2023 Year End Appeal

Join WE CAN

Help us GROW what we’ve started together!

In 2023, the Women’s Equity Center and Action Network (WE CAN) is a grassroots powerhouse network of nearly 8,000 women of color activists that:

  • Conducted voter registration drives in Washington, DC, Maryland, and throughout the country for national, state, and local elections, which were critical to the progressive gains of the 2022 elections;
  • Organized popular free educational labs on accessing student loan relief, COVID resources, and other interests of women and girls of color; and,
  • Cultivated resources, knowledge, and talent for our ambitious agenda.

What does WE CAN do?

Provide high-quality, culturally competent, race- and gender-based civic education.

Our Mobilize Monday calls to action motivate our network to act on issues for women and girls of color. The Sister Source Podcast features seasoned and new advocates, movement builders, and elected officials by sharing stories and facts for advocacy and turnout efforts. Other popular programs include WE CAN’s Action Teams, reSister Campaigns, and ground-breaking Gender and Racial Impact Assessment (GRIA) policy tools now in development to become as powerful as, for example, environmental impact statements.

WE CAN also offers transformative leadership training and movement-building through our local Action Teams.

Local leaders organize teams to identify local needs, engage in problem-solving, inform advocacy campaign strategies, and act collectively to influence policies and laws. Creating a centralized map of organizations and movements led by women of color in the U.S. is the goal of our Get on the Map Initiative. This mapping tool will connect and organize movements and build coalitions nationwide of women of color. WE CAN is now leading advocacy campaigns on criminal justice reform, voting rights, maternal health, and student debt reform.

WE CAN’s Future

WE CAN uniquely educates, engages, and activates all women of color locally and nationally. Our outreach and partnerships are designed to attract the attention and participation of all women of color in our work, and especially of younger Gen Z and Millennial women of color in recent years. Allies of other races and genders can also participate, but ALL our goals, planned outcomes, programs, and communications are designed for and led by women of color. By equipping women of color with knowledge about voting rights and policy and systems change, providing opportunities for them to deploy new knowledge in GOTV and advocacy campaigns and creating spaces for them to coalesce locally and nationally, WE CAN is building a base of women of color for years to come.

In 2024, WE CAN will:

  1. Strengthen the voting rights and political power, as well as the health and economic progress, of women and girls of color with partners using intersectional policy analysis and engaging technology tools;
  2. Inform, amplify, and grow WE CAN’s national network of nearly 8,000 grassroots leaders and organizations of all races, generations, identities, and abilities throughout the country by mobilizing constituents and allies and by providing leadership development; and,
  3. Facilitate policy environments responsive to the needs and power analysis of women of color, through surveys, mapping, email blasts, online events such as film screenings, podcasts, training programs, and voter education efforts and hopefully soon, small grants programs for women of color activist leaders.

How We’re Funded

WE CAN is a charitable nonprofit recognized by the federal and state governments and supported by a mix of membership, individual gifts, and philanthropic and corporate support. Our goal is long-term sustainability to support a lasting future for grassroots advocacy at the intersection of gender, race, leadership, and public policy.

Your monthly gift of $20 will help WE CAN reach thousands of NEW activists across the U.S. A one-time gift of $100 will help WE CAN offer a training program to 25 women and girls of color. A transformative gift of $1,000 will help WE CAN purchase access to an organizing platform that will take our advocacy to the next level! Won’t you consider one of these gifts TODAY?!