The Women Donors Network (WDN) is a left-of-center donor networking group for female advocacy funders. The claims over 200 donor members who contribute over $175 million to left-of-center causes each year. ¹ The group says that it “use[s] an intersectional lens — including race, class, gender, and sexual orientation — in everything we do.” ²

History

The Women Donors Network (WDN) was founded in August 2002. ³  The organization has since expanded to include over 200 women donors, and claims that its members contribute over $175 million to left-of-center progressive causes each year. ¹

The donors themselves are largely anonymous. New members pay a $4,000 introductory fee, and a $5,000 renewal contribution every year. A $9,000 contribution to the WDN itself is suggested, and referred to as a member paying her “equal share.” ⁴

Tracey DuVivier Gary, a relative of the Pillsbury family, helped co-found the WDN. She has helped start a number of left-of-center funding organizations focused on women’s issues, including the Women’s Foundation of California, the Women’s Philanthropic Institute, Women Moving Millions, and Funders for Gay and Lesbian Issues. ⁵

Advocacy Activity

The Women Donors Network (WDN) is led by a board of directors that oversees a number of subcommittees, referred to as “circles,” each dedicated to a political issue. For example, within the WDN there is the Reproductive Health circle, the Criminal (In)justice circle, and the Immigration circle. ⁶

Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of left-wing feminist group Ultraviolet, is a member of the WDN’s Reproductive Health Circle. “One of the reasons having WDN’s support so early was really important to our success over the long-term was that they were not being prescriptive about exactly how we do the work,” said Thomas. ⁷

On December 7, 2017, the Women Donors Network Action Fund was established. The two organizations have a “resource sharing agreement,” and share many of the same personnel. ⁶

According to a May 2025 Wall Street Journal article, WDN was listed as one of 250 members of the Block & Build Funder Coalition, a network of nonprofit and advocacy groups formed in 2024 to identify “different structures for philanthropy other than 501(c)(3)s should foundations and nonprofits’ tax-exempt status be revoked.” ⁸ WDN president and CEO Leena Barakat claimed, “The biggest message has been, all of this is in some ways pointless if we don’t keep funding boldly…Do not pull back. This is the rainy day.” ^{9 8}

In 2025, WDN partnered with the Trust Based Philanthropy Project through their “Meet the moment” initiative. This initiative seeks to bring its supporters together “in solidarity with nonprofits.” The group claims that the political climate could pose risks to nonprofits through reductions in funding, legal concerns, and lack of staff. ¹⁰

Campaigns

In 2014, the Women Donors Network (WDN) started its Reflexive Democracy Campaign. The campaign conducts research showing a preponderance of power allegedly held by white men, and supports activist groups that aim to address this issue. Under the banner of this campaign, the WDN has donated to dozens of groups, including FairVote, Oakland Rising, and OneAmerica. ^{11 12 13}

Jean Hardisty Initiative is a WDN campaign dedicated to supporting black women activist leaders. ¹⁴ Alicia Garza, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, has said that WDN was one of the first organizations to offer its support. Another Garza organization, Black Futures Lab, also received WDN support through the Hardisty campaign; the group has said that it“is a vehicle that aims to transform black communities into constituencies that wield independent, progressive political power.” ¹⁵ Within the Jean Hardisty Initiative, WDN has also supported the National Domestic Workers Alliance. ²

Emergent Fund

In partnership with the Solidarity Network, the Threshold Network, and the Proteus Fund, the Women Donors Network (WDN) launched the Emergent Fund project, which makes large, non-restricted donations to activist groups without requiring all the steps of a formal grant making process. ¹⁶ The Emergent Fund was started as a response to President Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, which WDN believes poses a “multidimensional” threat to minority communities. By design, the application process can be completed in 15 minutes, and doesn’t require that organizations submit “5-year plans, logic models, organizational charts, or budgets.” ¹⁷

The WDN was also previously a client of left-wing political consultancy Democracy Partners. ^{18 19}

Leadership

Leena Barakat is the president and CEO of the Women Donors Network (WDN) as of 2025. Taking on the role in 2022, she previously worked in several positions with the group including board treasurer and the board vice president. Prior to WDN, she worked in several positions for Tides including a Strategic Partnerships Advisor as well as Director of Strategic Partnerships. ⁹

Donna P. Hall previously served as president and CEO of the WDN, from its founding in 2002 until 2022. She previously worked at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the Center for Advancement of Women, and the Rockefeller Foundation. ³

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2. “What We Fund.” Women Donors Network: Generosity Multiplied. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://womendonors.org/funded-projects/.
3. “Donna P. Hall.” Women Donors Network: Generosity Multiplied. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://womendonors.org/people/donna-p-hall/.
4. “Join Us.” Women Donors Network: Generosity Multiplied. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://womendonors.org/join/.
5. Dreifus, Claudia. “Joyful Donor to Women’s Causes Teaches Other Inheritors.” The New York Times. November 12, 2016. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/your-money/donor-womens-causes-teaches-other-inheritors.html.
6. Audited Financial Statements, Women Donors Network 2016-2017. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://womendonors.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Women-Donors-Network-Audited-Financials-12.31.2017.pdf.
7. “Our Mission.” Video. Women Donors Network: Generosity Multiplied. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://womendonors.org/mission/.
8. Chung, Juliet and Emily Glazer. “America’s Richest Foundations Team Up Against Feared Trump Assault.” Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2025. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/nonprofit-foundations-prepare-trump-fight-884f6016
9. “Leena Barakat.” Women Donors Network, Accessed June 16, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/leenabarakat
10. “Meet the Moment – Trust-Based Philanthropy.” Trust Based Philanthropy . Accessed September 29, 2025. https://www.trustbasedphilanthropy.org/meet-the-moment#signatories.
11. “Reflective Democracy Campaign.” Women Donors Network: Generosity Multiplied. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://womendonors.org/reflective-democracy-campaign/.
12. Fandos, Nicholas. “A Study Documents the Paucity of Black Elected Prosecutors: Zero in Most States.” The New York Times. July 07, 2015. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/07/us/a-study-documents-the-paucity-of-black-elected-prosecutors-zero-in-most-states.html.
13. “What We Fund.” Women Donors Network: Generosity Multiplied. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://womendonors.org/funded-projects/#collapse-1.
14. “Jean Hardisty Initiative.” Women Donors Network: Generosity Multiplied. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://womendonors.org/jean-hardisty-initiative/.
15. “WDN Is Catalytic.” Vimeo. April 03, 2019. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://vimeo.com/243210703.
16. “Emergent Fund.” Women Donors Network: Generosity Multiplied. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://womendonors.org/emergent-fund/.
17. Charles, Thana-Ashley, and Deepti Sood. “VISIONARY RESISTANCE Inside the Rapid-Response Model of the Emergent Fund.” The Emergent Fund. December 2017. Accessed April 3, 2019. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/583cc6cf440243877a05f227/t/5a29d89071c10b3c0538a6c1/1512691865627/Emergent+Evaluation.pdf.
18. “Democracy Partners.” Ballotpedia. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://ballotpedia.org/Democracy_Partners.
19. Diaz, Daniella, and Drew Griffin. “Dem Operative ‘stepping Back’ after Video Suggests Group Incited Violence at Trump Rallies.” CNN. October 19, 2016. Accessed April 03, 2019. https://www.cnn.com/2016/10/18/politics/project-veritas-action-robert-creamer-donald-trump-rallies/.