Announcing Our 2025 Grantee Partners — Over $475K in Grantmaking and Sponsorships

Boston Women’s Fund is excited to announce our 2025 grantee partners! Amid a year of unprecedented uncertainty for non-profit organizations, we are proud to reaffirm our commitment to grassroots organizations and the vital work they do in communities most impacted by injustice. 

This year, BWF has welcomed new grantee partners through our Movement Building and Youth-Centered Movement Building programs. We have also renewed our support of our 2024 Community Impact grantees. Fifteen of our grantee partners are returning partners, an emblem of our belief that sustained support for grassroots organizations is a part of the path to lasting change.

Our Momentum Grants are typically final funding for BWF grantee partners that have grown beyond a $500,000 operating budget. However, BWF has chosen to extend our support for last year’s Momentum Grantee partners for another year to aid in their weathering this unpredictable political and funding environment. 

In total, BWF has awarded over $475,700 in grants and sponsorships to 19 grassroots grantee partners and other organizations supporting women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals in Greater Boston.

“When I look at our grantee partners and the ways they double down and resist in the face of uncertainty, I think it emboldens us to follow suit. It’s never been more important to affirm BWF’s support of grassroots leaders and the work they do to get us all closer to liberation. The BWF team and I are honored to continue being a trusted partner and funder to our existing partners and to bring new organizations into the fold!” 

— Kiarah Hortance, Senior Program Associate, BWF

Our 2025 grantee partners represent each of BWF’s communities — women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals who are Black and Brown, LGBTQIA+, low-income, youth, elderly, immigrants, refugees, and disabled. From building people power through storytelling amongst undocumented youth to training women of color to join the healthcare field and combat medical discrimination, our grantee partners’ work is deeply intersectional and explores a variety of approaches to movement building and systems change. BWF is incredibly excited to continue our work uplifting, investing in, and building capacity for these innovative leaders over the years to come!

We are proud to support the following organizations as BWF’s 2025 grantee partners:

Abilities Dance Boston

Asian American Women's Political Initiative

Asian Women for Health

Association of Haitian Women in Boston

Birth Equity & Justice MA

Dominican Development Center

Essex County Community Organization

For Black Girls

Grimes King Foundation for the Elderly

Love Your Magic

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition

Matahari Women Workers' Center

Melanin Mass Moms

Propa City Community Outreach

Sisters Unchained

Small House

Somali Parents Advocacy Center for Education

Stories Inspiring Movements

Women Encouraging Empowerment

Bolstering Grassroots Power Through Sponsorships

We are excited to continue growing our sponsorship efforts and exploring micro grant opportunities with more grassroots and nonprofit organizations driving racial, economic, social, and gender justice in Greater Boston. This year, we have sponsored Resource Organizing Project and other grassroots organizations in hosting the Celebration of Grassroots Organizing, Trans Resistance MA in their 2025 Trans Pride Campaign, the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network, and many more! 

We’d like to recognize the following organizations that were finalists in our community-led Movement Building Grant process and received micro grants from BWF:

CHUANG Stage 

Center for Cooperative Development & Solidarity

LUCE Immigrant Justice Network

The following incredible youth-run organizations were finalists in our youth-led grantmaking selection process and received micro grants as well:

Revere Youth In Action

Young Queens Rising

BWF is also proud to have sponsored the following organizations:

Resource Organizing Project

Mass Mentoring Partnership 

Haymarket People's Fund Save Ourselves

Stories Inspiring Movements

Boston Education Fund 

Walker, Inc.

Abilities Dance 

GROWUP

Ruffen Fund

Trans Resistance MA

Stay Connected

Vist our grants page for more information on our grants on our website. Follow us on Instagram and Linkedin for stories on the change we and our partners are driving across Greater Boston!

BOSTON WOMEN’S FUND GRANTS OVER $475K TO GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS LED BY AND FOR WOMEN AND GENDER-EXPANSIVE LEADERS

Through a community-led process free of grant applications, BWF funnels philanthropic power to marginalized communities and removes funding barriers for nonprofits.

BOSTON —  July 23, 2025 —  Boston Women’s Fund (BWF), a foundation committed to creating a world where power, access, and opportunity are accessible to all, today announced over $475,700 in grants to grassroots organizations led by women, girls and gender-expansive individuals across Greater Boston. All 19 grant recipients were nominated by the public and selected by a community-led allocations committee, disrupting the standard philanthropic practice of top-down grantmaking and enabling communities to direct the flow of philanthropic dollars.

