Accelerating Equity and Impact

Funders for Maternal Mental Health is an action-focused network of philanthropic organizations with a unified goal of ensuring all mothers and pregnant and parenting people are supported and healthy.

FMMH is a place to connect, build knowledge and explore opportunities to expand and leverage resources for maternal mental health.

Funders for Maternal Mental Health is an action-focused network of philanthropic organizations with a unified goal of ensuring all mothers and pregnant and parenting people are supported and healthy.

FMMH is a place to connect, build knowledge and explore opportunities to expand and leverage resources for maternal mental health.

An Equitable Approach to Maternal Mental Health

Maternal mental health is often overlooked and vastly underfunded. Funders for Maternal Mental Health members leverage our resources and cross-systems perspectives to increase access to maternal mental health services. With a deep commitment to justice, we center our work on those most impacted by systemic inequities across multiple systems. Our strategic approach includes these aligned strategies:

Our Equity Commitment

FMMH is committed to racial equity, inclusion, and justice. Our vision is that all mothers, pregnant and parenting people have access to resources and systems that prevent trauma, promote their physical and mental health, and advance healing and wellbeing for themselves and their families.  

Our nation was built on the labor and lives of those who were enslaved, marginalized and exploited based on their gender, race and other identities. These systems of oppression result in stark maternal health, mental health and other disparities. We must act with urgency to stop the cycle of trauma and inequality to achieve better outcomes for Black, Indigenous and people of color, women, people with disabilities, and people who identify as gender non-conforming.

As funders working to accelerate equitable outcomes, the following commitments guide our network actions:

  • We will engage multiple perspectives, learn with and from one another and center the distinct voices and experiences of birthing people, whose expertise will lead to more equitable solutions.
  • Because systems of oppression are interlocking and reinforcing, we will engage with stakeholders across multiple sectors, systems and practices to leverage solutions. 
  • We will hold ourselves accountable to take actions that move the needle toward transformative and sustainable change. 
  • We will work together to advance more private sector and public sector funding to meaningfully address maternal mental health with an emphasis on those furthest from equity.

FMMH’s work is intergenerational and ever-evolving. We invite you to join us, test our commitment and hold us accountable to building a more just future. 

By Working with Each Other and Communities, We Can Change Lives

We invite foundations, grantmaking organizations and philanthropists to join us in increasing resources and expanding access to maternal mental health services for all pregnant and parenting people.

Investing in maternal mental health leads to better outcomes for many philanthropic priorities, including family economic security, workforce development, and educational attainment, and early childhood development. And most critically, our efforts, in partnership with women and communities of color, have the potential to change lives today and across generations.