As an advocate for women and girls, the Women’s Fund helps to spread the knowledge about the issues and solutions for the women and girls of the greater Milwaukee area.

Our strategies include:

• Research on women and girls that shapes community wide understanding of the importance of women and girls’ welfare for the entire region. We co-published the Status of Women in Wisconsin Reports with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington D.C. in 2002 and 2004. We co-published the Status of Women in Milwaukee County report with the Wisconsin Women’s Council in 2006.
• The annual Women & Public Policy Luncheon is an important strategy for shedding light on the inequity of women in public policy and the importance of women’s political leadership. Having grown into a not-to-be-missed networking opportunity the event attracts approximately 1,000 top business, government, community and education leaders annually. Past speakers have included former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson (2006); Congresswoman Gwen Moore (2005); Governor Jim Doyle (2003); U. S. Representative Tammy Baldwin (1999); former President of the Ms. Foundation and current head of the White House Project; Marie Wilson (2000); Judge Maxine White (1994), and Donna Shalala (1991).
• Collaborations with other funders to increase grantmaking for women and girls. We were part of the Ms. Foundation "Youth Lead Social Change" Funding Collaborative from 2002 through 2005 and helped to fund the Girls in Charge initiative bringing together local girl-serving agencies to improve the quality of girls programs.
• We participate in community wide programs that address barriers to equity including sexism, racism, and heterosexism such as the City of Milwaukee’s Pay Equity Task Force and the city wide Mosaic program that works on developing relationships across racial barriers.