We sat down with Camille Abrahams Emeagwali, Vice President of Programs, to discuss the idea behind Resilience NYC, the transition to multi-year funding, and other issues facing grantees in this current political landscape.

The Foundation was founded by a group of fierce women who shared three revolutionary beliefs: (1) problems and solutions live in the same place; (2) communities know best how to fix problems they experience; and (3) philanthropy is more powerful when it is collective and inclusive.  Put together, these beliefs embody what we think of as Radical Generosity.

For 30 years, The New York Women’s Foundation has made anti-violence and safety a key tenet of our work to promote the economic security of women and families. We know that a woman’s safety is inextricably linked to her economic security and ability to provide for her family. We have moved this work forward by supporting community-based organizations enacting innovative, nuanced, and culturally competent solutions to address the particular needs of cis and trans women and girls, and gender fluid individuals.

Life took a better turn for Tere, a mother of two and a Mexican immigrant, when she became a worker-owner of the ecofriendly housecleaning service Si Se Puede!. As a partner in this Brooklyn cooperative, where the business is owned and controlled by the workers, she found stable work and had better wages than at any of her previous jobs. She could manage her own schedule, which meant more time for her children and less strain on her marriage.

In 1987, a group of intrepid women gathered in a living room to create a philanthropic entity that could begin shattering these unjust paradigms. These were mostly women of wealth who hadn’t had much contact with the City’s low-income communities, but they were willing to listen and to learn. They went into the community; they went to prisons and housing developments; and they asked people to educate them about the issues and what needed to be done.

Our report, Blueprint for Investing in Girls Age 0-8 from The New York Women’s Foundation, clearly shows that our society has remained stubbornly resistant to adopting measures that would ensure fair protection, just compensation, adequate support, and strong preparation to the low-income women of color who are raising these girls.

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, more than half of men in the United States think sexism is over, while nearly two-thirds of women say obstacles continue to make it harder for women than men today.

Consider this glaring example. Despite women outnumbering men at the college and graduate levels, and presumably moving into the types of higher paying jobs that higher education leads to, in the workplace the gender and racial pay gap stubbornly persists.

Later this term, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the issue of bathroom rights for transgender people. The heated national debate, ostensibly over restroom access, reflects the extreme prejudice and hostility that transgender people face every day in America. And now the 2016 presidential election has served to compound the anxiety of the LGBTQ community. Several LGBTQ suicide hotlines have reported that since the Republican victory, the number of calls has risen dramatically from normal call traffic.

Innovation requires bold leadership. Just look at Commissioner Carmelyn P. Malalis and her team at the New York City Commission on Human Rights, who are constantly pushing the boundaries of how government agencies can serve and protect the most vulnerable populations. In speaking with a group of our grantee partners at our office in March, Malalis explained that when she was offered the job, one of her non-negotiables was that she wanted to turn this agency on its head and equip it with the tools necessary to expand and implement what was already one of the most comprehensive Human Rights Laws in the country.

The New York Women’s Foundation’s grantee partner, East New York Farms! (ENYF), an urban agricultural project of United Community Centers, an organization that has served East New York, Brooklyn for over 60 years, has been a key leader in this movement nationwide. In partnership with EcoStation: NY of Bushwick, they have led the organization of a Northeast Youth Food Justice Network.

Community leaders, especially women, do some of the hardest work under the least forgiving circumstances. And they get results. At The New York Women’s Foundation, we know because we’ve been investing in women-led, community-based organizations for 29 years, seeking high returns on our investments.

Our strategy for sustainable growth is successful and replicable.  In 2015, we invested $520,000 in 12 women-led organizations offering training and job placement. More than 1,700 women received services with 413 gaining new employment with projected annual wages of $8.5M—a 15-fold return on initial funding.

Those of us who work in the area of economic justice know that not only does poverty have a female face, but the solution to poverty also has a female face. Although we fear the widening ramifications of the Wall Street crash in New York, we know first-hand that there are underutilized solutions to the problem of poverty, and that these solutions often involve the leadership of women.