Nancy retired on the last day of 2021 after selling her business, Nancy’s Vacation Rentals, Inc. which she managed for 20 years, growing it from 2 to 55 rentals in the San Diego beach area. Prior to that, she was an International Flight Attendant/Purser for more than 34 years with Pan Am and United. She was also editor of the Paris flight attendant newsletter while based in Paris for almost 5 years, which ended abruptly after 9/11.
She is also president of two HOAs, each for more than 25 years. She served on the board of the Volcan Mountain Foundation and initiated and ran a Wild & Scenic Film Festival in Julian for several years.
As one of the founding members of the WE Julian Circle in 2012, she is now in the leadership role with about 45 members and chairs the yearly Julian Fundraising Luncheon.
Nancy loves to travel, trek and dive and has well-covered all seven continents. She has recently traveled on site visits to WE Partners, Adelante Foundation in Honduras, OEF de El Salvador, Via International in Mexico, and Multicolores in Guatemala. In fact, she has visited all of WE’s partners except for Nyaka in Uganda, although she has visited the country on one of her many adventures. She is currently on the Board’s new Grants and Donor Stewardship committees. The world has been Nancy’s classroom for over 50 years, showing her the importance organizations like WE.
Tanvi Jaluka is an international development and gender researcher. For ten years, Tanvi has designed and evaluated programs that empower women economically, focusing on entrepreneurship and financial inclusion in emerging markets. She has deep expertise in impact evaluations, quasi-experimental methods, and monitoring and evaluation tools for development programming. She has worked across diverse regions, including Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and is fluent in Hindi.
Nearly 20 years ago, I joined WE because I was intrigued by its approach to helping reduce poverty: Trust women, who were facing significant poverty, with a loan to support their aspiration to start and grow a business and raise themselves and their family out of poverty through their own initiative, imagination, creativity and work. At that time, WE was a young organization, and I was lucky to have been asked to be the liaison with our Honduran partner, Adelante. Through this experience, I saw firsthand how WE’s collaborative model of support for women and communities actually works to elevate the status of women and families. I also learned more about the challenges and opportunities, and the successes and setbacks faced by our partners and the women themselves.
Fast-forward to today and WE has evolved and expanded in its reach and successful partnerships regionally and around the world. Just last year, WE celebrated its 20th anniversary of grant giving! I am so grateful to former WE President, Susan Hennenfent, for her leadership and stewardship during this banner year.
But….the work is not done yet! WE provides something unique: we identify and vet high-impact, nonprofit partners that implement economic empowerment programs for women experiencing poverty, locally and around the world. As the new Board Co-President, I’m excited to work with all to leverage this asset to increase our reach and effectiveness.
I am super fortunate and grateful to have Erin Schultz as my Co-President! I look forward to working with and learning from Erin, our dedicated Board members, our Executive Director Sarah Adams, and from our volunteers, donors and supporters. Most importantly, I would like to hear from you about how we can strengthen WE as a long-term, growing, sustainable organization. The work WE accomplishes is too important. Together with you, we will find ways to expand WE’s impact to elevate more women and communities. I welcome your thoughts and suggestions as I embark on this journey. Thank you for your trust.
From attending the first gathering of the 35 women who created WE to now serving as Co-President, it is an absolute honor to witness the tremendous growth of this organization and how WE continues to make a profound impact more than 20 years later.
Professionally, I work on campaigns and elections. I am grateful for this opportunity which gives me the ability to balance the national challenges I see in government and politics with the enthusiasm, dedication, and real problem solving WE and our partners are contributing to around the world.
I am grateful that I take on this role with longtime WE Board Member, volunteer and leader, José Angel Nuncio, as Co-President. The insights and expertise he brings to this work are invaluable, and I look forward to learning from him, as well as working with our ED Sarah, the Board, and our partners to achieve WE’s continued success.
I’m especially excited to connect with WE supporters who have been sustaining this vital work for over two decades. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me anytime with your ideas or suggestions on how WE can do more to empower women around the world and here at home.
Thank you to Susan Hennenfent: for your steady leadership as President this past year – you have given us big shoes to fill!
We are pleased to announce this new grant opportunity. Could your organization be a good fit? Do you know of an organization that could align with our funding criteria and might be interested in applying?
