Women’s Foundation Seeks Applicants for Girls’ Philanthropy Program

The Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona is seeking 20 high school-aged young women in greater Tucson to participate in Unidas, a girls’ philanthropy program.  Unidas focuses on community service and leadership, social justice and grant-making.  Participants will walk through a grant-making process and award $10,000 to the community organizations that best address the core issue they select.

The program begins October 4^th with a retreat, followed by regular bi-weekly meetings through April.  Unidas participants will discuss social justice issue facing young women and girls with community experts and conduct additional research and analysis before selecting a focus issue for their grant.  They will lead a grant-making process, including creation of a request for proposal, application review, site visits, and allocation of funds to local agencies totaling $10,000.

At the conclusion of this comprehensive training, the young women will be more knowledgeable about community needs and resources and how to take action.  Participants will graduate with valuable leadership and consensus-building skills and will be empowered by their ability to fund programs that they believe are doing compelling work for young women and girls in the community.

Unidas applicants should have an interest in women’s issues and philanthropy, and be between the ages of 14 and 19 years old. The program is open to young women who attend any high school in the greater Tucson area, those who are not currently enrolled in school and home-schooled students.

The Unidas program is a collaborative effort among the Lovell Foundation, Every Voice in Action Foundation TM, and the Women’s Foundation, whose mission is to foster equity and opportunity for women and girls.  WFSA has over 15 years of experience in making grants in southern Arizona.

For more information contact the Women’s Foundation at 622-8886 or unidas@womengiving.org.  Information and applications are attached and available online at www.WomenGiving.org/philanthropy.  Applications will be accepted through September 18, 2008.