Women Moving Millions

Women Moving Millions is a membership community of women who have each committed at least $1 million to work benefiting women and girls. It began in 2007 as a two-year campaign led by Helen LaKelly Hunt, her sister Swanee Hunt and Chris Grumm of the Women's Funding Network, aimed at raising $150 million for women's funds; the campaign closed above target during the financial crisis, with roughly $181 million pledged to 41 women's funds, and was then constituted as a standing organisation. Today it reports roughly 400 members in 16 countries who have collectively committed more than $1 billion. Membership works on two separate financial tests. The qualifying commitment is a minimum of $1 million over ten years, directed at organisations or initiatives with an explicit gender lens; separately, members pay an annual contribution to WMM itself, from $10,000 for individuals, $15,000 for families and $2,500 for the NextGen tier. What the commitment may consist of was broadened after a members' vote: alongside gifts to 501(c)(3) charities it now also counts political advocacy giving to 501(c)(4) organisations and investment in women-led ventures that benefit women and girls.

How it works

A prospective individual member makes a minimum commitment of $1 million over ten years to gender-lens organisations or initiatives, and pays an annual contribution of $10,000 or more to WMM. Family membership is $15,000 or more a year and NextGen is $2,500. WMM does not direct where the money goes: members choose their own recipients, and the organisation provides peer community, education programmes, one-on-one staff support and a collaboration platform called The Exchange for pooling resources with other members. Flagship events, including a NextGen Summit and an annual member day, anchor the calendar.

Typical member

Individual members are women philanthropists and investors who have made a formal commitment of $1 million or more over ten years with an explicit gender lens. Separate Family and NextGen tiers exist at lower annual contribution levels; WMM does not publish whether those tiers carry the same $1 million commitment. The community includes donors, impact investors and political advocacy funders.

The $1 million commitment is what defines this network, and it is worth reading precisely: it is a ten-year commitment to organisations of the member's own choosing, not a payment to WMM, and it is self-reported rather than escrowed or audited in any way the organisation publishes. The separate annual contribution, $10,000 for individuals, is the actual dues. The 2020s expansion of qualifying contributions to include 501(c)(4) political advocacy and investment in women-led ventures broadens the definition of philanthropy considerably and is a meaningful signal of where the organisation is heading; it also means two members with identical commitments may be doing very different things. Membership is gender-defined in practice, and the community is a self-selecting group of significant donors rather than an open network. Two gaps in the public record: WMM does not publish whether the Family and NextGen tiers carry the same $1 million test, and it does not publish an application review or acceptance process beyond an email address.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.