Category: Women’s Funds

Refresh and Pour Into One Another: Black Women Giving in Omaha

Grant recipients for the IBBGives first round of grants in 2018. (Photo credit: IBBGives)

Editor’s Note: This post was written by the I Be Black Girl Collective, and is shared on Philanthropy Women during Black Philanthropy Month in order to highlight local efforts across the country to grow Black Philanthropy.

“We know that the people most affected by an issue are not the people making the decisions around solutions,” said Ashlei Spivey, co-founder of I Be Black Girl, a collective of Black women in Omaha, Nebraska. “IBBGives is a space that allows everyday Black women, no matter their association, to invest in their community.”

I Be Black Girl (IBBG) is a collective for Black women and girls in the Omaha metro; its founding is modeled after the work of bell hooks. IBBG organically came to fruition after a Facebook post by Ashlei Spivey that called for Black women to get together to refresh and pour into one another. Based on the overwhelming response, IBBG formally became a collective in 2017, offering networking sessions and leadership development programming. 

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WFN’s Biggest Event is Coming Up: Get a Special Discount Now

The Women’s Funding Network (WFN) annual conference is coming up soon, and now is the time to reserve your spot. The event, held from September 11-13 at Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood, is called Leadership for a Changing World, and features a star-studded lineup of feminist power.

Want to make attending a little easier on your wallet? Use this unique link that provides 15% off to the non-member general admissions and the one-day rate ticket.

Here’s a recap of all #WomenFunded2019 has to offer from our writer Maggie May:

The San Francisco conference is gearing up to be WFN’s biggest event yet, featuring more than 80 speakers across more than 40 sessions. This year’s four themes — On The Frontlines, It’s Personal, The Power of Voice, and How Money Moves — focus on resolving complex social issues, leading with power across sectors, shaping stories, policy, and solution, and re-shaping philanthropy by redefining investment.

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California Gender Justice Funders Launch $10 Mil Culture Change Fund

It’s time to change the way we think and talk about gender.

The Gender Justice Fund, developed by California Gender Justice Funders Network, will fund culture change around gender issues. (Image Credit: Gender Justice Fund)

For many of us — women, members of the LGBTQIA+ community, people of color, and others — the last few years have been difficult to digest. There are too many significant human rights issues happening in our country today to easily decide which to give priority.

In response, the voices of activists, philanthropists, and organizations in this social and political climate are louder than ever before. Together, funders and campaigners are making strides to support the causes they believe in, finding new platforms and new opportunities for growth every day. We’ve made progress in legislation, but at the same time, we’ve seen massive legal backslides — like laws barring transgender people from certain bathrooms and abortion bans in nine states — that make it difficult to celebrate our progress.

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Mentorship: Join WPI at WFRI to Experience the Power of Mentoring

mentorship
My boss (2006-2009) and Missouri mentor, Mindy Mazur, who stewarded me through my early political career. We still support one another by sharing ideas, building the leadership pipelines across the country, and generally commiserating about the current state of affairs.

My work in social change and political advocacy are defined by the women who brought me up in the world. These women have helped me appreciate the profound power of mentorship.

The career I have today was unfathomable to me as a naive Missouri farm girl. Then I met Mindy. She was a manager and chief of staff who hired me as an intern and wouldn’t let me go. She coached and navigated me around every career pivot and barrier. Networks are a constellation of mentors, pipelines, alma maters – professional and personal associations. Often these networks are implicit. They help us overcome the divide between those who were born into the norms of public service and those of us who stumble upon public service after strife and righteous indignation call us to change the world. 

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Feminist Giving is Better: WPI Research Reveals Why

A new report from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) finds that women’s foundations and funds donors — the vast majority of whom are women — are doing more with less, getting more impact with their philanthropy, and are less likely to be doing it for religious or tax shelter reasons. The new study from WPI is called All In For Women and Girls and points to what many readers of Philanthropy Women already know: feminist givers do it better.

feminist giving
New research from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute shows how women’s giving differs in several valuable respects. (Image Credit: WPI Infographic)

Those giving to women’s foundations and funds are more likely to be giving while still in the workforce. They are also more likely to be enhancing their impact by also serving as a leader or convener for the organization, and are also less motivated by receiving a tax break for their donations, according to the report.

