About Mary’s Pence
For nearly 40 years, Mary’s Pence has funded and worked alongside women-led grassroots organizations and groups: seeding new nonprofits, supporting local organizing, building capacity, and creating a network of partners engaged in social justice work. As a grassroots organization, we understand the challenges nonprofits face and recognize the impact a strong community can have. With this understanding, we have developed a holistic, responsive approach to grantmaking and partnerships. We not only provide funds. We also connect leaders, strengthen networks, and support solutions rooted in community wisdom.
Our grants serve as seed money for newly created organizations and as support for organizations that have been working at the grassroots level for years. Our partnerships foster collaboration and learning. As a nonprofit, we rely on donors’ generosity to support our programs. Putting our values into action, we have remained unendowed, believing that funds are not to be held but, rather, should go to support community-centered, long-term social justice action.
Who We Fund
Mary’s Pence funds women’s organizations and groups working with a fiscal sponsor as they seek community-rooted solutions to the issues women face and to address gender justice. We utilize an inclusive definition of women: cis women, trans women, and nonbinary people. Supported organizations and groups are located and working within the U.S. and its territories and each one is focused on long-term sustainable change. Mary’s Pence grantees are small (annual budgets under $250,000), but mighty. They build movement and create systems-level change by collaborating with diverse populations, advocating for change in unjust policies, shifting harmful cultural norms, and educating to build skills and increase community capacity.
What We Fund
Mary’s Pence is committed to long-term systems and structure change, and we believe the community knows best how to achieve this. To center community wisdom and remain a responsive funder, we are not overly prescriptive in our funding approach. Instead, we support women-led and women-focused actions across a wide-range of social justice issues:
- human dignity,
- the common good,
- the right to economic security and dignified work,
- care for the earth,
- participation,
- subsidiarity (decisions are made at the most local possible and involve those most impacted), and
- nonviolence.
This approach can be seen among our grantees.
How We Fund
Mary’s Pence has two grant cycles each year – one in the spring and one in the fall. Each cycle we award approximately 10 grants typically ranging in size from $5,000 – $7,500. We also provide opportunities for capacity-building grants to existing grantees. To learn about the process for seeking a grant, please visit the “Eligibility” page.
Commitment to Diversity
We are committed to inclusion and equity and strive to ensure that our grantee funding reflects the diversity of the communities with which we partner with regard to color, income, physical ability, geography, age, and gender identity. We are committed to removing barriers that are faced by equity-seeking groups. We support both secular and faith-based groups provided the organization’s work does not discriminate against marginalized populations, including the LGBTQIA+ community, and it does not include proselytizing to convert people or bring people into their faith.
