Starting this evening and through the rest of the week, we here at The Women’s Foundation will be attending the Women’s Funding Network’s annual conference–which is being held this year right here in Washington, D.C.  (Well, Crystal City, to be exact).

We’ve talked a lot about the women’s funding movement and women’s philanthropy on this blog, and the conference is a great way to bring together the women’s funds and foundations throughout the county–and the world–who are also doing this work. 

We’ll be kicking things off tonight with a congressional reception on the Hill to invite staffers and members of Congress to learn more about the power of women’s philanthropy and the unique and deep impact of grantmaking directed towards the needs of women and girls.

Then the next two days will be filled with sessions on poverty alleviation, grantmaking focused around the aging and health concerns facing women throughout the country, growing girls’ grantmaking programs, and my personal favorite, using new media and social networks to expand philanthropy.  And lots more.

On Saturday we’ll be hearing from the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai and actress Angela Bassett as the conference wraps up. 

All very cool.  We hope to have lots of tidbits, stories and strategies to share when we return!

I’ve always had a passion for fashion, and a great concern for our community as well.

And so it occurred to me, why not merge my passion for fashion with my compassion?

So I have launched Fashion Fusion, a fashion event with the theme, "Inspired Giving, Inspired Style," that will serve as a fundraiser with benefits going to Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

The fashion event will celebrate and support local, independent fashion designers and boutiques, while raising money to benefit women and girls of our region. It’s truly merging local business, local style and giving back to our local community!

When I was considering which organization to donate the event proceeds to, I knew that I wanted the funds to benefit women and girls, because I personally feel that when you invest in women and girls, you exponentially improve families and communities. It alarms me that one in three families headed by single mothers in our region are living in poverty, and I wanted to do something to help.

I knew that The Women’s Foundation had the track record and the expertise to really make an impact with the event proceeds.

And not only will the event make a difference, but it’s going to be fun and, well, fashionable.

We’ll be featuring local fashion mavericks in the DC/MD/VA area with the best local boutiques and emerging designers exhibiting at markdown prices (read: really good deals!). The fashion show itself will be mega hot, featuring the hottest style trends by local independent designers. There will also be a fun silent auction with items kindly donated by local businesses that support the work of Fashion Fusion.

This is all happening on June 28 from 6-10 p.m. (VIP early access at 5) at the Embassy of France.  For more information, visit Fashion Fusion or email me.

Dejha Bower is creative director of the Fashion Fusion event, which is donating its proceeds to Washington Area Women’s Foundation. 

The recorded history of philanthropy can be traced back to the 1600’s. People have been finding ways to give of their time, talents and treasures for as long as we can remember.

So, what is the enigma called philanthropy, really?

Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, time, or effort to support a charitable cause, usually over an extended period of time toward a specific goal, or to achieve a specific aim.

In its most fundamental sense, philanthropy may encompass any altruistic activity intended to promote public good or improve the human quality of life. Such a simple and attainable concept really. Yet, somehow the definition of philanthropy has been increasingly narrowed and the term “philanthropist” has been a title reserved for the wealthy.

The truth is that philanthropy is not only a privilege for the Gateses, Buffets, Fords and Carnegies.  Anyone can be a philanthropist!

At The Women’s Foundation, we encourage people of all ages and incomes to think about how you can be a philanthropist right where you are today.  How can you harness your own philanthropic spirit to improve the human quality of life?

As you watch TV or read the paper, you are bombarded by reports of people facing difficult circumstances all over the country, and the world. But how often have you stopped to think about the people right in your own backyard that really need the assistance and support provided by our area nonprofits?

So, I ask you again…a little differently…how can you, through your own philanthropy, become a better steward of your community?

One great way is through The Women’s Foundation’s giving circles! Giving circles are a wonderful way to meet wonderful people, get involved, and transform a small contribution into funding with a big impact!

As we speak, the Rainmakers are poised and ready to make a total of $45,000 in grants to organizations in Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia that support programs to empower and encourage the healthy development of young women and girls.  (Proposals are due on April 28th.)

But the Rainmakers circle is already out of the gate you say?  How astute you are!  But you can be thinking about your participation for the next cycle to begin in 2009.

