About

Our Vision

An Arizona where women and girls of all identities thrive.

Our Mission

WFSA innovates to create social, political, and economic change that achieves equity for women and girls.

Our Values

We are determined to achieve equity for women and girls of all identities, including other marginalized genders and communities of color. We acknowledge that at different moments in time, different people and causes need to be prioritized, and we are committed to making our vision a reality through community-centered action.

Rooted In Truth

We believe the lived experiences of women and women of color, and those truths, along with nonpartisan research and evidence-based approaches, are at the heart of everything we do. Our research isn’t just data – it’s vetted by people in the communities we serve who have lived those experiences and can validate the findings.

Centered In Humanity

We value the whole person, both in those we aim to serve and those on our team. While we rely on research, we remember that there are real people behind data points and we aim to create change in holistic ways. Self-care, work/life balance, flexibility, and personal/professional well-being and development are prioritized for staff.

Transformational in Aim and Approach

We look for bold solutions to big problems and seek to achieve long-lasting systemic changes with innovative approaches. We aim to change the way philanthropy is done, and we are determined to remove the political, economic, and social barriers that have perpetuated inequity for far too long.

Led by Lived Experience

We must have women and girls of all identities, especially members of marginalized communities, leading the way. The experience that comes with living as members of marginalized communities adds layers of essential knowledge to professional qualifications. We trust our grantees and community partners to inform us of their needs and how we can serve them.

Strategic Priorities

We research

Nonpartisan research is at the heart of everything we do. We identify economic barriers and opportunities for women and girls in Arizona to inform our work.

We advocate

WFSA strives to remove systemic barriers facing women and girls through policy change. We write, run, support, and enact legislation that levels the playing field.

We innovate

Big problems need bold solutions, so we seek to achieve long-lasting systemic change with innovative approaches. We create, pilot, and scale programs that empower and uplift women and girls.

We invest

Organizations that support women and girls are chronically underfunded. WFSA aims to change that by investing in a wide range of organizations that position women and girls to thrive.

History

The concept for WFSA began in 1991 when two Tucson women, tired of philanthropy’s failure to address the economic challenges facing women, decided to take matters into their own hands.

With $20,000, Melody Robidoux and Harriet Silverman launched their idea for a women’s scholarship fund in Tucson, recognizing that women faced a myriad of economic challenges, high rates of poverty, and systemic barriers to self-sufficiency and opportunity – and, that philanthropy was failing to address any of these issues. It quickly became apparent that the need was greater than anyone could have imagined, so in 1992, Melody and Harriet officially established the Southern Arizona Women’s Fund at the Tucson Community Foundation.

“The fund is intended to serve as a catalyst to build the community’s commitment, resources and skills to attack the root causes of the barriers facing women and girls who see full access to opportunities in our society.”
Tucson Community Foundation Newsletter, 1992

The fund evolved into the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona and was officially incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in 1999.

For over 20 years, WFSA was sustained by passionate and dedicated volunteers, board members, and typically only one or two staff members at a time. As the foundation grew, the organization evolved, with four key pillars guiding the vision of WFSA: research, grantmaking, advocacy, and leadership development. 

As the team grew, so did the impact. Award-winning programs like Unidas grew over the years, and new leadership development programs were created. WFSA grantmaking steadily increased, with more than $20M awarded to over 600 organizations to date. WFSA research helped inform people across the state, and the growing focus on advocacy led to WFSA advising the Executive Office and passing legislation that can help hundreds of thousands of Arizonans.

In 2021, as WFSA celebrated 30 years of impact, we could not ignore what was becoming increasingly apparent: after watching the pandemic destroy decades of momentum for women, it is essential that we scale our work to impact women and girls across Arizona. With a team that had grown to 13 under the leadership of CEO Dr. Amalia Luxardo, WFSA announced in October 2021 that we were expanding our scope to include the whole state, and changing our name to The Women’s Foundation for the State of Arizona. WFSA’s first statewide grant, the Women & Girls of Color Fund, was launched that same year and was Arizona’s first grant specifically designed to support organizations led by and serving women of color.

We are proud of our Southern Arizona roots and will continue to invest in the region as we build relationships with other Arizona communities. While our geography has expanded and our brand has evolved, our commitment to gender equity remains.

Today, WFSA is as determined as ever to ensure women and girls of all identities in Arizona have the opportunity to thrive.

WE RESEARCH. WE INNOVATE. WE ADVOCATE. WE INVEST.