Tides Center

Women's Leadership Circles (WLC), a project of Tides Center (Washington, DC), was founded in 2003 with the mission of recognizing and supporting the diversity of women's leadership by bringing together circles of women from different communities and disciplines, especially those engaged in social justice work, to collectively create healthier lives and societies. A grant would allow WLC to offer a series of financial literacy circle trainings to three cohorts of 15 women leaders each. The series will be implemented over two, two-day retreats. The first weekend retreat will examine participants' personal attitudes and practices related to money and provide hands-on learning to improve their personal financial planning and management. The second retreat will address organizational practices, budgeting, retirement planning, income generation and exploration of healthy organizational financial policies. WLC staff will organize meetings between retreats to reinforce ideas, practices and relationships and, at the conclusion of the retreats, will support the formation of two to four alumni groups that focus on collective actions, peer support and ongoing education. All trainings will include a combination of small group discussion, solo reflection, workshops and a seminar format. WLC is planning to run one cohort per year with CLP funding and expects to secure funds to offer additional cohorts. (New, $44,508, 40% of project budget)