The Center on Community Philanthropy at the Clinton School of Public Service announced the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas as the recipient of the 2023 Advancing Equity Award and recognized nine nonprofit leaders as part of the inaugural Racial Healing Certification class on Thursday, January 19.

The reception was held at the Clinton Presidential Library and celebrated the National Day of Racial Healing. Guests and funders from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, Borealis Philanthropy, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, including the convocation speaker Alandra Washington, Vice President for Transformation and Organizational Effectiveness, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, were in attendance.

The Advancing Equity Award is now in its sixth year and is presented annually to organizations using innovative solutions to address racial inequalities in their communities and advance progress toward inclusion. Nearly 50 organizations and individuals from across the country submitted letters of interest for the 2023 Advancing Equity Award.

The National Day of Racial Healing is an opportunity for people, organizations, and communities across the country to call for racial healing, bring people together in their common humanity, and take collective action to create a more just and equitable world. It is a part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation effort – a national and community-based process to plan for and bring about transformational and sustainable change, and to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism.

Launched in 2007, the Center on Community Philanthropy at the Clinton School of Public Service was created to focus its teaching, research, and policy-making exclusively on the emerging field of community philanthropy, the idea of giving and sharing time, talent, and treasure from within one’s own community. 

About the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas

The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas works to ensure economic equity and security for women and girls in Arkansas, intentionally approaching this work with the idea that there can be no gender equity without racial equity. Since its founding in 1998, the WFA’s guiding principles have been consistent – to understand the diverse needs and realities facing women and girls, and to respond through purposeful action and engaged philanthropy. The WFA works to dismantle the very real inequities that women and girls of color face each day in their pursuit of economic security, with the goal of reducing gender and racial wealth gaps in Arkansas through research, grantmaking, and programmatic initiatives.

In 2021, the WFA launched the Tjuana Byrd Summer Internship Program for college-aged

women of color pursuing careers in STEAM fields. The WFA’s Women’s Economic Mobility (WEM) Hub supports Black women entrepreneurs to leverage their business ownership as a vehicle for economic mobility.