By Brennan Nardi
Madison Community Foundation

Madison Community Foundation announces a $75,000 grant called Amplify Madison, a collaborative project to build skills, voice and visibility for women working in the Madison region’s thriving nonprofit community. The grant, coordinated by YWCA Madison, will encourage and support training and professional development, peer learning and networking, and leadership and engagement for 24 women to build the capacity of women in the nonprofit sector. Here are the components of the project:

• Area nonprofits or collaborations of nonprofits can nominate a trio of women comprised of staff, leaders, board members or volunteers to participate.
• Selected groups will receive a stipend to attend a conference or workshop that increases their knowledge in the field, exposes them to best practices, and fosters relationships and partnerships with other nonprofits.
• YWCA Madison will host biannual Learning Community meetings, where cohorts can share best practices, lessons learned, and foster relationships and collaboration.
• YWCA Madison will maintain a speakers bureau webpage, where organizations or conferences looking for experts will be able to connect with participants in the Amplify Madison Learning Community.
• YWCA Madison will host a session at its 2019 Moxie Conference for members of the Learning Community to give presentations.

“We’re thrilled to support a unique learning experience that develops a strong network of experts who can work together to help their nonprofits, and our communities, thrive,” said Madison Community Foundation President Bob Sorge. “We hope the Amplify Madison initiative contributes to local efforts to move the needle forward on key issues facing their respective organizations.”

“We are very excited to host such a great opportunity to empower women in the Madison area,” said YWCA Madison CEO Vanessa McDowell. “Our entire community will be enriched when we make it possible to build stronger relationships and have more diverse voices sharing knowledge.”

YWCA Madison is on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, support families and strengthen communities. We are part of the national YWCA movement, one of the oldest and largest women’s organizations in the nation, serving over 2 million women, girls and their families.