For the more eager among you, you are not without options!

The African American Women’s Giving Circle is in the process of recruiting new members right now!  To find out more, come to a gathering on April 30th.  If you interested in attending or becoming a member, contact me.

We are continuing to welcome new members to the 1K Club and the Washington 100.  And, let’s not forget, the Leadership Awards Program is looking for volunteers for the next award cycle!  If you are interested, please contact me.

So whether it is with one of these wonderful groups of women (and men), or with another organization that has been near and dear to your heart, take the leap!

Unleash the philanthropist within you.

I dare you!

With today’s headline, "Despite Negative Press, Facebook Is a Powerful Agent for Social Change," it seems appropriate to let all of our faithful readers know that Washington Area Women’s Foundation officially has a Facebook Cause.

And we’d love for you to become our friend.  So far, we are 106 strong and hope to keep growing.

As our use of Facebook’s Causes application ramps up, we’ll be using it to inform our friends of upcoming events (especially for our new 1K Club), to post pictures highlighting our work and community, and to post information about the issues and challenges that impact women and girls throughout the Washington metropolitan area.

So, by all means, if you’re on Facebook and are interested in work that is changing the lives of women and girls in our region, we’d love for you to join us.  Just go to Causes and search for Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

Today is Equal Pay Day.

This day signifies the fact that it takes women almost 16 months to earn what men earn in 12.  Women still only earn about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, and the wage gap worsens for women of color.

In fact, the wage gap has remained at basically the same level for the past 20 years.  A large part of the reason for this is that women tend to work in lower paying jobs than men and in lower paying industries.

Every day at The Women’s Foundation, we are fighting these systemic reasons for the differences in men’s and women’s earnings.  Here are just a few examples:

• We support programs that allow women to move Into higher paying jobs.  Through Stepping Stones, we support job-training programs that prepare women to get jobs with salaries that are high enough to support a family. These are often jobs that have traditionally been held by men. For example, Washington Area Women in the Trades provides non-traditional employment training for homeless and low-income women. They estimate that in five years, more than 3,000 women will be provided assistance and more than 400 graduates will be prepared for high-skill/ high-wage jobs in our community.

• We support programs that ensure that women-dominated fields have better salaries and benefits.  Historically, jobs that have been traditionally held by women (like teachers and nurses) have earned lower salaries than jobs held by men. Our Grantee Partners, like CASA of Maryland, work to fight this historical bias and to ensure that jobs that are held primarily by women earn better salaries. For example, CASA of Maryland has a program to get better wages for domestic workers and to make sure that they get employment benefits as well.

• We support efforts that make sure that minimum-wage earners (who are disproportionately women) have a living wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women are the majority of minimum wage earners. DC Employment Justice Center, a Grantee Partner, was a core member of the D.C. Living Wage Coalition that successfully advocated for legislation that provided a living wage of $11.75 for workers employed by companies with contracts with the D.C. government.  It is estimated that this change will collectively increase women’s wages in the Washington metropolitan area by $7.5 million.

When you support The Women’s Foundation – by volunteering with us, by making a donation, by being a part of our community – you are supporting our efforts to increase women’s salaries and to take down the barriers that keep women from earning as much as their male colleagues.

Joining us in our efforts is a pretty terrific way to honor Equal Pay Day.

Getting the Ball Rolling
Thirty years ago, Women & Philanthropy was born out of the desire and outrage of a small cadre of women (and a couple of male allies).  Troubled by the lack of representation of women in positions of leadership in the philanthropic field (a report from the Council on Foundations reported that only 18 percent of foundation trustees and 28 percent of foundation professional staff were women), and the dearth of program funding supporting programs for women, one motivated woman held an impromptu lunch to figure out what could be done.

The lunch was standing room only!

In 1977, when the organization was founded, funding to women and girls was a scant 0.5 percent.  Yes, you are reading that correctly: half of a percent of total foundation giving!

Can you imaging half of a percent for 52 percent of the population!

The new organization set out to address the lack of female representation in the sector, the appalling lack of funding, and the general education of, and communication with, foundations about issues and problems affecting women.

