How would you turn a moment into a movement? That’s the question that organizations that fund women running for office have been asking themselves over the last year. It’s a hard question to answer in any field. Now imagine trying to answer it while being deluged by an unprecedented number of women ready to run for office.
Progressive women have pledged to bring #powertothepolls, but not enough funders are putting resources toward organizations doing the groundwork for a more representative democracy.
There are nine national organizations dedicated to training and supporting women running for office. These are long-established organizations like Ignite and Emerge America. In addition, there are newer organizations dedicated to supporting women of color running for office such as Latinas Represent and Higher Heights. Regardless of when they were started or where they focus geographically or demographically, none of these organizations have experienced a moment like this – because, of course, the country has never experienced a moment like this.
Forbes has a new article by Marianne Schnall entitled The Rising Activism in Women’s Philanthropy, which cites many of the organizations we have covered in depth at Philanthropy Women.
What a great way to start the day, with my daily news search for the term “philanthropy women” turning up an article on Forbes that discusses both our fiscal sponsor, Women’s Funding Network, and one of our spotlight organizations, Women Donors Network. The article also talks in detail about other work we’ve covered, including Emergent Fund’s rapid response funding for the Resistance, and the role that Donna Hall and WDN have played in bringing together progressive funders this past year.
I won’t be a spoiler for you — you can read Marianne Schnall’s fine article here. But it’s interesting to note that we reported on many of the funders and organizations in depth over the past year, and now here they are all rounded up in another article published on a much larger mainstream publication, and by such a reputable writer. Schnall has a resume that is bursting at the seams with knowledge and experience in the field of feminism, including being the founder and publisher of Feminist.com since 1996, and having two feminist book titles to her credit.
While I try to stay reality-based about the value of Philanthropy Women as a micropublisher, I can’t help but wonder if other feminist writers, when researching their articles, are googling terms like “philanthropy women” and “feminist philanthropy” and are turning up some of our content in the process. In any case, I am glad to see the enhanced attention to the important work being done by WDN, WFN, Groundswell, Emergent Fund, and all of the other women’s philanthropy leaders discussed in Schnall’s article.
A new report from Oxfam outlines clear steps that governments and the private sector can take to create an economy that works for ordinary people.
A new report from Oxfam takes a hard look at our growing inequality problems, and outlines steps that governments and businesses can take to work toward a more equitable and healthy economy.
Endorsed by several experts in development and labor, the report also has a section devoted to addressing the overlap between “economic and gender inequality” that looks at how the gender wealth gap plays out in women having less land ownership and other assets, and observes that “the neoliberal economic model has made this worse – reductions in public services, cuts to taxes for the richest, and a race to the bottom on wages and labour rights have all hurt women more than men.”
And what are some of the solutions? That was the most interesting part of this report, so am sharing some of my favorites here:
Oxfam calls for governments to set targets for income distribution, and gives specific suggestions: “The collective income of the top 10% to be no more than the income of the bottom 40%.”
The report calls for ending extreme wealth. “To end extreme poverty, we must also end extreme wealth. Today’s gilded age is undermining our future. Governments should use regulation and taxation to radically reduce levels of extreme wealth, as well as limit the influence of wealthy individuals and groups over policy making.”
Use anti-capitalist business models that “incentivize business models that prioritize fairer returns, including cooperatives and employee participation in company governance and supply chains.”
There are lots of other recommendations I liked, such as pay ratios for keeping down CEO pay, but this was one also deserves particular attention:
Use tax to reduce extreme wealth. Prioritize taxes that are disproportionately paid by the very rich, such as wealth, property, inheritance and capital gains taxes. Increase tax rates and collection on high incomes. Introduce a global wealth tax on billionaires, to help finance the SDGs.
What a brilliant idea: financing the SDG’s, particularly SDG 5 for gender equality, with tax money that would end extreme wealth.
It all feels rather unobtainable now, while we are facing one of the most conservative and un-feminist governments ever in America. But it is helpful to read and consider recommendations from reports like this one. Leadership from Oxfam and others advocating for a fairer economy can provide critical guidance on how to make the economy work better for everyone.
With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a new report from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute outlines key traits of high- net-worth women donors.
A new report out from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) helps to distill some key traits that progressive women donors share. The report, entitled “Giving By and For Women,” is a first-of-its-kind study involving in-depth interviews with women donors who are focused on giving to women and girls.
