Case Study
Healing to Action
Fundraising, Communications, and Design
Photo courtesy of Healing to Action
How Women Unite! Got Connected
Healing to Action (HTA) was part of WU!’s 2020–21 cohort of partner organizations. As an organization co-founded and led by two women of color and serving other women of color from low-income communities, WU!’s Board knew right away that HTA was an organization with a mission that aligned closely with WU!’s priorities.
Photo courtesy of Healing to Action
About Healing to Action
HTA’s mission is to end gender-based violence (GBV) by building the leadership and collective power of the communities most impacted—immigrant, Black and brown, low-wage, low-income, disability, and LGBTQ survivors. HTA’s innovative model builds power within these marginalized communities and transforms the narrative of survivors from “victims” to critical leaders in the movement to end GBV.
To achieve its mission, HTA:
Develops survivors’ leadership through their Healing Generations program, from which a powerful base of 30 survivor-leaders have graduated.
Supports dynamic grassroots campaigns to end GBV, developed and led by survivor-leaders. One example is SexEd Works, which addresses disparities in Chicago students’ access to comprehensive sex ed as a root cause of GBV.
Builds organizations’ capacity to mobilize survivor-led solutions through training and technical assistance. HTA has helped over two dozen organizations build their capacity to organize against GBV.
Who They Serve
HTA’s work centers around low-income survivors in Chicago (on the North, West, and South sides and in surrounding townships), who are primarily Latinx, African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander, immigrant, LGBTQIA+ people, and people with disabilities. GBV disproportionately impacts these communities, further enabling their marginalization, driving up their healthcare costs, increasing their likelihood of criminalization, and devastating their chances of achieving economic security.
The Organization’s Needs
At a critical juncture in its growth, HTA primarily needed development and communications support to help free up their time to focus on how to effectively scale and grow the organization. While they had a successful track record in foundation fundraising, they sought assistance with grant research, management, and writing to increase their funding revenue. On the communications side, they were looking for guidance to build out and implement a communications strategy to reach an even wider audience of survivors, supporters, and other stakeholders.
“We’ve been incredibly lucky to land a partner like WU! The WU! team has thrown their heart and soul into the work since the day we started working together. Not only do we have a fierce, talented, and hardworking partner in WU!, we have new champions of our work who are always looking for our next opportunity for growth—and making it come to fruition.”
—Sheerine Alemzadeh, Co-Founder/Co-Director, Healing to Action
Women Unite!’s Impact
WU! and HTA staff immediately dove into a collaborative relationship that resulted in some great successes. Through grant research, donor cultivation, and grant writing assistance, WU! helped HTA raise $322,500 in foundation and corporate grants. Additionally, WU! developed an individual donor fundraising plan for HTA and the two organizations had regular fundraising strategy meetings to refine the strategy and work on implementation.
WU! also supported HTA through graphic design work, social media training and best practice documentation, and event coordination for their yearly fundraiser. Finally, WU! worked closely with HTA’s Board to conduct a communications facilitation meeting, and assisted HTA’s leadership in board management.
Mission Alignment
From a commitment to serving and uplifting women, to an unwavering belief in the power of the collective, WU! and HTA share many of the same values, goals, and priorities. Both organizations recognize the deeply entrenched inequities that have persisted for communities of color, and they trust in the expertise of those most impacted to develop and lead solutions to ending those inequities. While HTA primarily works to end gender-based violence, and WU! seeks to build the capacity of organizations on the frontlines of community service, the two organizations take an intersectional approach to the work they do.
“I am deeply moved by this amazing group of experts who are dedicating themselves to bring beauty, strength, and clarity to our movements by investing critical resources in small grassroots organizations like ours. It is because of WU! that our mission can grow and thrive, even in the darkest of times. It is such an honor and privilege to build this work with some of this amazing group of changemakers.”
—Karla Altmayer, Co-Founder/Co-Director, Healing to Action