When Merle Chambers established Chambers Family Fund, one of her priorities was to build something permanent in the states where her family’s oil business operated. In 1999, Chambers Family Fund launched an initiative to increase philanthropic support of organizations serving women and girls in Wyoming, Montana and Oklahoma.

We partnered with community foundations to create new statewide women’s funds, the Wyoming Women’s Foundation and the Women’s Foundation of Montana. In 2003, we initiated a partnership with the Communities Foundation of Oklahoma to create the Women’s Foundation of Oklahoma.

We made challenge grants to each fund that matched up to $500,000 to create $1 million endowments, providing an incentive for others to give. While the endowments grew, we provided $50,000 annually for their grantmaking to not-for-profits focusing on women’s economic self-sufficiency and girls’ futures. In addition, we contributed $125,000 over five years for research, staffing and materials. We also provided funding to create videos for the women’s funds to share with women throughout the state, illustrating the need and promise of each women’s fund. With support from Chambers Family Fund, each of the three new women's funds has reached an initial $1 million endowment goal.

Chambers Family Fund continues to provide annual operating support for these women's funds. With the fundraising and grantmaking expertise of the existing community foundations and advisory boards made up of women from across each state, the women's funds are growing their endowments and making grants to organizations supporting women and girls.

In 2008, we explored opportunities to provide funding to benefit women and girls in North Dakota, another state in which the Chambers family oil business operated. We made multi-year commitments to two existing women’s funds within community foundations, the Women’s Fund of the Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation and the Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks & Region. To attain statewide reach, we also made a multi-year commitment to the North Dakota Women’s Network, a policy and advocacy organization that promotes policies for the advancement of women in North Dakota.

The women’s funds in these states are building women’s philanthropy in geographic areas where few philanthropic dollars are dedicated to programs serving women and girls. Women in philanthropy have historically given their time more than their money. In recent years, women’s and girls’ funds have created social change through philanthropy by supporting forward-looking programs, connecting donors with grantees and investing in long-term organizational growth. For more information about women in philanthropy, please visit our resources.

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