Eight years later (in 1985), the Women’s Funding Network (WFN) was formed as an umbrella organization, bringing together the various women’s funds fueling the burgeoning "women’s funding movement," which was really gaining momentum.

Its mission: "to ensure that women’s funds are recognized as the ‘investment of choice’ for people who value the full participation of women and girls as key to strong, equitable, and sustainable communities and societies."

Women’s funds had been in existence for many years.  The majority of the funds at the time were rooted in the women’s and civil rights movements in the 70s; however, there were a small number with histories stretching back to the late 1800s and early 1900s!

These funds were the result of women’s recognition and desire to be in greater command of financial resources, and in turn to be able to use these resources to support work that served and transformed the lives of women and girls.

In 1985, there were roughly 35 women’s funds in some stage of their development.

While Women & Philanthropy and the Women’s Funding Network employed very different strategic approaches, both organizations worked tirelessly over the subsequent years toward the same ultimate goal: to increase resources to women and girls.

Where are we now?
I think that clearly both groups can claim success on many levels.

Within the field of philanthropy, women now comprise more than 74 percent of program officers, 54 percent of CEOs and 35 percent of trustees.

Today, the Women’s Funding Network celebrates over 125 women’s funds worldwide!  And, collectively, women’s and girls funds have raised over $400 million!

Surely with such achievements under our belts in the women’s funding movement, we can claim victory!

Can’t we?

While it is true that there are many people and institutions that deserve a great deal of appreciation and recognition for the tremendous work they have done in securing resources for women and girls, the unfortunate reality is that we still have miles to go before we’re done.

Show Us the Money!
In the Foundation Center’s 2008 Foundation Giving Trends publication, released last month, the Foundation Center actually reports a decline in giving to women and girls – from 6.4 in 2005 to 5.7 in 2006. 

Yes, it can be said that the movement from the 0.5 percent of 1977 to where we are today mark steps in the right direction, but even at its peak of 7.3 percent (in 2003), I think that we can all agree that the funding levels remain woefully inadequate! 

Further, this downward trend specifically should raise pink–if not red–flags for all of us.

But this is not just a gender issue – the Giving Trends document also notes a decline in funding to “ethnic or racial minorities” as a whole from 8.2 percent in 2005 to 7.4 percent in 2006, with a decline seen for most groups with the exception of Native Americans/American Indians, where there was a 0.2 percent increase.

In Search of Answers
So what is going on?  How is it that we can have more and more women in the sector, and more women in control of directing large financial resources, yet not only have we not reached a level of parity in our funding, but we are actually seeing a decline in this support?

Are our data collection methods flawed?

Perhaps.  Even the best data collection has some margin of error.

The data reported in the 2008 Giving Trends document explores national trends from 2006/2005 – the limitations of data collection mean that there will always be a lag time between data collection, analysis and reporting.  Also, The Foundation Center uses a sampling base which includes grants of $10,000 or more from the largest 1000-ish foundations in the U.S. that report to them, so there is definitely room, for missed funding dollars considering the size of many foundations, including most women’s funds, and the size of many of the grants given to women and girls.

Nevertheless, these numbers are the best we have to-date and they are consistently collected, so while there may ultimately be some funding that may be slipping through the cracks, it is unlikely to drastically change this picture, or the prevailing trends.

Further, it raises concerns about the average size of grants to women and girls, and the scale at which most women’s funds operate compared to the more “mainstream/traditional” foundations.

Maybe grantmakers and donors are investing more in “universal funding,” and not specifically targeting women and girls.

This is also a possibility.

There has long been a debate about the value of “mainstreaming” gender on many levels, including grantmaking.
Unfortunately, increasing evidence has shown that these “generic” or “universal” funding dollars do not ”trickle down” to meet the needs of women and girls.

Are foundations just “over it”?

A continued roadblock for funding to women and girls is the “special interest” stigma.  It becomes a double edged sword.  By segmenting funding and programs for women and girls for particular attention, we may be reinforcing this concept of women and girls as a “special interest,” and therefore optional group, rather than the integral parts of society we are.

We also know that some of society’s most chronic problems – poverty, health care, violence – hit women the hardest. One need only look to our Stepping Stones program to see this in our own region. 

