WFN’s Cynthia Nimmo Reflects on 2018 and Future of Feminism

cynthia nimmo
Cynthia Nimmo, CEO of the Women’s Funding Network, shares her epiphanies about this past year, and her vision of a more feminist future to come.

Like many organizations in the women’s funding community, Women’s Funding Network had a robust year of working on the issues most important to women, including financial empowerment, collaborating with men as allies, and strategic leveraging as a donor and an advocate.

To go a little deeper into this past year of activity in feminist philanthropy, we decided to talk to Cynthia Nimmo, CEO of the Women’s Funding Network, and hear about what it felt like to run one of the most important organizations in the women’s funding space.

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For Giving Tuesday, Join Us in Giving to Women’s Fund of RI

giving tuesday
Donating to WFRI is a great way to fuel gender equality movements in Rhode Island.

There are so many reasons to support your state’s women’s fund. Here in Rhode Island, our women’s fund plays a critical role in addressing gender equality with grantmaking, legislative advocacy, and in-depth research. All of this work helps to guide social change strategy and increases public awareness about gender equality in the state.

On Giving Tuesday, our household is pledging $500 for the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island. We support all of the goals of WFRI, but in particular, we are interested in supporting the organization’s legislative advocacy. According to WFRI, $500 will pay for “14 hours of written and verbal testimony for legislative hearings on Fair Pay, Reproductive Freedom and Freedom from Sexual Harassment.”

This is money well-spent. Every time we discuss the issues related to gender equality in a legislative setting, we may not win immediately, but we teach our legislators important lessons about the issues that need to be addressed. Sometimes it takes several lessons before change can occur, but every lesson increases the likelihood of that change.

Now is a great time to donate to WFRI, because the organization has a $10,000 match pledge. From WFRI, read on:

We have a $10,000 challenge match to meet.

A founding board member has offered a $10,000 challenge grant for us to relaunch our Women’s Policy Institute, which trains women to advocate for issues that affect women and girls in Rhode Island. She’ll match $.50 on the dollar when we raise $20,000 to relaunch this powerful program. Donate today towards WPI and have a direct impact on gender equity in Rhode Island.

But Wait! There’s More! Every dollar you give to WFRI has a direct local and statewide impact. Together with our supporters, WFRI is working hard to impact issues affecting women and girls statewide. With your help in 2018, we’ve:

  • Supported research on working women of color and the unique challenges they experience in the workplace, taking a deeper dive into the data of last year’s Status of Working Women in Rhode Island report
  • Provided training to nearly 200 women in salary negotiation skills, finding mentors and learning to advocate for causes that impact their lives
  • Hosted six Cocktails and Conversations panels on topics such as Feminism is a Male Issue and Intersectionality in Feminism
  • Made $50,000 in grants with a gender lens focus
  • Advocated for Reproductive Freedom, Fair Pay, a $15 Minimum Wage and Freedom from Sexual Harassment

Now is the time to donate to WFRI!

Related:

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Women’s Funds Deploy $58.4 Million in Funding in Two Years

Happy Day for RI Progressives as Women Prevail in Primary PollsRead More

Reasons to be Thankful: Gender Alpha and Record Voter Turnout

This is just a quick post before taking a few days off to enjoy time with family and friends. We will be covering several important events in upcoming posts, including a fascinating call on Gender Alpha with Suzanne Biegel and David Bank, where they discussed how “Gender Alpha” is all about identifying the specific dividends that gender lens investing yields. Biegel and Bank are co-producers of November’s Gender-Smart Investing Summit in London. Guests on the call included Luisamaria Ruiz Carlile of Veris Wealth Partners, which specializes in gender lens investing and research.

And one other quick note to acknowledge the significance of the recent elections, where voter turnout was higher than it has been in 104 years. That’s right — the last time voter turnout was as high as it was in 2018 was in 1914, before women even had the right to vote. Now that women and millennials are getting into the driver’s seat with social change, we hope to see even better voter turnout in 2020. I don’t know about you, but I am mighty thankful that people are finally getting the message (it seems!) about the importance of civic engagement. That could mean in 2020 we elect a President that gets us back on track in terms of valuing safety, diversity, and systems change to address inequality.

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Seattle: New Global Nexus for Feminist Giving?

seattle
Senator Kamala Harris spoke at WDN Connect 2018, the yearly gathering of Women Donors Network members and allies.

I can see the travel brochures now: Come to Seattle, home of some of the biggest feminist funding gatherings in recent history!

