Giving Compass’ Take:
• Arabella Advisors explains the opportunity for funders to provide catalytic dollars to drive innovation toward improving women’s mental health.
• What existing resources and knowledge can be leveraged to support women’s health?
• Learn about women’s connections to the healthcare delivery system.
Women’s mental health and wellbeing have traditionally received insufficient attention from the healthcare field, from government, and from philanthropy, creating a gap that needs to be filled if we hope to see progress on numerous intersecting issues, from women’s rights to health care to education. Funders now have an enormous opportunity to drive significant change on this issue. By providing catalytic resources, shining a light on the critical issues at stake, and encouraging those in other fields to take action, they can drive innovations and advancements with wide-ranging positive impacts. These impacts will start with women themselves but extend quickly to the children, families, and communities that depend upon them—including, crucially, disadvantaged communities and communities of color.
Funders can and should do more—and, since their areas of focus often depend upon women’s mental health and wellbeing, many can do so without having to significantly adjust their strategies. Indeed, many funders can increase their impact on this front simply by considering how existing programs could include efforts to improve women’s mental health.
Funders can also go beyond their current portfolios and strategies to help advance women’s mental health and wellbeing. They can fill funding gaps that government can’t (or won’t), take risks by experimenting with new models and innovations and provide catalytic investments.