“I Came Home with Hope”
Reflections from the 2026 Mary’s Pence Grantee Gathering By Anisa Hajimumin When Comfort Dondo, Founder and Executive Director of Phumulani: African Women Against Violence, invited me to accompany her to the 2026 Mary’s Pence Grantee Gathering, I thought I knew what awaited me. What I did not expect was to leave with a renewed sense […]
Cultivating Community and Knowledge: Concertación de Mujeres de Suchitoto Annual Report
We are pleased to share with our Mary's Pence community the annual report of Concertación de Mujeres de Suchitoto. Concertación de Mujeres de Suchitoto is the largest of our ESPERA...
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What Happens When Women Leaders Have the Resources to Act?
In the past few years, our Grants Program in the United States has experienced a notable increase in funding applications. The rising number of requests reflects the growing need among...
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ESPERA Program Celebrates 15 Years of Improving Women’s Lives
This year the ESPERA program celebrates 15 years of improving women's lives across Central America and Mexico. ESPERA began with the simple notion of a lending pool. If communities of...
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Mary’s Pence Grantee Highlight: Fandom Forward’s Creative Approach to Civic Engagement
Fandom Forward leverages the power of pop culture fan communities —a collective of individuals who share a passion for a particular entity, whether a TV show, movie, book series, or...
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Mary’s Pence Supports Lenca Women’s Move to Sustainable Coffee Farming in Honduras
One of the newest partners of the Mary's Pence ESPERA program, the Grupo de Mujeres Lencas (GML) from Honduras, is a group of Indigenous women who are small coffee producers...
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Strategies Mary’s Pence Grantees are Using to Create Social Change
At Mary’s Pence, we have vowed to address not just the symptoms of current issues but the root causes by funding grassroots organizations dedicated to changing unjust systems. Charities are...
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Mary’s Pence is Building Bridges Across Countries
At the end of June, our ESPERA partners in Nicaragua received a special visit. Mabel, our ESPERA Team Lead, visits CEPROSI a couple of times per year, but this time,...
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New Beginnings with Rockland Prison Justice Project
After reading the story of an incarcerated mother near her home, Jen Mancuso met and befriended her and learned some hard and painful truths. That friendship began a journey that...
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How María Rebuilt Her Bakery After Surviving Cancer
María Transito and her husband run a small business together in a rural area of Tonacatepeque in El Salvador. Their house is divided into two parts: a bedroom and a...
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