Not only did the Women’s Funding Network and Women Moving Millions convene in Seattle this year, but now the Women Donors Network has also paid a visit to Emerald City, making Seattle a central destination for feminist philanthropists in 2018. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored Women Moving Millions for their event in September, and hosted the Women’s Funding Network for an evening event at the same time.

Women Donors Network’s gathering began just two days after the mid-term elections, offering a unique opportunity for women donors to analyze how a more reflective democracy will influence key issues including climate change, health, and gun violence.

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NY Women’s Foundation Centers on Gender with New Justice Fund

The Justice Fund initiative was unveiled at a panel discussion titled A New Paradigm for Justice: Centering Women and Families presented by The New York Women’s Foundation and New York Philanthropy.

People who have been incarcerated face a number of barriers in reintegrating into society. For women, girls and transgender communities, the difficulties can be even steeper. Oftentimes, the effects of incarceration can worsen problems related to housing and employment, and can have a devastating impact on children.

To address these problems, particularly for women, The New York Women’s Foundation recently announced the creation of The Justice Fund, which will aim to do more to dismantle mass incarceration, particularly for women, girls, and transgender people.

This effort is part of a seven-year mobilization of funding to address issues related to incarceration. A press release announcing the initiative stated that,”The fund is the first of its kind in the country to engage in criminal justice reform through a lens of gender and racial equity.”

“Our initiative will create a new paradigm for justice that dismantles unfair and biased systems and creates new paths for stability and opportunity in the lives of New York City women, families, and communities,” said Ana Oliveira, President and CEO of The New York Women’s Foundation, in a press release announcing the new initiative. Part of the goal of this initiative in New York City will be to close Rikers Island and find alternative ways to promote justice, safety, and well-being.

More from the press release:

The fund will harness financial and other resources of a diverse set of funders committed to justice reform for women, TGNC (transgender non-conforming) individuals, families, and communities in New York City.  Its framework for grantmaking will target organizations engaged in systems change and reform and community solutions and leadership.

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New #MeToo Funding Fuels Empathy and Justice for Survivors

funding #metoo
The Fund for the Me Too Movement and Allies has provided $840,000 in grant funds to organizations across the country doing work to address gender-based violence.

Within the past year, the Women’s Media Center reports that coverage of #MeToo in the mainstream media has grown significantly. As awareness about the detrimental effects of sexual assault continues to grow in our culture, the New York Women’s Foundation is fostering real efforts to aid #MeToo survivors. In May of 2018, the foundation created the Fund for the Me Too Movement and Allies, and now that fund has made $840,000 in its first round of grant funding.  This is a collaborative effort, housed and managed by The New York Women’s Foundation, with the grantmaking decisions being made jointly with Tarana Burke, founder and leader of the #MeToo Movement. 

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Rebecca Traister Comes to Rhode Island for Women’s Fund Benefit

Rebecca Traister, author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, pictured with event hosts Emily and Robin Kall Homonoff. (Photo Credit: Little Lion Communication)

With the recent news that “rage giving” — philanthropic giving to offset the shrinking of civil society resulting from the election of Donald Trump — is primarily driven by progressive women donors, the timing could not be better for Rebecca Traister’s new book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.  Particularly with the much-contested appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, progressive women’s rage appears to be reaching a new crescendo, and the resultant giving to charity and politics may set new records.

On October 15, Rebecca Traister came to a Richmond Street club called Alchemy in Providence, Rhode Island to read from her book and reflect on the many ways that rage has the potential to spur creativity and drive social change. Traister’s appearance in Rhode Island was not just a reading and celebration of her provocative new book. It was also a fundraiser for the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, a small but mighty feminist philanthropy hub doing powerful work to channel women’s rage into meaningful social change.

Traister convincingly makes the argument that women’s anger has often fueled progressive change in society, citing women’s suffrage as a prime example. Today, Traister views women’s anger as particularly consequential to political struggle, and remarked that it may be key to a better future for our world.

Traister sees women’s rage as an under-utilized force for good in liberal movements for change. She argues that, while social conditioning teaches us to view women’s fury is seen as a perversion of nature and social norms, that rage is actually a healthy response to our world today, and one that can help women and men become more equal.

Female candidates for office in Rhode Island (and one male ally candidate) made short speeches before Rebecca Traister’s appearance, giving testament to the fact that rage has helped activate them in politics. (Photo credit: Little Lion Communications)

The event began with some words from some of several local  progressive political women, including state-wide legislative candidates Rebecca Kislak, Bridget Valverde, and Teresa Tanzi. All gave testament to the fact that anger helps to fuel their action, with Tanzi getting some laughs when she remarked that she thought she was angry when she first got elected in 2010, but, after being sexually harassed by legislators and lobbyists at the statehouse and dealing with the regressive political climate in Rhode Island, now she is really angry. Tanzi has been on the frontlines of legislative efforts to better protect women from sexual assault and harassment, and continues to be a strong proponent for gender equality across the board in her legislative work.