“Acquisition of wealth gives these donors hyperagency,” says the report’s conclusions, and this hyperagency is worth studying for the way it influences social change. The common traits that these donors exhibit are worth recognizing, since they form a particular pattern of life experiences and values that contribute to the focus of their giving. The report also importantly notes that “these interviews are not generalizable to a larger population of donors.”
LPAC will hold February 15th fundraiser with special guests Maura Healy and Kate Clinton.
Looks like there is some fun to be had in Boston on February 15th, as the Lesbian Political Action Committee (LPAC) holds its first fundraiser of 2018. The event will feature political humorist Kate Clinton, as well as Attorney General Maura Healy.
“This is a critical year for LGBTQ people, women, people of color and all progressives, and we hope the Boston community joins us to learn how we can support progressive candidates and advance positive policy outcomes,” said Diane Felicio, a Boston-based member of LPAC’s National Board, in a press release announcing the fundraiser.
Given the political climate since Trump’s election for LGBTQ folks, it’s no surprise that organizers and fundraisers are getting out front to support pro-LGBTQ, pro-women’s equality candidates.
The event has a long list of hosts, and comes on the heels of LPAC announcing its first candidate endorsements for 2018. LPAC endorsed Dana Nessel in Michigan, Angie Craig in Minnesota, Kate Brown for Governor of Oregon, and Joy Silver for California State Senate. LPAC will be making further endorsements as the political season unfolds.
Event hosts include: Naomi Aberly, Susan Bernstein, Steven Cadwell & Joe Levine, Elyse Cherry, Julian Cyr, Diane Felicio, David Goldman, Julie Goodridge, Catherine Guthrie & Mary Gray, Caitlin Healey, Tom Huth, Lynn Kappelman & Kate Perrelli, Ruth Lewis, Neal Minahan, Bette Warner & Patty Larkin, Shari Weiner, Julie Smith & Polly Franchot, and Urvashi Vaid & Kate Clinton.
The event will be held on Thursday, February 15th from 5:30-7:30 pm in Boston’s South End. If you would like to attend you must RSVP prior, by emailing cathy@targetcue.com for media credentialing or teamlpac.com/boston-party to donate.
2017 was a tremendous year to be writing about gender equality philanthropy. In the wake of Trump’s election in 2016, women in progressive circles rallied their resources for fighting back against the coming regression. Our top ten posts help to recall the many ways that women joined the resistance and continued the fight. At #6, for example, Emily Nielsen Jones delves into the experience of coming together for the Women’s March last January. Meanwhile, at #2, one of the most unusual giving circles in the country celebrates its ability to reach women on the other side of the globe. At #5, we hear from Kimberle Crenshaw, law scholar and fierce advocate for philanthropy to reach out more to women and girls of color.
Funny Girls, a new program being piloted by the Harnisch Foundation around New York City and in Richmond, Virginia, engages girls in improv to build leadership skills. (Photo credit: Stephanie Buongiorno.)
Learning how to laugh as much as possible can be a key component to sane living, particularly in today’s regressive political and social scene. The Ms. Foundation for Women recently hosted its 22nd Annual comedy night, calling it “Laughter is the Best Resistance,” where Gloria Steinem did stand-up. Meanwhile, women like Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are moving into the executive producer role for hit comedies like Grace and Frankie.
With all this emphasis on comedy, you might think that this is what the Harnisch Foundation‘s new program, Funny Girls, is all about. But there’s more to it, actually. Much more.
Jenny Raymond, Executive Director of the Harnisch Foundation, agreed that it’s a ripe time for women in comedy in a recent conference call with Philanthropy Women. “But Funny Girls isn’t teaching girls to be funny. It’s boosting and bolstering girls’ leadership skills. That being said, Funny Girls is experiencing the power of humor through improv, and paying attention to it.”
Funny Girls teaches leaderships skills through improv comedy to girls in grades 3 to 8. The curriculum focuses on teaching five key leadership skills —collaboration, agility, resiliency, empathy and self-awareness — as outlined by this video. Funny Girls is teaching the value of listening, persisting in difficulty, and collaborating, which will pay off in both healthier living and more women’s leadership over time.
“It’s about girls realizing the power of their own presence,” said Jenny Raymond, Executive Director of the Harnisch Foundation. (Photo credit: Stephanie Buongiorno.)
It’s currently being implemented through five partnerships, four in New York City and one in Richmond, Virginia, and hopes to deepen those relationships and add new ones in other geographic areas. The Foundation is staying in close touch with all its partners so they can learn as much as possible about things like cultural variance and program effectiveness.