At a time when many philanthropic institutions are shifting funding priorities, community-led grantmaking offers an opportunity for marginalized communities to gain the resources needed to address their most pressing challenges.

“When people are empowered to influence the flow of philanthropic funds where they live, everyone wins,” said Natanja Craig Oquendo, BWF’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are committed to supporting communities that have been persistently overlooked, and we let them tell us what issues are impacting them most and who’s showing up for them — not the other way around. Boston Women’s Fund couldn’t be more honored to support another round of life-changing grassroots work in Greater Boston this year.”

BWF eliminated grant applications and instead holds conversations with publicly nominated organizations. For new grantees, a community committee then reviews the information and selects grantees using a consensus model. Fifteen of BWF’s grantee partners are receiving funding from the organization for the second consecutive year or more. The fund uses multi-year support as a pathway to sustaining grassroots organizations, many of whom have faced steep funding cuts this year.

BWF has granted approximately $8.4 million in 420 grant awards to date.

The following organizations have been selected as BWF’s 2025 grantee partners:

Abilities Dance

Asian American Women's Political Initiative

Asian Women For Health

Association Of Haitian Women In Boston 

Birth Equity & Justice MA

Dominican Development Center

Essex County Community Organization 

For Black Girls Inc.

Grimes King Foundation For The Elderly

Love Your Magic

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition

Matahari Women’s Worker Center 

Melanin Mass Moms

Propa City Community Outreach

Sisters Unchained

Small House

Somali Parents Advocacy Center for Education 

Stories Inspiring Movements

Women Encouraging Empowerment

About Boston Women’s Fund

Boston Women’s Fund (BWF) is an intermediary foundation investing in women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals leading grassroots organizations working toward racial, economic, social, and gender justice. BWF envisions a world where power, opportunity, and access exist for those persistently marginalized, regardless of gender identity or gender expression. BWF predominantly supports leaders of color from communities persistently excluded from philanthropy. Founded in 1984 by progressive women, BWF was the first women’s foundation in Massachusetts. BWF has granted approximately $8.4 million in 420 grant awards to date. To learn more, visit www.bostonwomensfund.org.

Contact: Aisha Woodruff aisha@bostonwomensfund.org

Building Intersectionality Through Movement: A Conversation with Ellice Patterson of Abilities Dance Boston

We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Ellice Patterson, Founder and Executive & Artistic Director of Abilities Dance Boston (ADB), about their latest production, Intersections v4, and the deeper mission driving their work: using dance as a vehicle for visibility, advocacy, and systemic change.

As a company that centers disabled and BIPOC artists, ADB continues to push boundaries around who gets to be seen, heard, and celebrated in the arts. Their fourth installment of the Intersections series honored five Black trans and queer honorees whose lives and advocacy have made a lasting impact: Finn Gardiner, Aubrey Smalls, Harmony Matthews, T.S. Banks, and Tom Wiggins. Through original choreography by Ellice and music by ADB’s Director of Music & Operations, Andrew Choe, the production brought these stories to life in deeply moving and imaginative ways.

But Intersections v4 was more than a performance — it was a call to action. Partnering with fellow BWF grantee Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition and the Disability Policy Consortium, ADB grounded each performance in current legislation impacting queer and disabled communities. It became not just a space for art, but a space for mobilization.

In our conversation, Ellice shared what makes Intersections so much more than a stage production:

“These are real relationships, these are real connections that are built, it's not just an extractive relationship where we take their story, have a show and call it a day. But think about how we can continue to support them, support their work, continue to really build this advocacy movement beyond just the stage, but into our communities, into how we understand one another, into our policies, and how that can continue to lead to overall change that then leads to radical joy and a revolution overall.”

This ethos is central to Abilities Dance Boston. From choosing honorees with intention to connecting each narrative to real-time legislation, ADB’s work reflects a deep commitment to community, dignity, and long-term change.

At a time when many institutions are backing away from equity commitments, Abilities Dance Boston continues to move forward with clarity and compassion. Their work reminds us that liberation doesn’t live in the abstract — it’s built, moment by moment, relationship by relationship, movement by movement.

To learn more about Intersections v4  check out our interview below. And to support the transformative work ADB is doing year-round, visit @abilitiesdanceboston.

Interview with Dance Abilities