The Eva Gunther Foundation is guided by the belief in the power of young women, the value of mentorship, and the importance of engaging with and supporting girls when they are at an age that is all potential so that they can follow their dreams.
Our Mission
We aim to support the physical, social, moral, intellectual, creative, spiritual, psychological and emotional growth of motivated, low income girls between the ages of 11 and 18.
The Foundation supports the expression of girls’ inner selves in a variety of contexts, and with its awards hopes to fuel their motivation and passion to reach their dreams.
What we do
An Eva Gunther Fellowship funds a singular experience for one girl. Eva was a deeply compassionate soul; her essence was to give and cooperate. We honor Eva’s legacy by listening to and enabling girls. A Fellowship fosters a circle of support around a girl. The guiding principle and requirement is that each girl be nominated by an adult mentor, to build a relationship that supports her success. We hope to broaden a girl’s sense of capability and initiative, and importantly, to provide her an experience where she can learn and have fun.
Eva Foundation History
The Eva Gunther Foundation has been operating since 1999. Currently, Foundation grantmaking is limited to the Fellowship Program. Between 1999 and 2008, in addition to the Fellowship program, the Eva Foundation gave one million dollars in program grants to nearly thirty-eight different Bay Area Girls Service organizations. The grants primarily funded scholarships or other resources that allowed more girls to participate in an agency’s programming. These agencies worked in a vast array of fields from the arts to on-the-street social work.
We found that they had a common approach to working with girls by taking them seriously and helping them reach their goals. Though we were no longer able to continue giving program grants following the economic recession, in 2008 we launched the Community Engagement Program (CEP) to bring the leaders of these girls service agencies together through lunches, brown bag sessions, and other engagement events. This program led to the formation of Alliance for Girls in 2012. EGF was fiscal sponsor of the Alliance until November of 2015, when sponsorship was transferred the the Women’s Foundation of California and the CEP was successfully closed.
The Foundation’s attention is now focused solely on the Fellowship Program. The Fellowship program is guided by the belief that the more supportive structures and relationships that can be put in place to recognize and encourage expression of a girl’s unique capacities, the more empowered and motivated she will feel. The Foundation believes that by accomplishing something she dreams of doing, she will be inspired to continue pursuing her dreams in the future. The Fellowship engages the adults who interact with the girl to support that process.