The “why” behind Zorya Foundation.
The Zorya Foundation was created to give back to women in the healthcare community. Despite making up nearly 80% of workers in the healthcare industry, women continue to be underrepresented in positions of leadership.
Women face numerous challenges throughout their professional journeys. Discrimination, harassments, poor maternal care, unpaid maternity leave, high costs of childcare, caring for aging parents. These are all issues that the Zorya Foundation hopes to address. We exist to fill the gaps, creating and supporting opportunities for women to work and thrive in the healthcare industry.
What’s in a name?
Our foundation was named after Zorya, goddess of the dawn. What does dawn have to do with helping women in healthcare?
When Zorya Foundation’s founder was raising her young children and working in a role that required her to commute across the country, she’d lay awake at 3am like so many working mothers, listing all of the problems she’d need to manage in her head. But she knew that no matter how big the problem was, or how hopeless things seemed, that she could face it when the sun came up, at dawn.
We want Zorya Foundation to be the light at dawn for women in healthcare—something that keeps them going, despite adversity.
How we help.
Zorya Foundation is the parent non-profit of several funds dedicated to supporting women in healthcare. We practice trust philanthropy. Our funds are driven by direct action.
Our flagship fund, the Mothers in Medicine Fund, provides flat cash grants to clinician mothers to help them pay for childcare.
Our Zorya Support Fund offers cash grants to any woman working in the broad healthcare industry to help her thrive.
Our Zorya Opportunities Fund teams with other non-profits, associations and educational institutions to foster the next generation of women leaders in our industry.