“I went on a site visit in a primarily South Asian community in Queens, New York and it was so fascinating to see, culturally, how the girls responded to the curriculum in similar but different ways than I saw in the South Bronx the week before,” said Raymond. Offering the curriculum to others remains an important objective for the foundation, which aims to make Funny Girls as widely available as possible.
As part of the program, the Harnisch Foundation is training artists from within organizations and the community to implement the Funny Girls curriculum. One of the Funny Girls partners, DreamYard, is implementing the program in the Bronx. “Several of the organizations we are working with not only offer Funny Girls, but are also focused on social justice issues, and advancing the work that gets at the root of inequality that these girls are facing,” said Jocelyn Ban, Communications Specialist for theHF. “For example, DreamYard is investing in girls not only to be leaders, but also to be a part of the solution to the problems they face in their communities through the arts.”
2018 will mark the 20th anniversary for the Harnisch Foundation, and adding Funny Girls to its portfolio has been a big shift for the organization, which has not traditionally done programmatic work. But it connects the foundation importantly to its own roots — investing early and building out the pipeline for women leaders at every level of society. “This builds on the foundation’s history of investing in the leadership of women. Now we are putting a stake in the ground for supporting girls and investing in their leadership journeys, too,” said Ban.
Editor’s Note: Ruth Ann Harnisch, Co-Founder of the Harnisch Foundation, is a lead sponsor for Philanthropy Women.
Members of the NEID Women’s Giving Circle, from left to right, front row: Diana Rowan Rockefeller, Rebecca Obounou, Odette Ponce, Emily Nielsen Jones, Jackie Jenkins Scott, Amy Brakeman. Back Row: Constance Kane, Liz Sheehan, Mary Kay Miller, Laura DeDominicis, Ina Breuer, Clare Reilly, Nika Elugardo, Ellen Remmer, Kathy LeMay.
We know from the research coming out of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute that giving circles are growing, and women’s giving circles in particular are on the rise. But what does a giving circle really look like on the ground? How do they make decisions that are well-informed and that carry out the group’s intentions?
To find out more, I recently attended the New England International Donors (NEID) Global Changemaker’s Gala in Boston, an event that brought together a wide range of givers and giver groupies to celebrate the NEID Giving Circle’s donations to social change. The event featured a keynote conversation between NEID member David Campbell and Petra Nemcova, supermodel and philanthropists specializing in disaster relief rebuilding and education (she has funded the creation of 165 schools), who spoke to the group about the way in which disaster relief tends to focus on first response. Nemcova takes a more holistic (and, I would argue, feminist) approach to disaster relief — committing to long-term support to help countries affected by natural disasters.
Petra Nemcova, supermodel and philanthropist, with grant recipient for Dandelion Africa, Wendo Aszed.
At the gala, Nemcova and Campbell had an exciting announcement of their own to make — the merging of two nonprofits that they lead, Happy Hearts Fund and All Hands Volunteers, to create a new organization called All Hands and Hearts. It seems here at Philanthropy Women, we are constantly discovering more women leaders in the field who can articulate problems in a new and compelling way. Nemcova is a strong voice worth following in women’s philanthropy, and I look forward to watching her new collaborative venture, All Hands and Hearts, unfold.
Karen Keating Ansara, Founder of NEID, who also spoke at the gala, pointed out that while giving circles are a growing trend, only a small number of giving circles donate internationally. In fact, according the WPI’s recent research on giving circles in America, only 7% of giving circles have an international focus to their giving.
When I attended the first meeting of the NEID Giving circle in January of 2017, the sense I got from the group was that their passion for international giving was aligning, in the wake of the Trump presidency, with an awareness that more needed to be done to lift up women and address gender equality. The group expressed both a desire for more collaboration in philanthropy on the ground (the giving circle model) as well as a desire to stretch their reach internationally.
With that first meeting in late January 2017, NEID’s giving circle got right to work — the work of discussing how gender roles may have influenced their own journeys in philanthropy. Eleven months later, the circle had raised $70,000, and he night of the Global Changemakers Gala at the Park Plaza Hotel, NEID received another $15,000 gift to the giving circle. Inspiring $15,000 gifts on the spot after hearing about NEID’s Giving Circle — that is some powerful collective grantmaking.
