participating or partnering with Wise Women? We’d love to hear from you.
Convening & Public Dialogue
National voices. Local leadership. The next generation.
The SouthCoast has a vital role in shaping the conversations—and decisions—that affect our democracy.
Women’s Fund SouthCoast brings residents, advocates, community organizations, public leaders, and emerging leaders together to examine urgent issues, build relationships, and connect ideas with opportunities to act.
Our annual Women, Power, and the Future of Democracy event connects national movements with local leadership through conversations about reproductive justice, immigrant rights, racial equity, and democracy. A Democracy Marketplace connects participants with organizations working for change, while young leaders bring their perspectives and priorities to the stage.
These gatherings create space to examine who holds power, whose experiences shape public decisions, and how we can build a more equitable democracy together.
Connected to a Larger Movement
Rooted in the SouthCoast. Connected beyond it.
We build relationships among community organizations, researchers, funders, advocates, and public leaders.
These connections bring expertise and resources into our region while creating opportunities for SouthCoast voices to inform broader conversations.
Our leadership work connects directly with our research, grantmaking, and advocacy—helping community knowledge influence what we study, where we invest, and which changes we pursue.
Invest in the People Shaping What Comes Next.
Your support helps sustain participant stipends, transportation, mentoring, facilitation, and opportunities to learn and lead.
It also supports the relationships and organizational capacity that make this work possible year after year.
Help women, girls, and gender-expansive people turn their experiences, ideas, and ambitions into community leadership and lasting change.