Moreover, as Kofi Annan so eloquently reminds us:  "When women are fully involved, the benefits can be seen immediately; families are healthier; they are better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up. And what is true of families is true of communities, and eventually, of whole countries."

So what does this declining investment in women and girls say about our commitment to our communities?

The real answer may lie somewhere in and around all of these hypotheses. Though we may not be able to connect all of the dots to get us from A to Z, what is clear is that these numbers continue to reinforce the significance of the work that we, and other women’s funds, are doing. And support the ongoing argument for a continued and, in fact, increased investment in women and girls, and the continuation of a dialogue around gender.

We have made progress, and we must celebrate those milestones.

However, we can not rest on our laurels.

There is still a long way to go, and those achievements that we have already made must be protected so we don’t lose the precious ground we have gained.

But the next time someone tells you that we don’t need to be talking about women and girls anymore because we’ve “been there, done that,” I hope you remember my little blog, and can set the record straight.

It is in all of our best interests to ensure the continued investment in women and girls.

Let’s keep that needle moving!

In a cool semi-related follow-on to yesterday’s story about how more low-income women aren’t gaining access to our region’s financial boom because they’re not job ready, we see an example of how a fire department in our area is taking pro-active strides to make its work environment female friendly.

The Arlington County Fire Department just opened the first firehouse in our region that is "gender neutral," creating individual sleeping and showering spaces.  Cool.

Just for a bit more context, the Arlington fire department was the first in the nation to hire a woman as a professional fire fighter.  Today, nearly 10 percent of its firefighters are women.

Makes you wonder if they’re in cahoots at all with Prince George’s County’s female fire department employees, with their "hour of power" and talk of vision to victory. 

For it seems that Arlington certainly isn’t lacking in any vision around developing female friendly environments in departments that aren’t traditionally considered career tracks for women.

According to today’s Washington Post, the economic boom in D.C. is leaving out those who stand to benefit the most from it–low-income families.

Nearly one in three working families in Washington, D.C. is poor, says a report being released today by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

Nearly all of those families are minorities and two-thirds of them are headed by single women.

At the heart of the failure to transfer the economic boom to low-income residents, says the report, is a failure to appropriately train them for the jobs emerging as a result of the boom.

I have to say, this surprised me. 

After learning so much about programs training low-income women for nontraditional jobs, like construction, the environmental services, or law enforcement, and hearing about how serious the commitment of these women are to their new fields–and how pleased the leaders in these industries are to have them–it’s hard for me to imagine that the city and its partners aren’t ramping them up left and right.

As we’ve learned here at The Women’s Foundation, they work. 

They bring women and their children out of poverty and into higher paying jobs, with benefits, and provide employers with a trained, talented, committed source of personnel. 

As Walter Smith, executive director of D.C. Appleseed reminds us, it’s just common sense for our community to invest in more programs like these.  "It will help build the city’s tax base.  It will help reduce the very high costs we have in this city of social services. It’s very much in the city’s interest to invest in these families."

And, with two thirds of those living in poverty being women, investing with an eye to creating programs for low-income women is bound to have the greatest return.

To see how, check out this video on Washington Area Women in the Trades’ female construction program and how it’s changing the outlook of one single mother and her family.

The D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.

Today, I had the pleasure of joining Phyllis, our president, and our new philanthropic education officer, Nicole, at the Prince George’s County Fire Department’s "Hour of Power." 

The staff around The Women’s Foundation know that I’m a big advocate of the "civilized lunch," where you actually leave your desk and talk to other human beings. 

The women of the Prince George’s County Fire Department are taking that idea a lot further–gathering for "Hour of Power" lunches to get to know one other, take time out for their goals, dreams and wishes and to foster their own sense of empowerment through each other.

Now that’s a civilized, if not inspiring, awesome idea.

And if that’s not inspiring enough, their theme for this year is "Vision to Victory." 

Phyllis was asked to come in as the guest speaker and to lead today’s lunch.  She started off with the videos and stories of Lacey Paey and Sharan Mitchell–and their personal stories of vision to victory. 

Then the discussion moved to the power of women to support their families and communities, and the many ways that they give back, often without realizing the extent of their impact. 