What made $70,000 in global grantmaking for women and girls possible in 11 months? Ina Breuer, NEID Executive Director, credits NEID Board member and donor activist Emily Nielsen Jones, who is also the Founder and President of Imago Dei Fund. “Emily has such a wonderful way of asking questions about gender — she makes it both personal and manageable,” said Breuer. “It gets people thinking about their own biases and experiences, and how things might be different.”
Emily Nielsen Jones has been pioneering her own brand of gender lens grantmaking for almost ten years through the foundation she and her husband, Ross Jones, created in 2008, Imago Dei Fund. With the NEID Giving Circle, Emily and her husband strengthened their networks on the ground in Boston, engaging both new and experienced donors for the purpose of empowering women and girls.
“It’s not easy to collaborate, to really do it well,” said Jones. “We had NEID to provide the support to incubate a giving circle. Not everyone can do that.” Jones and her colleagues at NEID used that support well by developing a new model for how women can collectively engage and deploy funds particularly aimed at gender equality.
“The two of us were very aware from the beginning that what we needed to do in supporting the circle is ‘make decisions easy,'” said Breuer. “We wanted to facilitate the conversation in a way that felt natural, and we also wanted to enhance people’s ownership of the process so they could take action.”
“I was trying to be organized with all the data I collected,” said Odette Ponce, who handled much of the administrative load for the giving circle’s process. “I tried to back up every decision with data as much as possible.”
This kind of support had a strong impact on the giving circle participants, particularly those new to philanthropy. “I certainly do not think the same way I did just six months ago about international philanthropy,” said Rebecca Obounou, one of the nineteen members of the NEID Giving Circle. For Obounou and many other members of the group, the giving circle experience was transformative for them personally.
One thing NEID Giving Circle members did early on was make an effort to reach out and diversify the group. “After the first meeting, we recognized that we had very little diversity in the circle, and so everyone made an effort to invite different voices in,” said Breuer. “And we were successful in some ways. We didn’t have diversity in terms of males, but we did bring in more diversity in terms of race and culture.”
Ina Breuer, who comes to NEID after 17 years as Executive Director of Beyond Conflict, had a revelation about the way in which the giving circle was a “safe space” where newcomers could consider carefully how to get involved in international philanthropy. “Once we had that 19 group gathered, I realized we were bringing in people who were new to philanthropy, and this was a safe space for them to go through the process of learning what it feels like to be an international donor. What sort of questions do you ask a grantee when you’re thinking about who you might want to give some money to?”
“I’m always thinking in the back of my mind, ‘How can we expand the table around giving for the advancement of women and girls,” said Jones. She acknowledged that it was extra helpful to have the administrative support of NEID, so that she and other members could focus on bringing together different voices in the circle. “It made it more interesting that people were all over the map in their learning,” added Jones.
Keynote Speaker Petra Nemcova with 2017 Giving Circle Honorees. From Left to Right: Louise Ruhr (CREATE!), Petra Nemcova (All Hands & Hearts), Gretchen Steidle (Global Grassroots), Wendo Aszed (Dandelion Africa), Lauren LeBlanc (Komera).
“We made the process anonymous so that everyone could nominate the organizations they were passionate about even if they had some connection to them,” said Ponce, a key aspect of the giving circle’s process. At the same time, NEID staff sent information and articles about women’s giving to the giving circle members.
“We tried to give people a sense of what is out there,” said Ponce, so she sent information and articles, including a report from Women Moving Millions that described many women-led organizations working internationally. “We also brought in a few organizations to have meetings with us. So the donors got exposed to the people themselves doing this work.”
Jones described how the giving circle shifted into a different mode when it came time to land the plane and decide where to give the grants. “We just got started without knowing 100% how we would shift from getting to know one another and learning about the global gender terrain to the actual proposal vetting process. In sort of an organic way, we came up with a process that felt right and ‘narrowed the funnel’ of so many incredible organizations to a shortlist we felt good about making grants to.”
“We had everyone vote beforehand, and then were presented the vote as people were coming into the room. And then we discussed, ‘Did we get this right?’ in terms of the vote,” said Breuer.
“The way the voting system worked was like a ranking system, from 1 to 5, with 5 meaning the organization fully matched the Giving Circle’s selected criteria. That allowed me to easily add up points, and created a point system for winners,” said Odette Ponce. “We then let the giving circle make the decision and used the point system to back up that decision, and it worked out really well.”
People seemed to get more engaged in the process, and excited about the process, as the NEID Giving Circle moved toward decision time, and all that excitement appeared to bring most members to feeling very good about their giving — confident that the vote represented their intentions quite well.
