The Mary Burke Fund for Girls and Women at the Madison Community Foundation has made a $1 million major gift to The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness, the organization announced on Thursday.
The Fund will commit $1 million over the next 10 years to support the organization’s expansion and growing capacity to advance Black women’s health in Dane County. It will support the Foundation’s operational and programmatic infrastructure and help expand the organization’s core health promotion, education, and advocacy initiatives that aim to improve Black women’s health outcomes, increase personal and family stability, and build women’s leadership capacity as health equity advocates.
“To be supported in this way by Mary as a donor who understands and values the work we are leading to transform Black women’s health in Dane County and across Wisconsin is tremendous validation,” said Lisa Peyton-Caire, founding CEO & president of the Foundation, in a statement. “This comes at an urgent time as we navigate the impacts of COVID-19 on our organization and the community we serve, and we are just incredibly grateful. The gift will strengthen our capacity to carry out the broad body of work we continue to build, and to ensure our longevity.”
The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness works to empower black women and girls to build and sustain healthy, thriving, wellness-centered lives. Its mission is to eliminate health disparities and other barriers impacting the lives of African American women, and to establish a culture of wellness through education, outreach, support circles, powerful partnerships, and by influencing systemic change.
This gift, establishing The Fund For Black Women’s Wellness, comes two years after Burke’s initial $50,000 gift to support the Foundation’s core programming and initiatives, and to seed a Women’s Opportunity and Empowerment Fund which has enabled the organization to support women in critical ways prior to and through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness continues to lead work that is centering and positioning Black women’s health as a major priority in our community and generating powerful ripple effects,” Burke said in a statement. “Our goal is to support them in doing what they do best well into the future so that Black women and their families reap the benefits”.