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What Feminist Leadership Looks Like for Me In Real Life

In this video, I discuss what feminist leadership looks like for me as a publisher and writer. The discussion includes different domains of experience and how I apply feminist leadership in those domains.

feminist leadership
Kiersten Marek, LICSW, Founder and Publisher of Philanthropy Women

I made this video to participate in the Feminist Leadership Project’s series. If you’d like to participate in this project, you can go here for more details.

In this video, I discuss the different levels of feminist leadership in my life, including on the levels of systems engagement, mindset, identity, and greater purpose. Feminist leadership for me means maintaining alignment across all levels of my life with values of inclusion, cooperation, and in my professional focus on increasing media about gender lens giving strategies.

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New Latina Giving Circle Debuts at Texas Women’s Foundation

Pictured from left to right: Linda Valdez-Thompson, H100 Network President Elect, Roslyn Dawson Thompson, Texas Women’s Foundation President and CEO, Patricia Rodriguez Christian, H100 Giving Circle Chair, and Cris Zertuche-Wong, H100 Giving Circle Grants Committee Chair. (Photo Credit: Kim Leeson)

An excellent new development in the giving circle realm: The H100 Latina Giving Circle recently launched at the Texas Women’s Foundation (TWF). It was formed by the Hispanic 100 Network to further engage Latinas in philanthropy, and expand resources for local organizations empowering, educating and supporting Latinas.

H100 joins three other TWF hosted giving circles: Orchid Giving Circle, HERitage Giving Fund and The Village Giving Circle. The Hispanic 100 Network—founded in 1996 by prominent Dallas/Fort Worth area Latinas in business, education, arts, health, politics and community leadership—is helping launch the Circle by providing $50,000 in matching funds.

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How Women’s Funds Accelerate Gender Equality with 2Gen Approach

2Gen Approach
The Aspen Institute developed a 2Gen approach to improving the lives of women and girls, which the Women’s Funding Network uses to create a cohort of women’s funds applying this approach. (Image Credit: The Aspen Institute)

Editor’s Note: Women’s Funding Network Chief Strategist Marcia Coné is passionate about the Two-Generation (2Gen) Approach to breaking the cycle of poverty for women and their families. Here, she talks about WFN’s efforts to support its members in implementing the 2Gen philosophy and theoretical framework, as well as the work of the 2Gen Advocacy Cohort and their recent wins.

What is a 2Gen Approach?

When we think about poverty, programs are typically targeted to the needs of different members within the family. For example, you might have a child in a Head Start Program, while the parent is getting job training. This is helpful, but the 2Gen approach—which was developed by the Aspen Institute—looks at ways of addressing the family as a whole system and meeting their individual needs simultaneously, through multi-generational programming and policies. Two-generation approaches draw from findings that the well-being of parents is crucial to their children’s well-being and conversely, parents’ ability to succeed in school and in the workplace is substantially affected by how well their children are doing. 

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Founded in Diversity, Texas Women’s Foundation Expands

Roslyn Dawson Thompson, President and CEO, Texas Women’s Foundation. (Photo credit: TWF)

Here in the Northeast, we don’t tend to envision Texas as having a culture of diversity and women’s empowerment. But Texas is actually one of the most diverse states in the union. Currently, 68% of women ages 15 to 24 are women of color. The reality for the biggest state in the union is that the minority is the majority among young people. Texas is also home to one of the country’s largest women’s foundations, the Texas Women’s Foundation (TWF). Previously known as the Dallas Women’s Foundation, in 2018, it rebranded as a statewide endeavor with plans to increase its impact across all regions of the Lone Star State.

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#WomenFunded2019: WFN Opens Registration for Annual Conference

Women Funding Network’s Executive Director Cynthia Nimmo. (Photo Credit: WFN)

The Women’s Funding Network (WFN) recently opened registration for their September conference, Women Funded 2019: Leadership for a Changing World.

The event, held from September 11-13 at Hotel Kabuki in San Francisco’s Japantown neighborhood, is the next iteration in WFN’s successful conference series. You may remember last September’s Seattle takeover with Women Moving Millions and the Gates Foundation — WFN’s WOMEN+POWER conference was held in Seattle, Washington, in an incredible weekend for feminist thought leaders.

The San Francisco conference is gearing up to be WFN’s biggest event yet, featuring more than 80 speakers across more than 40 sessions. This year’s four themes — On The Frontlines, It’s Personal, The Power of Voice, and How Money Moves — focus on resolving complex social issues, leading with power across sectors, shaping stories, policy, and solution, and re-shaping philanthropy by redefining investment.

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