About Us — Who We Are…Where We've Been…

NCNW is a not-for-profit organization incorporated under article 501 (c)(iii) of the United States Internal Revenue Code.

Since its founding by Mary McLeod Bethune in 1935 as community-based national organization of national organizations, NCNW has been at the forefront of providing innovative services to African American women and their families.

NCNW has led the struggle against racism, sexism, and poverty. We have prepared women to be catalysts for change in their neighborhoods and the world.

The challenge has been to maximize the collective strength of women to meet critical needs and help people to help themselves. In the Bethune tradition, the NCNW motto is:

“Leave no one behind: Legacy, Vision & Leadership.”

NCNW has helped to spearhead efforts such as:

• Abolition of child labor:
• Upgrading household employment;
• Opening doors to opportunities in employment in all phases of community life; and
• Preparing women for business opportunities.

In the 1960s:

NCNW took a leadership role in the movement for human and civil rights. Through “Wednesdays in Mississippi,” we build bridges of support and provided the critically needed “womanpower” to get things done. NCNW organized a strong base of community women to give poor, black, rural and urban women economic alternatives – using a self-help model to establish “pig” banks to feed the hungry, silk-screening factories to employ the unemployed, housing for lower income families, and day care centers for working families.

In the 1970s:

NCNW mobilized its constituency to establish the Bethune Memorial in Washington’s Lincoln Park – the first monument to an African American or to a woman of any race on public land in the Nation’s Capital. NCNW initiated the International Division – working with women’s organizations in Southern Africa.

In the 1980s:

NCNW became the nation’s leading advocate for the value traditions of the black family by building the National Black Family Reunion Celebration into a mega event in 8 cities that has attracted over 12 million people.

In the 1990s:

NCNW stepped forward to take leadership in eldercare, women’s health, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and population and sustainable development issues.

Through its 38 affiliated national member organizations and 252 community-based sections, NCNW has an outreach to over four million women in 42 states. In addition to 7 domestic field offices, NCNW maintains 3 international field offices in Dakar, Senegal; Harare, Zimbabwe; and Cairo, Egypt.

…AND THE LEGACY CONTINUES…