Through WINcome, WFCO partners with organizations that serve women, including trans women, intersex women, and non-trans women, and nonbinary people who are seeking support, including those:
Is WINcome currently accepting applications?
We are not accepting WINcome applications at this time. Please sign up for our e-newsletter and follow The Women’s Foundation on social media to find out about any future funding opportunities. You can learn about other grantmaking opportunities at The Women’s Foundation, including The Women & Girls of Color Fund. We have also compiled this list of fundraising resources in the hopes it will be helpful in your fundraising journey.
When is the next open WINcome grant cycle?
WINcome was designed to be a three-year funding commitment for current WINcome grant partners, starting in 2021. Our next open WINcome grant cycle will take place in 2024. Please sign up for our e-newsletter and follow The Women’s Foundation on social media to find out about any future funding opportunities.
What are WINcome’s Grant Guidelines?
Although we are not accepting applications for WINcome at this time, interested individuals can find WINcome’s 2021 Grant Guidelines here.
How were WINcome grant partners selected?
The Women’s Foundation of Colorado received WINcome applications from 90 direct service and public policy advocacy organizations across the state. With support from programs staff, WFCO’s volunteer Direct Service Grantmaking Committee and Public Policy Committee reviewed applications for alignment with WINcome priorities and WFCO’s mission, vision, values, and goal of gender, racial, and economic equity. The Direct Service Grantmaking and Public Policy Committees then advised the Board of Trustees in the final selection of our 19 WINcome grant partners. The Board of Trustees approved the final WINcome grant partners.
What are the range of services offered by WINcome grant partners?
WINcome direct-service grant partners offer a range of holistic services and are dedicated to providing complementary flexible cash assistance with WINcome grant funding. WINcome public policy grant partners work statewide to advance systemic changes that support gender, racial, & economic equity for Colorado women and families. We encourage you to learn more about all our grant partners through their respective websites, hyperlinked in the Meet Our Grantees section above.
What is flexible cash assistance?
Flexible cash assistance is, as The Women’s Foundation of Colorado defines it, financial assistance that increases an individual’s financial freedom through direct cash assistance and/or payments to third parties on behalf of the individual. It is connected to the larger national conversation around basic income, guaranteed income, and universal basic income.
- Direct cash assistance refers to cash that is distributed directly to an individual without any restrictions or conditions surrounding the payment.
- Basic income refers to recurring, unrestricted, unconditional payments that are enough to cover basic needs.*
- Guaranteed income refers to recurring, unrestricted, and unconditional payments that supplement the current benefits of the social safety net, meaning it does not replace them. The focus of this income distribution tends to be on low-middle income communities that are marginalized, as it aims to address historic gender, racial, and economic injustices.*
- Universal basic income refers to recurring, unrestricted, and unconditional payments made to everyone and does not take into account household income.*
The foundation of each of these structures is trust. WFCO and WINcome grantee partners have witnessed through our work that cash assistance distributed in trust and flexibility is a successful way to directly support economic security for women and communities.
*To dive deeper into the definitions of basic income, guaranteed income, and universal basic income, please see Income Movement’s Basic Income Terminology guide, a resource we utilize in WINcome’s flexible cash assistance work.
What is the Benefits Cliff and is it connected to WINcome?
The Benefits Cliff occurs at the point when a marginal increase in income results in families losing “work support” benefits, like the earned income tax credits, Medicaid, SNAP, child care assistance, etc. However, the increase in income is still not enough for families to cover the loss of those benefits or meet their basic needs. In essence, an increase in earnings actually leaves families worse-off than before. This paradox is one that WFCO aims to mitigate and change through WINcome, so that Colorado women and their families have better opportunities to advance economically.
What is the Colorado Direct Cash Transfer Community of Practice?
In the summer of 2022, The Women’s Foundation of Colorado joined the co-convening team for the Colorado Direct Cash Transfer Community of Practice, or the CCOP. This state-focused community of practice was inspired by the national Guaranteed Income Community of Practice that is spearheaded by the Economic Security Project.
The CCOP meet regularly from June 2022 through December 2023 to learn from and with various direct cash stakeholders, including direct cash pilots, interested nonprofit organizations, governmental entities, public policy organizations, and community participants in direct cash pilots.
The Benefits Cliff Working Group, a branch of the CCOP, began meeting in fall 2022 and dove deeply into understanding and mitigating benefits cliff effects on direct cash and flexible cash assistance program participants. In August 2023, the Benefits Cliff Working Group transitioned into the Policy Working Group, which aims to advance cash assistance through policy change.
WINcome grant partners actively engage with the CCOP and the working groups.