WANDA
Women and Allies (WANDA)
Community-Based Financial Uplift of Low-Income Single Moms
Raising a family as a two-income household in San Mateo County can be financially challenging, but making ends meet is exponentially difficult for single mothers. Women and Allies (WANDA) is a financial literacy program that supports low-income single mothers in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. WANDA is grounded in three pillars, education, investment, and empowerment, to equip single mothers with the tools, knowledge, and resources they need to achieve financial independence and create better futures for their families.
Moms often start the program deep in credit card debt and zero dollars in the bank as they care for their children and hold down a job. The program’s 2 to 1 financial match is a life-altering opportunity for participants to save $2K of their own dollars over three years and receive a $4K match totaling $6K to invest in an asset. Since WANDA’s founding in 2007, they have supported over 350 women in investing over $1.7 million in value-building assets like the purchase of homes, funding retirement accounts, and investing in education for themselves and their families.
Match funds are raised through individual and organization donations to cover the $140K needed to fund annual cohorts. WANDA founders Susan Kokores and her friends Dianne Giancarlo and Luba Kipnis brought together individual donors, many of whom were single women, to create a friends fund to launch the program in 2007.
In 2024, the Community Foundation of San Carlos made a grant of $5,000 to support WANDA’s match funding initiative and the facilitation of curriculum taught by program alumnae. Nine San Carlos moms have gone through the program, with three of them currently enrolled and learning how to create a foundation for long-term economic mobility.
Each year, thirty-five women are selected to participate in a cohort. The small group size enables intimate interaction with peers and builds lasting relationships with an 80% retention rate. “The secret sauce is the empowerment of the cohort model,” says WANDA President and CEO Danika Dellor. “Women join for the money, and they stay for the class. They’re successful because of the confidence they build from being with like-minded women.”
Many of the women who join the program are experiencing crises like unstable housing and family care, and low-paying jobs. WANDA classes help women learn to think outside of emergency mode and build money-saving habits. Moms learn goal-setting and budgeting from alumnae-taught classes. They exceed their own expectations by increasing their salary, watching their credit scores go up, and investing in entrepreneurial businesses.
“When you are on the treadmill of just surviving, it’s really difficult to think about your big goals,” says Dellor. “We are trying to be a partner for single moms and help them recognize they have the capacity to set and meet their goals.”
The mom’s amazing stats prove how the program significantly impacts the participants and their families. The median income for a single-mother household before WANDA is around $36,000 and rises to $42,670 after working through the WANDA curriculum. During their first year, 65% of cohort participants increased their salaries, with an average gain of over $6,600, and 33% increased their salary by $10,000 or more.
Moms experience powerful mindset shifts as they become advocates for themselves. WANDA Graduate Elisha St. Laurent was a teenage single mother who was encouraged by a high school teacher to continue her education. Before her time in WANDA, St. Laurent didn’t understand how to manage money. This changed for her as she learned financial literacy in WANDA classes and began to identify wealth opportunities like earning her master's degree and starting a savings fund for her son.
Generational uplift is evidenced by WANDA moms teaching their kids responsible saving and spending habits like contributing to college savings accounts. WANDA Graduate Esmeralda Rubi Garcia went from having no savings going into WANDA to having over $20,000 in her savings account afterward. WANDA influences how Garcia educates her children about money. She gives them a weekly allowance and encourages them to save their money.
WANDA’s goal-setting class is a favorite with moms because of its tangible outcomes. Moms get to dream and visualize what their future might look like, something they weren’t able to do in crisis mode. After one year in the program, women experience significant changes. Moms apply for higher-level jobs and ask for promotions, proactive moves they never would have acted on pre-WANDA. As a result, women obtain great jobs and return to school. Moms support each other emotionally and with practical know-how as they take new and challenging steps to improve their lives.
There are several ways the community can get involved in supporting single moms through WANDA. Financial donations will help match funds so that more moms can invest in long-term assets for their families and beyond. The program also seeks experts to share their skills in specializations like financial investments, home buying, and job transitions. WANDA is looking for new board members to add their knowledge and support for local single moms.
Granted $5,000 in 2024 to support operations
Learn more at https://womenandallies.org/