About The Canadian Women’s Foundation

Vision: Every woman, girl, and gender-diverse person has the power, safety, support, and rights to thrive, today and tomorrow.

We are Canada’s public foundation for gender justice and equality. We advance this by growing support for grassroots feminist action, partnering with communities and organizations to improve conditions, and building diverse leadership and knowledge for sustainable change.

Since 1991, our generous donors and supporters have contributed more than $250 million to fund over 3,200 life-transforming programs throughout Canada.

The work of the Canadian Women’s Foundation and the organizations we support takes place on traditional First Nations, Métis, and Inuit territories. We are grateful for the opportunity to meet and work on this land. However, we recognize that land acknowledgments are not enough. We need to pursue truth, reconciliation, decolonization, and allyship in an ongoing effort to make right with all our relations.

Our Commitment

We are a leader in feminist philanthropy. We mobilize, steward, and grant funds. We engage partners and donors and encourage them on their journey to feminist philanthropy. We generate and share knowledge on the root causes of and solutions to gender injustice.

We champion a spirit of shared responsibility for progressive change, restorative action, truth and reconciliation, and an end to systemic discrimination.

We fund, support, amplify, and participate in intersectional feminist movements. We engage a national network of community-based experts in pressing issues that affect women, girls, and gender-diverse people, with a focus on those who face multiple barriers, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities, Black and racialized communities, youth, people living with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, newcomers, migrants, and sex workers.

We ensure impactful investments to organizations and groups and promote systemic change that will enable women, girls, and gender-diverse people to:

Be leaders and build the next generation of leaders
Break free from violence and poverty, and housing and food insecurity
Gain economic independence and security
Promote health, wellbeing, and healing
Address gendered impacts of climate crisis and injustice

The organizations we work with:

Address the social conditions that cause harm
Develop urgent and emergent initiatives
Have a strong track record of lasting impact
Address barriers faced in mainstream social services
Co-create and co-lead with affected communities
Forge strong partnerships with other organizations and community leaders

Areas of Impact

Out of Poverty

Out of Violence

Into Confidence

Into Leadership

Gender Inclusion

We aim to be inclusive of diverse people across gender and sexuality spectrums. We focus our efforts on supporting those who face the most barriers and have least access to relevant services. This includes people who identify as women, girls, trans, genderqueer, non-binary, and 2SLGBTQI+.

United Nations Representation

The Canadian Women’s Foundation is an Economic & Social Council accredited organization in consultation with the United Nations. This designation enables us to participate in international events focused on advancing gender justice with other non-governmental organizations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Gender Equality and Gender Justice?

Gender equality: UN Women explains it as “equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities” for all genders. It doesn’t mean that everyone should be the same. It means peoples’ rights, responsibilities, and opportunities shouldn’t depend on their gender. It implies that the interests and needs of everybody, in all their diversities, are important. It’s not a “women’s issue.” It’s everyone’s issue, and it makes life better for all of us.

Gender justice: Global Fund for Women defines it as the redistribution of power, opportunities, and access for people of all genders. Achieving gender justice means that all women, girls, and Two Spirit, trans, and non-binary people get the full rights, support, and respect they deserve. This includes paid fair and livable wages, safety from violence and harassment, representation in all levels of decision-making, and every opportunity to thrive. Pursuing gender justice means pursuing a wide range of systemic changes for social justice, including an end to racism, poverty, and other forms of discrimination and barriers. As Third Wave Fund notes, “gender justice can only truly be achieved when all forms of oppression cease to exist”.

What are we doing to pursue truth and reconciliation?

To start, we are learning and unlearning within the Foundation itself. In 2019 and 2020, we will learn from key reports on truth and reconciliation and grow our understanding of relevant issues such as the historical impacts of “charity work” on Indigenous communities; gender rights activism led by Indigenous leaders; and how settler-based organizations can build allied relationships with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities.

This will prepare us to commit to concrete action across our departments and sign onto The Philanthropic Community’s Declaration of Action developed by The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. We will also take learnings from the Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls to inform our work and actions.

After these initial steps, we will further pursue truth and reconciliation efforts in our organizational plans. This will include how we make grants, administer community gatherings, deepen community relationships, engage in policy and practice change work, and report on activities and outcomes along the way.

Why do we need the Canadian Women's Foundation?

Hands up if you’ve noticed that – despite progress – gender equality STILL hasn’t been achieved in Canada? Gender equality is more complicated than just having rights on paper or legislation on the books. Over and over, statistics and research show that equity is not a “lived reality” when you look at people’s daily lives and experiences. Hands up if you know:

a woman, girl, trans, or non-binary person who has experienced physical or emotional abuse, sexual assault, or harassment
a woman, girl, trans, or non-binary person who feels nervous about getting assaulted or harassed going to work or school, going out in their neighbourhoods, going out to meet friends, staying inside their own homes.
a mother struggling to raise her children on a low income
a woman, girl, trans, or non-binary person who has been discriminated against
a girl who doesn’t feel confident because she’ll never live up to the hypersexualized “ideal” she sees in the media
a woman who feels pressured to give up a leadership opportunity for family responsibilities.

This inequity touches everyone’s lives. But we can do something about it. When you contribute and get involved with us, you bring us closer to achieving gender equality for ALL in Canada. Are you with us?

Why are we a Foundation?

We were first launched because of the limited sources for funding for organizations that advanced gender equality and worked to help women and girls in Canada. As a foundation, we were able to fill some of that funding gap and we continue to play that role today. Our foundation approach of putting the voices and needs of diverse women, girls, and communities at the centre has enabled us to inform social policies, practices, and approaches. This is important because we help change structures and improve “the way things work” to get Canada closer to that goal of gender equality and social equity for everyone.

Read our founding story.