Grants

WGC Grantmaking

The WGC is a fund that gives grants … it’s what we do!

We've been part of the Howard County community for over 18 years, have raised over $1 million to support our efforts from over 1,000 donors, and have given over 100 grants to nonprofits that support women and girls in our community. Since 2002 the WGC has granted over $500,000 to programs that benefit women and girls in Howard County.

2020 Grants Snapshot:

Focus on Women and Girls - $50K

Journey Camp for Girls Grant (cancelled)
JA Rising Women Grant
Girl Power! Grant (cancelled)
Leadership U Scholarship Grant
Young Women's Giving Circle of Howard County Support
Youth in Philanthropy at CFHoCo
HCC Continuing Education Grant
Howard County Hospital Foundation Grant
Columbia Art Center, Dear Mama: A Black Maternal Health Art Exhibition (cancelled)
Black Philanthropy Month Grant
Social Justice Grants

WGC Emergency COVID-19 Grants - $437.5K

Emergency Response Network Grants - $30K: The WGC's Emergency Response Network was created over 15 years ago and is typically utilized for donations up to $1,000 to help an individual in need through our nonprofit partners. However, to address the escalating and unprecedented coronavirus public health crisis, we recently extended the scope of the ERN for a period of time to assist broader needs and more people in our community, and we will continue to pool our dollars so we can have a greater impact together than we might otherwise have alone. We will continue to remain flexible and nimble to be as responsive as we can to growing community needs. Learn more about the ERN.
HoCoRespond Joint Grants - $407.5K: In March 2020 the Community Foundation of Howard County, Horizon Foundation, United Way of Central Maryland and Women's Giving Circle of Howard County announced new emergency funds and actions to support community members affected by COVID-19, and established HoCoRespond.com to support Howard County nonprofits on the frontline of support, focusing on assisting with food security, housing, childcare and healthcare. To date we have raised over $600,000. We have granted a total of $407,500 in HoCoRespond COVID-19 Emergency Funds to Howard County nonprofits, and an additional $120,000 has gone directly to nonprofits from CFHoCo donor-advised funds. We are gearing up for additional rounds of fundraising and grantmaking.

Here's the specifics on our grants this year:

The WGC planned to give $50k in grants this year to programs that benefit women and girls. Some are long-standing grants, like to JA Rising Women at JA of Central Maryland, or scholarships for women continuing their education at HCC. Others are newer grants, like our new grants to Leadership U to support a scholarship for a girl to participate, to the Howard Hospital Foundation to support new mother’s grieving a loss of life, and for our second year supporting National Black Philanthropy Month in August.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, several programs we planned to fund were cancelled, like the Journey Camp for Girls, Girl Power!, and the Dear Mama: A Black Maternal Health Art Exhibition at the Columbia Arts Center. We look forward to continuing support in the future.

We did decide to re-allocate funding this year to support Social Justice Grants, which will be determined by our Grants and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committees.

Journey Camp for Girls Grant – a week-long summer leadership camp for girls entering 8th and 9th grade, in partnership with Maryland Leadership Workshop. This was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19. Learn more about Journey.
JA Rising Women Grant– our multi-year grant supporting a 13 week after-school entrepreneurship program for girls grades 8-12, in partnership with Junior Achievement. Learn more about JA Rising Women.
Continuing Education for Women Grant – a women’s scholarship program, providing financial aid to women seeking job-related courses, in partnership with Howard Community College.
Girl Power! Grant – a one day STEM expo for middle and high school girls, in partnership with the Applied Physics Lab and the Maryland Space Business Roundtable. This was cancelled this year due to COVID-19.
Leadership U Scholarship Grant - funding to support a young woman to participate in Leadership U, part of Leadership Howard County.
Young Women's Giving Circle of Howard County Support - a circle hosted by the WGC comprised of girls in 7th - 12th grade who share the same passion: helping women and girls in need by meeting regularly, raising money, and giving grants. Learn more about the YWGC.
Youth in Philanthropy at CFHoCo - a group of high-school aged youth who are learning about the community and grantmaking.
Howard County Hospital Foundation Grant - funding to assist in creating a space for new mothers who have experienced a loss.
Columbia Art Center, Dear Mama: A Black Maternal Health Art Exhibition - support for this exhibit designed to bring attention to issues impacting Black motherhood including alarmingly high rates of maternal and infant mortality and pregnancy-related complications. This was cancelled this year due to COVID-19.
Black Philanthropy Month Grant - support for this national effort that aims to Inform, involve, inspire and invest in Black philanthropic leadership locally, regionally, and nationally.
Social Justice Grants - to be determined with the WGC Grants and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committees.
Philanthropy Together - Standing Up in Solidarity Fund - a national fund for giving circles to join together to help support some national organizations working to fight racial inequities.
Emergency Response Network Grants - WGC donors are addressing the needs of women clients identified by our nonprofit partner agencies serving women and girls in Howard County. We fund on average one ERN request per month throughout the year. Learn more about the ERN.

WGC Grant Focus:

The WGC’s grant focus is on programs that increase the life skills of women and girls, encourage the healthy development and personal authority of young girls and raise the awareness of gender disparities in our community. The WGC is an endowed fund at the Community Foundation of Howard County. A portion of each donation made to the WGC goes to the endowment to ensure that money to fund programs that benefit women and girls will be there in perpetuity.

WGC does not accept grant proposals. Instead, WGC proactively identifies issues it wants to address and invests grant dollars in projects and programs for maximum impact.
WGC works in partnership with nonprofit organizations and other organizations to advance its mission and address the needs of women and girls, as well as making grants to fund programs.
Education-based philanthropy is the cornerstone of the WGC’s grantmaking, thus WGC sponsors and co-sponsors programs, events and activities that advance understanding of the issues affecting women and girls in Howard County.