Traister read from some particularly cogent sections in her book. One piece she read addressed the issue of control, and what the #MeToo era means for men’s control. She noted that while some men are complaining of the anxiety they are now experiencing about issues such as how to flirt appropriately, “these anxieties are the normal state for everyone else,” said Traister.  This kind of loss of control for men, says Traister, is the point for movements like #MeToo.  It’s the kind of loss of control that powerful men like Senator George Mitchell at the Anita Hill hearings insisted on keeping — their control of the social dynamic being played out. She writes in Good and Mad:

Yes, things were out of control. That was the point. Because control was when no one was able to report the story of Harvey Weinstein raping women; control was Donald Trump getting elected president, thanks to voter suppression and the electoral college systems designed to suppress, and thus better control, nonwhite populations. Control was the unchallenged reigns of Bill O'Reilly and Roget Ailes and Bill Cosby. Control was women being too terrified to defy Eric Schneiderman by telling of how he hit them. Control was ensuring that no one cared about the abuses sustained by Ford factory employees or flight attendants; control was all male presidents and vice presidents; control was only two black women senators and no black women governors in the history of the country; control was marital rape being legal to the seventies; control was slavery and locking women in unsafe shirtwaist factories. Control was Jordan Peterson's Taoist white serpent, thrust at us against our will. 

This was a powerful moment in the reading.  You could feel the audience’s deep response to Traister’s words — to her lining up the instances of how male control has silenced women’s anger in so many different ways.

I haven’t read the whole book yet, but am looking forward to it. To learn more about Good and Mad or get a copy for yourself, visit here. 

Related:

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The Many Faces of Love: Responses on Take the Lead Virtual Happy Hour

Women Donors: Rhode Island Women Candidates Need Your Help

Fighting for Democracy: Building Local Pro-Choice Campaigns for Legislative Wins

$10 Million to Train Women’s Health Leaders at UCLA Med School

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Women Funders Urge Investigation of Sexual Assault Allegations

Christine Blasey Ford testified this morning before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. Women funders have come together to release a joint statement in support of Dr. Ford.

Today is a remarkable day in American history, particularly for survivors of sexual assault. Today, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, bringing to light her experiences with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his alleged attempt to rape her while they were in high school. “Brett’s assault on me drastically changed my life,” she stated, and went on to recount the many ways that her life was changed by the trauma. 

Leaders in the women’s funding community have come together collectively with a statement in support of Dr. Ford, and are calling for a full investigation of her allegations, as well as the allegations of Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, in order to ensure that the U.S. Senate does not rush through the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.

From the Statement, issued by the Women’s Funding Network:

Shortly after Dr. Ford came forward, so did the misogynistic and toxic remarks aiming to discredit, devalue, and delegitimize her.  Even after additional allegations of sexual assault were brought forward by Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, some in the U.S Senate continue to rush Kavanaugh’s nomination forward, asserting “they have no reason not to believe him.”

In response, countless survivors across the nation have taken to the streets, public forums, and social media platforms to demand that we must #BelieveWomen and #TrustSurvivors. The Women’s Funding Network (WFN) is the largest network of foundations in the world investing in gender equity.  We stand for the rights of women and girls to be heard. We stand in solidarity with the chorus of voices speaking out against sexual assault.  We believe Dr. Ford and we support the survivors who are courageously sharing their stories in order to combat gender-based violence that manifests itself as sexual assault and harassment. As we have seen with the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, our power is in our ability to bring to the surface what is hidden and made invisible.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled the vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court for Friday morning, just 24 hours after Dr. Ford will give her testimony. This is unacceptable.  It is imperative that the President and his administration address the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh with serious consideration. These are not the kinds of concerns to “plow right through.”

As Dr. Ford takes a bold stance today in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, our members across the United States and beyond, want to make clear that we support her. We support calls for a thorough federal investigation. Kavanaugh should not be confirmed or considered eligible for confirmation until an investigation takes place.  We can no longer hold onto the codes of silence that for generations have allowed men to hurt women with impunity.

