The Global Fund for Women (GFW) was founded in Palo Alto in 1987 by Anne Firth Murray, Frances Kissling and Laura Lederer. They identified a lack of resources for women's human rights causes worldwide as a key barrier to improvement in the status of women. They decided to establish a new foundation to raise money for women's human rights organizations around the world. GFW’s mission is to advance women’s human rights by providing flexible financial support to groups that work to gain freedom from poverty, violence and discrimination.

The Global Fund for Women recognizes that faith-based women’s rights organizations often encounter particular challenges in securing financial support because they tend to be seen as “too religious” by progressive secular funders and “too progressive” by funding sources within their religion. Yet such work remains at the heart of efforts to create justice and compassion within many religions and positive social change in the world.