Women Donors Network (WDN) is a national network of women with power and the courage to wield it to build a just world.

WDN was founded as a project of the Tides Foundation in 1990 by a group of women who had come into inherited wealth and wanted to invest it in philanthropy. At that time, limited options were available to women to learn the ins and outs of financial planning and philanthropic investments, and even less information was available about how to pair those with advocacy, activism, and working with grassroots movements. By creating WDN, our founders built an education and skills-building circle to support each other as they strove toward progress.

In 2003, under the leadership of President & CEO Donna Hall, WDN became a charitable organization independent of Tides and members came together to make our first grants. We saw the potential for impact when we combined our resources to fund systemic change. Over the next 10 years, grantmaking solidified into a strong pillar of our network.

At WDN, we connect, learn, and act to fund movements and power justice. Today, our organization has over 250 members across 32 states and a team of 14 staff. Our members come together now as they did over 30 years ago at our events, regional meetings, and conferences. They have grown our annual grantmaking from the hundreds of thousands to the millions and work closely with staff to listen deeply to movement organizers and foster grantmaking strategies that shift power.

Member Experience

Connect: Expand your connections to other donors and activists through regional meetings, advocacy opportunities, and our annual conference.

Learn: Build your skills and gain important tools to be a more informed and effective donor, advocate, and leader through our educational opportunities.

Act: Leverage your resources with other donors through collective giving focused on rapid-response and long-term strategies for structural change.

Interested in Joining Us?

WDN invites women who are committed to giving generously for progressive social change and to building a just, equitable, and sustainable world. Join us!