Fundraising Archives

Announcing Margaret Atwood as Keynote Speaker of “Unite and Rise”

Margaret Atwood, a leader in modern feminism, will be the keynote speaker for the annual celebration for the Fund for Women & Girls.

Margaret Atwood will speak on feminism and power at "Unite & Rise: A Virtual Celebration for the Fund for Women and Girls". (Image credit: Hamlet Hub) — Margaret Atwood will speak on feminism and power at “Unite & Rise: A Virtual Celebration for the Fund for Women and Girls”. (Image credit: Hamlet Hub)

Award-winning author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments, Margaret Atwood, will be the keynote speaker for the Fairfield County’s Community Foundation’s (FCCF) annual celebration for its Fund for Women & Girls in April. “Unite & Rise: A Virtual Celebration for the Fund for Women & Girls,” will begin at 5:30 p.m. on April 16^th. Individual tickets and sponsorship packages are available for purchase here.

Become an Invest for Better Circle Leader: Apply by February 10th!

If you’ve wanted to form an impact circle but aren’t sure how to get started, Invest for Better has the program for you. Applications are now open for the Spring 2021 Cohort of Invest for Better’s Circle Leader program. Kicking off on February 11th, this free training program offers the resources and know-how for women to form, lead, and grow their own impact investing circles.

The Spring 2021 cohort of Invest for Better’s Circle Leader training program begins on February 11th, 2021. (Image Credit: Invest for Better)

Invest for Better is a national initiative aimed at helping women demystify impact investing, take control of their capital and mobilize their money for good. It is non-profit and non-transactional, designed to address the “aspiration gap” between women’s interest and their action by overcoming obstacles to participation, and building trusted peer communities.

(Liveblog) Building Multicultural Leadership with Ready to Lead

On Thursday, January 28th, the Girls Leadership team and representatives from Open Access, TPG, Morgan Stanley, the National Hockey League, and TIME’S UP gathered to discuss the changing face of the American workforce. Based off of the organization’s pivotal Ready to Lead report, the second of Girls Leadership’s three roundtable discussions focused on the implications of the report’s findings on the workforce of the future.

The report details leadership supports and barriers for Black and Latinx girls and exposes the factors that make it difficult for these girls to rise into leadership positions. External challenges like the tendency for school systems and workforce upper management to be dominated by white employers, leaders, and authority figures, represent a major barrier to Black and Latinx girls carrying their own torches of leadership into the future.

WMM Celebrates Success, Looks to the Future with 2020 Impact Report

On December 17, international funding powerhouse Women Moving Millions released their annual impact report, showcasing the organization’s work toward a gender-equal world over the past year. The report also includes WMM’s multi-pronged approach to the future, including the goal to double their financial impact by 2025.

On December 17, Women Moving Millions released its 2020 Impact Report. (Image Credit: WMM)

Since its founding in 2007, Women Moving Millions has committed nearly $800 million to organizations supporting women and girls. The organization thrives as a collaborative group of 340+ high-net worth women around the world, all pledged to donate at least $1 million during their lifetimes.

Dance Equity: Extra Tough Times for Women Dancers in COVID

Northfield, IL | November 19, 2020 Dance Data Project® (DDP) today announces the social media campaign, Connecting the Dots – #YesThisIsAnArtsStory, designed to draw attention to the catastrophic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on women in dance and the performing arts in general. The campaign will begin on Monday, Nov. 23 and run for three weeks, ending on Friday, Dec. 11.

*Dancers Terez Dean Orr and Ben Warner perform Poetry of Being by Nicole Haskins. (Photo by Keith Sutter, courtesy of Smuin Contemporary Ballet)*

“While NPR, and business publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Forbes have documented the asymmetric impact of the pandemic on women economically, we haven’t seen similar work by arts reporters, looking at the industry as a whole,” said DDP President and Founder Liza Yntema. “Our campaign is designed to ‘connect the dots’ between layoffs and furloughs at the lower tier of performing arts not for profits where women typically work, the already existing gender pay gap, and the crushing pressure women feel due to child and elder care duties resulting in what is being termed the ‘Shecession’.”

Black Women’s Leadership Boosted by $1 Million Gift to Howard

WASHINGTON (November 12, 2020) – Today, Howard University President Wayne A. I. Frederick announced a $1 million gift from Heather and Jim Murren to launch the Center for Women, Gender and Global Leadership at Howard University. The gift kicks off a multi-million fundraising effort for what will be an interdisciplinary, student-centered, faculty-led institute that works with professional programs in health, business, communications and law, as well as majors in the arts and sciences.

Jim and Heather Murren made a $1 million gift to Howard to create the Center for Women, Gender and Global Leadership (Image credit: Howard University)

“We are extremely grateful to Trustee Jim Murren and Mrs. Heather Hay Murren for this generous $1 million gift to create the Center for Women, Gender and Global Leadership at Howard University. Our students’ college experiences will be significantly enriched through this program, which will empower Black women to continue to take their rightful place as leaders in every facet of our society and the global community,” says President Frederick.

How 2020 Women Donors Funded Biden-Harris for Election Victory

2020 women donors may go down in history as having been the first class of women donors to drive massive political change in one election. According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Joe Biden’s campaign for President saw a massive surge in funding, particularly from women, when he chose Kamala Harris as his running mate in August.

(Image Credit: Gayatri Malhotra, Unsplash)

According to a report in CNN, the Biden-Harris ticket received over $33.4 million in itemized contributions from women in August, more than doubling the total amount of contributions from female donors the previous month of $13.7 million. In comparison, Trump’s campaign raised only $8.7 million from women in August.

With Biden-Harris Leading, What Now for Funding Women and Girls?

I don’t know about you, but to me it feels like a great weight has been lifted off of us as a nation, and as a world even. Many, many people in the world are rejoicing at the news of the upcoming Biden-Harris presidency, and all the possibility this new leadership holds. For those of us focused on funding women and girls, this change in leadership will likely be extremely valuable to our work, and could be instrumental in getting us closer to equality much faster.

Across the U.S., people of all ages are celebrating the new Vice President Kamala Harris’s leadership breakthrough for women and girls of color. (Image: Design Bundles)

What can women donors do to make sure that gender equality movements are optimized for acceleration at this moment in history? Here are three basic strategies:

Anybody Got a Spare $6.3 Billion to Fund Women and Girls?

I was doing some thinking on the funding-of-women quandary. What the Women’s Philanthropy Institute helpfully taught us was that as of 2016, funding specifically for women and girls in the U.S. is at 6.3 billion a year, comprising 1.6% of total philanthropy funding.

That’s not enough, as we explain here.

funding women — Photo by Monica Melton on Unsplash

It’s unclear whether this giving has increased under Trump’s tenure. It’s also unclear whether this type of giving will face new barriers in the COVID economy. Therefore, one has to wonder what we should be doing to try to bridge the gap between the conversation about funding women and girls, and the actual doing of it.

She Matters: NYU Rewards Female Founders with New Fellowship

New fellowship further strengthens the Institute’s reputation as a launchpad for female founders, providing training, mentorship, and up to $1.5 million in grants

To further its already strong commitment to supporting gender equality among budding entrepreneurs, the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute today announced a new Female Founders Fellowship. Open to all NYU student entrepreneurs, the Fellowship provides training, mentorship, networking opportunities, and grants of up to $50,000 each.

The Female Founders Fellowship was officially announced by Stacie Bloom, NYU’s Vice Provost for Research, at the NYU Entrepreneurs Festival, an annual event showcasing entrepreneurship on campus.

Category: Fundraising