The Women’s Fund of Essex County is one of ECCF’s oldest and most impactful field of interest funds

By Michelle Xiarhos Curran
ECCF COMMUNICATIONS WRITER

Essex County Community Foundation and The Women’s Fund of Essex County have, essentially, grown up together.

ECCF was founded in 1999 to strengthen and support the 34 cities and towns of Essex County. Just four years later, in 2003, a group of visionary women – led by Paula Shorts and Paula Jerome, who served on ECCF’s board during the early years – created The Women’s Fund to help transform the lives of women and girls in our region.

“The whole premise is that underserved women really, honestly means that the whole family is underserved,” said Shorts in a 2023 video, made for The Women’s Fund 20th anniversary. “It’s the woman. It’s her family. And it’s the community. It’s the town. It’s the city. And it’s therefore the state and the country.”

The Women’s Fund of Essex County is built on the belief that stronger women and girls build stronger families, and stronger families build stronger communities.

As ECCF’s 25th anniversary year winds down, the foundation is celebrating The Women’s Fund of Essex County, one of the community foundation’s oldest and most impactful field of interest funds. As part of the ECCF family for more than two decades now, The Women’s Fund has been investing in women and girls by funding transformative programs that address complex and overlapping issues. To date, the fund has granted a total of $3.8 million to more than 150 nonprofit programs serving women and girls in need and at risk across Essex County.

“I don’t think when we were sitting there [creating The Women’s Fund] that we really felt that something like this was possible,” said Jerome.

But, thanks to passion and hard work, it was. In its very first year, The Women’s Fund of Essex County granted a total of $27,500. Today, it awards more than $200,000 each year, funding programs focused on academic achievement gaps for girls, economic self-sufficiency, equity and social justice, health and mental health and leadership development. In 2017, The Women’s Fund also created The Fund for Single Mothers at North Shore Community College, which offers eligible candidates the additional financial support they need to complete their degrees.

“When single mothers earn a certificate or degree, they increase their earning potential,” said The Women’s Fund co-president Trish Moore. “They also help their children’s chances to successfully complete their education and break away from the cycle of poverty.”

The year 2024 has been a particularly special year for The Women’s Fund of Essex County. Not only did they announce $231,000 in multi-year grants to 11 Essex County organizations, but the fund also embarked on a new initiative that addresses the mental health crisis in adolescent girls, a rising challenge voiced by Women’s Fund grantees during the pandemic. The Essex County Resilient Girls Project, largely funded by a multi-year grant from the Cummings Foundation, not only provides funding for five local organizations addressing this crisis, but it also brings the cohort together for shared learning and an exchange of ideas.

“The camaraderie among them is amazing,” said Moore, who added that grantees were really looking for a way to work together to tackle the mental health crisis in a more systemic way.

The Essex County Resilient Girls Project will also include comprehensive program evaluation by The Wellesley Centers for Women. “The results of this will give us the data we need to move forward. We want to do more of this,” Moore added.

Like ECCF, The Women’s Fund of Essex County has changed and grown much in the face of crisis. During COVID, they saw the need skyrocket.

“This is when we started getting over 60 grant applications,” said Roworth. “And the need is not going away. The need is greater than ever.”

According to data from The Women’s Fund:

• 1 in 8 women and girls in Essex County live in poverty.
• 44% of single mothers have a high school diploma or less.
• 1 in 5 women of color live in poverty.

For The Women’s Fund, being a part of ECCF has been vital to their mission of supporting women and girls in the region. Moore and Roworth said that back in 2003, Shorts and Jerome felt like the community foundation was the natural place to be – a local organization supporting local work. ECCF founder, David Tory, was instrumental in supporting the fund’s early development. Over the years, the partnership has grown and ECCF has continued to provide support for the impact The Women’s Fund is aiming to achieve.

“The ability to have an organization like ECCF for back-end office and unbelievable support on the grantmaking side is critical,” said Moore.

As they look to the future, leaders of The Women’s Fund will be seeking out ways to get more women involved and to collaborate with other local Women’s Funds to share resources and ideas. They will continue to celebrate their grantees at annual events, giving donors the opportunity to learn firsthand how their gifts impact the organizations and women they serve.

With less than two percent of philanthropy being devoted to women and girls, Roworth said, “We feel like we’re doing so much, but our work is never done.”