Invariably, in a room full of dynamic, powerful women like those that we met today, the conversation eventually turned to The Power of Giving Together, and how women, working together, can accomplish so much.  

When asked what this group might like to do, together, what issues they saw in their community that they wanted to see changed, it was clear that many were already playing an active role in programs and interventions to help build the self-esteem of young women or in supporting individuals who needed information or resources to move into better careers.

Power indeed.

By the end of the hour, as we made our way out to head back to the office, we walked through groups of excited chatter about ways to get involved, ways to do more, ways to work together to positively impact their community.

In summing up, Lieutenant Colonel Carla Blue, who convened the Hour of Power, offered a great statement that embodies what we refer to as The Power of Giving Together.

"A little bit with so many can add up to so much," she said, concluding a very empowering hour, indeed.

This is my very first blog ever, and I can’t think of a better entré into this wild world of blogging than to reach out to all of you from my new position at Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

As the new philanthropic education officer, I will have the pleasure of working with The Women’s Foundation’s giving circles – the African American Women’s Giving Circle and the Rainmakers – working on the Leadership Awards, crafting and implementing the Philanthropy 101 work around donor education, and in general finding more ways to strengthen and expand this great body of work.

Though I may be new on staff, it feels as though I have been part of The Women’s Foundation for many years.  About 5 years ago, I had applied for a position at The Women’s Foundation.  However, when I got the call to come in to interview, I had literally just gotten off the phone accepting another position! 

However, as luck would have it, Anne Mosle – then president of The Women’s Foundation – was on the board of directors for Women & Philanthropy, the organization where I just accepted a position!  And, as the chair of the committee for our centerpiece program, the LEAD Award, for three years, the connection was solidified.

As I watched The Women’s Foundation grow over the subsequent years through our common connections, and developed relationships with the staff, I was increasingly intrigued and impressed with the work and talent that lay within.  I knew that it was just a matter of time and opportunity before I found my way there.

Fortune smiled on me this year, and here I am.

So who am I, and where do I come from? I was born in Barbados, raised in Canada and the West Indies, and transplanted to the United States after completing my undergraduate degree. I am a serious goof, a realistic optimist, a laid-back work horse, and an analytical doer! I am someone who has realized that this work is full of contradictions and complexities, so it is better to stop resisting them – for therein lie the many opportunities for change!

From the time I was in university, I was drawn to the women’s movement.  Perhaps it was my roommate’s enthusiasm on the first day of class in my freshman year; she had just come from her first Introduction to women’s studies class and could not stop talking about it. The next semester, I signed up for that very same class and I have been hooked ever since!

From then on, everything I did from volunteering to my professional pathways was driven by my desire to work on behalf of women and girls.

After completing my graduate degrees, I relocated to Washington, D.C., where I accepted my first post-graduate job with a burgeoning patient-led advocacy organization – the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.  I can say that this was some of the most difficult and most rewarding work I have ever done. But losing friends and colleagues to this disease took its toll. And I knew that I needed to step back and embrace some bigger picture issues for a while.

Enter Women & Philanthropy.  In my five years working for the organization, I have had some incredible learning experiences both externally, and internally, including working on the organization’s transition from a stand-alone organization to becoming a project of the Council on Foundations.  I also had the opportunity to join the board of directors of Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues.  The organization had just made the bold move to incorporate gender, racial and economic justice to its mission, and it was a great match on many levels.

So here I am at The Women’s Foundation, and while the term “baggage” generally has a negative connotation, I feel like my set of professional luggage is well packed and I am looking forward to using its contents productively and successfully here at The Women’s Foundation.

Like so much of my professional career, I feel as though this was a path that was drawn for me without me even realizing it.  Like a moth to a flame.

I am just thrilled to be here, to be part of this great team, working under the leadership of Phyllis and Marjorie, and to be able to directly support the dedicated women and organizations doing phenomenal work on the ground to change the lives of women and girls, and indeed everyone!

There is such energy, passion and drive here.  For the first time in quite some time, Monday mornings aren’t quite so difficult to manage!

I am looking forward to the many opportunities we will have to work together.  In the meantime, don’t be shy! I can be reached at ncozier@wawf.org or 202.347.7737 ext. 203.