Our Purpose
Champion women and girls
Across Greater La Crosse, women are ready to work, ready to learn, and ready to build stable lives for themselves and their families. What stands in the way is rarely a lack of will. It is a lack of access.
A car that won’t start costs a shift, then a job. A rent payment due before a paycheck clears costs a lease, then a home. A class schedule that doesn’t bend around childcare costs a semester, then a degree. These barriers rarely make headlines. They are unglamorous, easy to overlook, and remarkably effective at keeping capable, motivated women stuck in place.
The women most affected are often the ones already doing everything right — working, parenting, studying — but running up against systems and circumstances that were never built with them in mind. The truth is, our economy is not set up to support and empower women.
Our Approach & Theory of Change
We raise funds from individuals, businesses, and community partners who believe a woman’s future should not be determined by circumstances she didn’t choose. We then direct those funds, through a rigorous annual grantmaking process, to local organizations already doing this work well.
We are intentionally not a direct service organization. Our role is to find, fund, and strengthen the programs already earning trust in our community — multiplying their reach rather than duplicating their work.
Our Funding Priorities
Transportation, housing, and education are not separate problems. They compound one another. A woman without reliable transportation can lose a job. A woman without stable housing can’t focus on finishing a degree. A woman without a credential can’t afford stable housing. Solve one of these in isolation, and the others can still hold her back. Our grantmaking is built around that reality — prioritizing funding for programs that address these barriers where they intersect, not only where they are easiest to see.Transportation
We fund programs that help women get to jobs, school, childcare, and medical care reliably and safely — from vehicle repair assistance to transit subsidies to volunteer driver networks.
Housing
We fund programs that help women find and keep safe, stable homes for themselves and their families — including rental assistance, deposit and move-in support, and housing stability counseling.
Education
We fund programs that help women access the training, credentials, and degrees that open the door to better-paying, more stable work — including tuition and materials assistance, childcare support for students, and workforce training programs.