I am very excited to share two announcements in regards to Together Women Rise’s grant making!

When the COVID pandemic negatively affected donations last spring, Together Women Rise took some precautionary measures to address the challenging and uncertain times that all nonprofits were facing. We wanted to ensure that we could continue to support our grantees while also keeping our organization sustainable throughout the crisis.

Fulfilling 2020 Grant Commitments!

To proactively manage our cash flow, we spread out our 2020 grant payments over two years (2020 and 2021). Some of our grantees already utilize the option of a two-year payout, and we informed all of our grantees that the remainder of their grants would be paid in their featured month in 2021. At that time, we also gave all of our grantees the flexibility they needed to respond to the effects of the pandemic.

Thanks to the support of our amazing members and donors, we ended 2020 in a positive cash flow position, and have made the decision to complete payment of ALL our 2020 Featured and Sustained Grants at once. This will take place in April. For some of our grantees, this means they will receive their second payments well ahead of schedule! We can’t wait to get these funds into the hands of our grantee partners.

2021 Featured Grant Amounts

In our April 2020 grant cycle (for grants paid out in 2021), we invited applicants to submit proposals in the range of $25,000 to $35,000, rather than the usual Featured Grant size of $35,000 to $50,000. In our normal cycle, we solicit grant applications up to nine months before grantees are featured. Together Women Rise was in a position in which we had to plan for the future without knowing what the next month would look like, much less the next year. In order to ensure that we did not commit funds that we might not have, we made the proactive decision to reduce our Featured Grants for 2021 to a maximum of $35,000.

2022 Featured Grant Amounts

I am very pleased to announce that, in 2022, our Featured Grants will return to the $35,000-50,000 level. Our new grant cycle – for Featured Grants to be awarded in the first half of 2022 – will open on April 1^st, and we have already communicated the return to these grant amounts on our website.

These positive steps – for our grantees and for women and girls globally – would not be possible without your ongoing dedication to Together Women Rise and our mission. To all of you who signed up for monthly recurring donations for the first time, or who gave a little more during this challenging time, we extend our utmost thanks and appreciation!