Our History

SERVING WOMEN & GIRLS SINCE 1981

Founded in 1981 by Iris Krieg and Joy Beaton to strengthen philanthropy supporting women and girls,
CWIP is now celebrating 40 years of creating connections and fostering change to build better communities.

After CWIP's founding, our Board of Directors hit the ground running, producing several publications with the intent of inciting change in the Philanthropic community. With the aide of their research, CWIP was able to show that the foundations disproportionately supported programs for men and boys that were within their funding priorities, leaving women and girls programs underfunded and under represented.

CWIP used their publications to shake up the way funding was done, and while the organization focuses
more on networking, mentorship, and creating community today, it is the foundation of facilitating dialogue that CWIP was built upon and still strives to accomplish. Read the ground breaking publications below, and visit our Programs Overview to see what CWIP is doing today to facilitate dialogue and uncommon connections!

Our Publications

Chicago Women In Philanthropy produces a number of publications on topics including:

How to use gender analysis with grantees
How to use gender analysis within your own organization
How to draw key lessons form other grant makers


Check out our publications below:

making a difference  
CWIP's "Gender Lens" publication
MAP report executive summary
Provides information on how to better ‘map' and tap into influential power networks - comfortably, colleague-to-colleague, and with both humor and expertise. The publication guides the philanthropic community on how to move to the next stage of providing effective funding for women and girls and introduces the Member Advocate Project (MAP).
read publication
ClearSighted
Using a gender lens to evaluate your organization
ClearSighted is a brochure which provides a set of basic questions to begin a gender-based assessment during proposal evaluation, site visits, and follow up. The gender lens tool is designed to encourage both grant making and nonprofit leaders to evaluate organizations on the basis of whether or not they successfully address the needs of women and girls. The publication focuses on the real life conditions of women and girls, acknowledging that gender is a powerful predictor of experience and opportunity and draws connections between unemployment and lack of child care, homelessness and rates of domestic violence, infant mortality, and lack of access to prenatal care.
read publication
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COMMITEES

Each one of CWIP's committees provides the opportunity for you to share your expertise, and to develop or sharpen the skillsyou need to be effective and thrive in the nonprofit sector.

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MEMBERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Learn about CWIP membership types and the enriching benefits that membership has to offer.

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SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITES

Our incredible donors enable us to chase our mission and vision whole heartedly. We couldn’t do it without them.

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COMMUNITY BLOGS

Hear from the voices you trust and keep up with the friends you've made. Get the latest information about CWIP events, new opportunities, and the reflections of your fellow members.

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