Community Action Grants provide funds to individuals, AAUW branches, and AAUW state
organizations as well as local community-based nonprofit organizations for innovative programs or non-degree research projects that promote education and equality for women and girls.
Since the inauguration of the Research and Projects Fund in 1972, AAUW has provided support to hundreds of communities around the United States to advance education and equality for women and girls. Palo Alto branch member Marie Wolbach founded Tech Trek in 1998 with the help of an AAUW Community Action Grant. Since then, AAUW of California has grown Tech Trek to 10 camps on eight college campuses across the state.
Some other recent projects are Camp GirlForward, which provided educational and leadership opportunities to adolescent refugee girls ages 14–19 who have been resettled in Chicago; and Opening the Door to Higher Ed for 1st-Generation Grads, a Florida project to help at-risk high school girls finish high school and go on to college. Of the 32 grants awarded in 2015-16, five are projects in California.
Why should the Sacramento Branch sponsor a Grant?
In 2020 the Sacramento Branch will be celebrating its 100th anniversary. In 2012, to honor this occasion, the Branch committed to raising $75,000 to fund a Community Action Grant. We are enlisting the help of other branches in this effort, as donations to AAUW Funds by our branch members have contributed to the completion of many grants through the years.
Once this endowment is complete, AAUW will invest the money, awarding the interest. Typically the interest from a number of endowments would be combined, as in the Florida example above where seven Florida endowments sponsored the grant. Our branch and its 100 years of service will be honored each time a grant is awarded.