Signed:

Cynthia Nimmo, President and CEO, Women’s Funding Network

Surina Khan, CEO, Women’s Foundation of California

Kelly Nevins, Executive Director, Women’s Fund of Rhode Island

Kathy Andersen, Executive Director, The Women’s Fund Miami-Dade

Tanna Clews, CEO, New Hampshire Women’s Foundation

Sharon LaRue, Executive Director, Kentucky Foundation for Women

Michelle Zych, Executive Director, Women’s Fund of Omaha

Lee Roper-Batker, President & CEO, Women’s Foundation of Minnesota

Julie Castro Abrams, Founder & CEO, How Women Lead

Sarah Ghiorse, Executive Director, NewMexicoWomen.Org

Terry Hernandez, Executive Director, Chrysalis Foundation

Nicole Baran, Executive Director, Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation

Ana L. Oliveira, President & CEO, New York Women’s Foundation

Kimberly Burnett, President & CEO, Shadhika

Amanda Brock, Executive Director, Spark

Trish Tierney, Co-founder & CEO, WAKE

This letter is available online here and will be updated as new members of the women’s funding community add their signatures.

Related:

#MeToo, and Who is Funding Sexual Assault Prevention?

Kathy LeMay on Regenerating Courage as a Social Change Agent

Women’s Funds Deploy $58.4 Million in Funding in Two Years

Scaling the Mount Everest of Gender Equality in Minnesota

Funders Take Note: #MeToo is Time Magazine’s Person of the Year

Women’s Funds Show Philanthropy the Way to Transparency, DiversityRead More

Feminists Everywhere: Seattle Hosts WMM and WFN at Same Time

Women Moving Millions is having its annual summit and member day on September 13 at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the same time in Seattle, Women’s Funding Network is convening its membership at The Collective in Seattle. Both groups will come together in the evening at the Gates Foundation.

Both the Women’s Funding Network and Women Moving Millions are in Seattle today, meeting with their members. The Women Moving Millions event is co-hosted by the Gates Foundation, and both groups will be meeting up to discuss their work in the evening at the Gates Foundation.

One might wonder if this is an indicator of the increasing involvement of the Gates Foundation in gender equality philanthropy. And, in fact, the evening will close with a cocktail hour for the Women’s Funding Network hosted by Women Moving Millions at the Gates Foundation, so there will be some time for the three networks to compare notes.

The focus of the Women’s Funding Network meeting is Women+Power. The program includes an overview of the day from Tuti Scott, Founder and President of Imagine Philanthropy, and includes panels on diversity, equality, and inclusion, as well as an evening cocktail reception hosted by Women Moving Millions at The Atrium, at the Gates Foundation. Teresa Younger, CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, will also be presenting on a panel with Melanie Brown, Senior Program Officer for U.S. Policy and Advocacy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Cat Martin, Vice President of Global Philanthropy for JPMorgan Chase. The full program is here. 

At the same time that all this was going on, Melinda Gates’ investment and incubation company, Pivotal Ventures, announced the formation of the Reboot Representation Tech Coalition, which will aim to increase gender diversity in STEM occupations. In response to a survey produced by Pivotal Ventures, showing the poor representation of women, particularly women of color in STEM, a coalition of companies will now devote $12 million in funding to address the problem. More on that here. 

We at Philanthropy Women look forward to learning what these two powerful women’s funding networks come away with from these Seattle meetings. We’re hopeful that more of the Gates Foundation’s resources can be redirected to gender equality causes, since there is a strong need for this kind of movement-building. If a more substantial amount of philanthropy focused on feminist strategies, movements for justice, inclusion, and systems change would have more fuel than ever, and we might start to see how women’s leadership can guide us toward a more sustainable planet.

Related:

Giving For Good: Your Daily Round-Up of Feminist Philanthropy News

Interview with The Woman Project: “Reproductive Freedom is Essential”

$20 Million from Gates Foundation to Address Gender Inequality Globally

Helen LaKelly Hunt: Feminism and Philanthropy Are Converging to Create a New Relationship CultureRead More

Untapped Power: U.S. Must Hire More Young Women of Color

Editor’s Note: As we end another Labor Day weekend, it’s a pleasure for me to share this editorial from women leaders in Minnesota, who are reminding us that young women, and particularly young women of color, are a huge untapped resource in our economy. The need for employers to hire more young women of color is not isolated to Minnesota — it is an issue that is being addressed by a national collaborative of women’s foundations working to ensure that young women of color can prosper economically and live safe, healthy lives. This editorial is c0-authored by Jennifer Alstad (Founder & CEO, bswing), Debra Fitzpatrick (Co-director, Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy, University of Minnesota), and Lee Roper-Batker (President & CEO, Women’s Foundation of Minnesota)

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