In 1972, Gloria Steinem, Patricia Carbine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Marlo Thomas founded the country’s first women’s fund, the Ms. Foundation for Women.
Established at the height of the feminist movement, the Ms. Foundation was created to do something unheard of at the time: to deliver funding and other strategic resources to organizations that were elevating women’s voices and solutions across race and class in communities nationwide. Our founding mothers believed strongly in women’s collective power to ignite change. They also knew that women who faced discrimination and inequity in their own lives had the wisdom and expertise to advance social change that would benefit everyone. Together, they began an organization that would seed and strengthen women’s grassroots organizing around the country and strive to create a vibrant, inclusive feminist movement in which everyone’s voice was visible, valued and heard—a movement to thrive for generations to come.
Over 35 years ago, in a small office in New York City, the Ms. Foundation was started with proceeds from Ms. Magazine and royalties from the multimedia concept Free To Be... You And Me. In 1976, Ms. Foundation grants totaled $87,175. Gradually, with the visionary and generous support of numerous individuals, foundations and corporations, we grew into an organization that today delivers over $4 million in grants each year. In 1986 we established an endowment; by December 2009 it stood at nearly $24 million.
Relationship to Ms. Magazine
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work
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