And the Awardees are: (Drumroll, please!)
Dandelion Africa: Based in the Rift Valley of Kenya, Dandelion Africa’s mission is to improve the livelihoods of women and youth in marginalized areas. Wendo Aszed represented Dandelion Africa at the Gala, and talked about her own experiences of growing up as a woman in her community, where female genital cutting is a time-honored ritual, and where many women lack access to basic information about birth control. NEID awarded Dandelion Africa $30,000 to support the organization’s work educating both boys and girls on gender issues, including female genital cutting, in order to improve health and education outcomes for girls.
CREATE!: This organization works in rural Senegal to empower women and girls. CREATE! partners with women’s cooperatives to foster economic growth and teach sustainable agriculture. The program improves food security and access to clean water using renewable solar energy. NEID Giving Circle awarded $20,000 to CREATE! to support women and girls in rural Senegal participating in training in sustainable market gardening.
Global Grassroots: This organization works in Rwanda and Uganda, with a mission to “develop women and girls as leaders of conscious social change in their communities.” Global Grassroots runs a social venture incubator for underserved women, helping women design and construct their own water enterprises. NEID Giving Circle awarded $10,000 to Global Grassroots to support leadership training to build non-profit water ventures run by women.
Komera: The mission of Komera is to work with young women in Rwanda. Komera invests in adolescent girls and their families. Komera provides educational scholarships, community mentoring, and sports to adolescent girls. NEID Giving Circle awarded $10,000 to Komera to support leadership and business training for young women transitioning into adulthood.
And what does the future hold for NEID’s Giving Circles? It appears the success of the first circle has spawned a replica. This coming year there will be two circles — one focused again on women and girls, and a new one which will be focused on climate change.
The circles are also considering exciting possibilities for expanding outside of Boston. “We want to make the circles available to people outside of the Boston area,” said Breuer. “What we’re proposing to do, if people in another area want to participate — you have to have a minimum of 5 people in each location. Those groups will meet separately on the same days as we meet in Boston, and then we will create online sessions when all the different nodes come together to assess different potential grantees.”
Sounds like another innovation to the NEID giving circle model is in the works. With its global focus, but local community-building impact, NEID”s giving circle model adds an important page to the growing literature on giving circles in America. Stay tuned to NEID’s next moves by visiting their website. And if you are interested in joining, please reach out to Odette Ponce.
Editor’s Note: Emily Nielsen Jones is a Lead Sponsor of Philanthropy Women.
The Emergent Fund, a collaboration of Women Donors Network, Solidaire, Threshold Fund, and Democracy Alliance, has published a report detailing their strategy in deploying funds rapidly to address human rights and social justice.
“The Emergent Fund started as a plane built in mid-air. We moved faster than comfort allowed in developing a funding response to the new threats posed by the 2016 election because the scale of the crisis that loomed was so large, multidimensional, and immediate. Resources were urgently needed in many places and without much time for deliberation.”
So begins Visionary Resistance, a new report reviewing how several donor networks came together to invest $ 1 million rapidly for efforts to protect those most marginalized and targeted by a Trump presidency. Aptly named the Emergent Fund, this new resource is funded through a partnership between the Women Donors Network, Solidaire, Threshold Foundation, and the Democracy Alliance.
I am pleased to announce that the Women’s Funding Network has agreed to serve as Philanthropy Women’s fiscal sponsor for our not-for-profit publishing work. This partnership will help us to raise funds to make Philanthropy Women a more potent force for educating the community about how women in philanthropy are driving social change.
The Women’s Funding Network (WFN) grew out of a 1984 joint meeting of the National Black United Fund and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, where participants discussed creating an organization exclusively for women’s funds. By 2000, WFN had grown into a network of 94 member funds and foundations with over $200 million in assets, deploying $30 million a year in grants. In 2003, WFN received a $5 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which enabled significant growth. Today, WFN continues to expand, with over 100 women’s funds and foundations spanning 30 countries, and continues to collaborate with other philanthropic powerhouses like Kellogg, the Gates Foundation, and the Clinton Foundation, to address gender equality globally.
I am pleased to announce that the Women’s Funding Network has agreed to serve as Philanthropy Women’s fiscal sponsor for our not-for-profit publishing work. This partnership will help us to raise funds to make Philanthropy Women a more potent force for educating the community about how women in philanthropy are driving social change.
