We believe individuals possess personal assets and abilities which, when developed and challenged, can help them improve the quality of their and others' lives. Individuals and organizations, when empowered and organized to do so, can take steps to advance direct service into broader-reaching social/systems change.

We believe in empowering women and children to live successful and self-determined lives. Increased access to and leadership in personal, educational, economic, and community development is a critical factor of increasing self-sufficiency. A variety of factors (including but not limited to culture, gender, age, economic status) influence the definition of "self-sufficiency".

We believe that learning can change lives. Early-age education plants important seeds for success, and life-long learning for youth and adults provides access to important personal, educational, economic, and community resources and opportunities.

We believe that significant and lasting social change is possible when a diverse base of individuals within a community work together to address community issues.

We believe in protecting/preserving the environment and to promoting individual/community involvement in protecting the environment. Currently, however, we are not accepting applications related to environmental issues. WGBCF has recently made significant contributions to environmental causes and, therefore, wishes to prioritize giving to the areas of women and children only. However, proposals may be considered if they can show a clear and legitimate link between addressing critical needs for women and/or children through involvement with the environment (i.e. wilderness/leadership summer camps for youth-at-risk).