A little about us at WE: Women’s Empowerment International (WE) is a nonprofit organization (based in San Diego, CA, United States) with a mission to empower women with tools to work their way out of poverty, care for their families, and strengthen their communities. We do this through grantmaking for economic empowerment programs for women experiencing poverty—locally (in San Diego County and our border region) and internationally. We envision a world without poverty in which women are empowered, uplifted, and equal partners in society. Since 2004, we have raised money for and distributed over $2.8M in grant funding for 15 partner organizations in nine countries. Current grant partners operate programs including microloans, women’s entrepreneurship and small business development support, training, education, and other income-generating and barrier-breaking initiatives.
We have implemented some exciting additions to our grantmaking, and we currently have an open Letter of Inquiry (LOI) for three types of grant funding: https://form.jotform.com/251608843588065. Submitting an LOI is the first part of the application process. If our Grants Committee sees a good fit, an organization will be invited to complete our full grant application.
Please read through our general Funding & Selection Criteria to assess overall eligibility and alignment: https://womenempowerment.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WE-Funding-Selection-Criteria.pdf. An applying organization should be a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit (or fiscally sponsored by one) if registered in the U.S., or under a related certification if registered in another country. Funded programs and services should align with WE mission, vision, and guiding principles, as well as criteria on the document linked above. WE funds must be used to support the economic empowerment of women and girls only (inclusive of all those identifying as such), specifically those who are living at or below the local poverty line. Grants are not awarded for fundraising events or campaigns, endowments, or for any religious or political activities.
Prospective new grant partners are eligible to apply for three of WE’s four grant types: I. Seed/Innovation Grants
II. Scale-up Grants
III. One-time/Micro Grants
The LOI is open until July 24; however, submissions will be evaluated on a rolling basis. The sooner you are able to submit your LOI, the sooner we can provide feedback and a potential invitation to the complete grant application. We encourage you to complete the LOI as soon as possible.
Grant applications will build on the LOI and will be due by August 8.
August 25 – September 5 – we expect to hold video meetings with 3-5 selected applicants for follow-up conversations to better understand your proposed grant program, organization, and operations.
Grant awards will be announced by September 28.
Funding will be distributed at the end of 2025 or early 2026 depending on grant size.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions or referrals for our open LOI to Sarah Adams, WE Executive Director, at SarahAdams@womenempowerment.org.
When Hanna Borysiuk arrived in San Diego from Ukraine, she felt the weight of uncertainty pressing down on her. The war with Russia forced her to leave her homeland, and she arrived in the United States unprepared for the challenges of starting over in a foreign country. Life was confusing as she tried to figure out how to support her family in this new environment.
Hanna’s eldest daughter, understanding the depth of her mother’s skill and passion for sewing, managed to bring Hanna’s beloved Singer sewing machine from Ukraine.
Sewing had always been a constant in Hanna’s life; she couldn’t live without it. She had always altered and repaired clothes for her husband, two daughters, and two granddaughters. This act of love sparked a glimmer of hope.
Hanna learned about the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in San Diego and enrolled in several programs, including the TVESL driving lessons cohort and the employment capabilities program. Through these programs, she was referred to those funded by WE grants within the IRC’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which became essential for her to start, develop, and grow her business. With the support of the IRC SBDC, Hanna completed the Business Women in Action (BWIA) training course. This cohort was designed for newly-arrived Ukrainian women aspiring to start businesses.
Hanna was considering turning her sewing skills into a viable business to support her livelihood in her new country. She describes her business advisor as a compassionate and encouraging counselor who helped her pivot her loving hobby of sewing into an entrepreneurial one. Her advisor has been with her business every step of the way to formalize her business with the City of San Diego, fulfilling her goal to alter and sew clothing for others besides her immediate family members.
Hanna advertised her services to her community and started getting orders for clothing alterations. However, she quickly realized that her single sewing machine wasn’t enough to meet the growing demand. Although Hanna could sell her services, she was not making enough to afford a new sewing machine to meet her customers’ needs. So, she returned to IRC to discuss her problem and strategize with her business advisor, who informed her that she could qualify for a women entrepreneur microgrant to purchase another machine. Hanna was overjoyed with this news. She asked her business advisor about the requirements and wasted no time, diligently working to submit all the required documents. Hanna received a $1,000 microgrant from IRC SBDC, which allowed her to purchase another sewing machine and the necessary supplies.
Hanna says, “When I received my new sewing machine, I was very happy! I could do almost everything that was brought to me for repair and make people happy because I was giving a new life to their favorite things. I am grateful to [IRC and my business advisor] for supporting me in achieving my dreams and giving me the opportunity to make a living in my new country.”
