I blinked and nine years went by.

Okay, my eyes were open most of the time, but it is truly hard to believe that it has been nine years since my first Washington Area Women’s Foundation board meeting in 2000.

As I roll off The Women’s Foundation’s board – and onto the Board of the global Women’s Funding Network – I look back with a feeling of privilege and pride and still envision the promise yet to be realized by this dynamic organization and community.

When former president of The Women’s Foundation, Anne Mosle, asked Jane Fox-Johnson and me to join the board, we were both enthusiastic, but cautious. 

I told Anne, “Sure, I will join your board, but I will not ask anyone for money.”

What a difference a decade makes.

As she predicted, it soon became second nature to want to invite others into The Women’s Foundation’s big tent, because I was confident that our work was both effective and necessary. 

From Community Bridges in Montgomery County, to Tahirih Justice Center in northern Virginia, to FAIR Fund in D.C., The Women’s Foundation has had the privilege to support more than 100 organizations through grants, technical support, convenings and more. 

And, in the course of doing so, has established itself as an anchor in the Washington metropolitan area.

As I prepared for my final board meeting and reflected on where we are today, I found myself drawn back to the values and attributes that have made The Women’s Foundation unique and special.  When I reflected on our  “first principles,” and remembered that the common denominator of our success and growth has been our intense and purposeful attention to them, the core values that came to mind were:

• In Washington, it is easy to define “diversity” merely on racial terms. But our commitment has always been, and will always be, to inclusion in its broadest – and constantly changing – sense. We can always make the tent bigger, but come to the Leadership Luncheon on October 20th and you’ll see what I mean in one room;
• Collaboration – sometimes with unlikely allies – and true partnerships have been hallmarks of our work. We call our grantees “Grantee Partners” and we mean it.  From a philosophical standpoint, we believe we find better solutions through partnerships. And in this tough economic time, leverage is a key and necessary element of our impact;
• I lost track somewhere around 2004 of the number of times people shook their heads and said, “But how can you do that, you are such a small organization?”  But from day one – and with Anne and Marjorie’s steadfast leadership, and now with Phyllis and the current team – one of the most exciting aspects of being part of The Women’s Foundation has been a willingness to step into uncharted territory, experiment wisely, and create breakthroughs because of it.  I hope this never changes;
• Honoring the past and those who paved the way for this stage of our work has always been a core component of who we are. From our founders to former board and staff leaders, to the early funders who took a chance on us – inspiring women and men have provided outstanding leadership.  I thank them personally and say it has been an absolute honor to work side by side with you to make a difference for women and girls in our region; and,
• Finally – and for those of you who know me – humor and fun have been integral to the spirit and, I believe, success of Washington Area Women’s Foundation. We take our work extremely seriously, but we can’t take ourselves the same way. Some of my strongest memories are of laughing with girls at one of our Grantee Partner’s programs…and dancing with my fellow board members at our retreats.

It has been an awesome privilege to call myself a member of this board – and I am excited to remain part of this community as it continues on its amazing journey.

Donna Callejon served on The Women’s Foundation’s board of directors from 2000-2009.  As of July 2009, she is a board member of the Women’s Funding Network and also serves on the boards of Nonprofit Village in Maryland and GlobalGivingUK.  In her professional life, she is the Chief Business Officer of GlobalGiving.

The stock market may be going up – but, unfortunately, other economic indicators, such as unemployment and homelessness are, too.

This means continued down times for many D.C. families, particularly low-income, women-headed families.

To make matters worse, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty is proposing cuts to key social welfare programs that more and more residents are turning to in their time of increasing need.  Specifically:

• Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Proposed cut: $6.2 million. According to Stepping Stones Grantee Partner, DC Women’s Agenda (DCWA), about 50,000 low-income parents and children in DC receive TANF, and 90% of the adults in these families are women. The current TANF benefit for a family of three is the same as it was in 1991 – and provides families with only 29% of the poverty line;
• Workforce Development. Proposed cut: $5.4 million. According to U.S. Department of Labor (based on data reported by the city), more than half of the adults in the publicly funded workforce development system in the city are women;
• Adult Literacy. Proposed cut: $2 million. According to the DC government, a majority (55.1%) of those served in publicly funded adult literacy programs in the city in 2007 were women; and,
• Local Rent Supplement Program. Proposed cut: $2 million. Originally an addition to the budget by the City Council, this funding would have extended housing assistance to an additional 180 families, mostly headed by women, according to DCWA. Now it is in serious jeopardy, as are the additional families that could have benefited.

Local groups (including many Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation), under the umbrella of the Coalition for Community Investment, have organized the Save our Safety Net Coalition to help prevent these cuts from being realized.

I urge you to join them in the fight against these damaging cuts.

Gwen Rubinstein is a Program Officer at The Women’s Foundation.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.  

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.   

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.    Along with these daily updates, continue to visit the Washington Area Women’s Foundation for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.    

Here’s this week’s news: 

• Continuing the debate on healthcare reform, it is unclear if federal tax money may be used for abortions under President Obama’s plan, according to a New York Times article.
• In an effort to help low-income teen mothers, prenatal classes are being held at Perth Amboy High School for the first time, as reported in the Star-Ledger.
• A struggling single mother of three profiled in the Wall Street Journal will see her welfare benefits cut as a result of California’s struggles to balance its budget.  
• The Belleville News-Democrat covers a female developer’s fight to open a maternity home for at-risk mothers despite local opposition.
• The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on its own efforts to help an elderly woman find a low-income electricity plan.  

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org    

To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.    

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team 

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

My thoughts today are with all of the working women (and it is mostly women) who got a raise today when the federal minimum wage increased to $7.25.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up more than two-thirds (67.8%) of hourly workers paid the minimum wage, even though nearly the same number of women and men work in jobs paid hourly rates.

This increase is undoubtedly a welcome help to many low-income, women-headed families in our region.  While it only adds up to $112 per month (pre-tax), for someone working full time, it is more than a 10% increase over the previous minimum wage of $6.55.

Still, much remains to be done to improve the economic security of low-income, women-headed families, including further attention to the minimum wage.  Even with this increase, today’s workers are still behind, compared to 20 years ago, when the minimum wage was $2.90 – which is $8.62 in 2009 dollars.

Gwen Rubinstein is a Program Officer at The Women’s Foundation.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty. 

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.   

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.  

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Friday.    

Here’s this week’s news: 

• An editorial in The Wall Street Journal argues that the least-skilled groups, including “welfare moms,” will be hurt the most by an upcoming minimum wage hike.
• A domestic violence shelter that offers safe haven for women with nowhere else to go reopened thanks to funding from a local philanthropy group and the United Way, as reported by The Chicago Tribune.
• Women living in New Orleans participated in protests demanding that the Housing Authority of New Orleans provide them with long-anticipated housing vouchers, according to a Times-Picayune article.
• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette interviews Judy Bannon, a woman who has campaigned to ensure that low-income mothers are able to provide their children with a safe place to sleep.
• The Philadelphia Inquirer profiles the mostly female volunteers who feed the hungry and homeless through a cooking contest sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger.
• The Washington Post covers the critical situation in D.C. hospitals, which are seeing increasing numbers of patients, including several low-income women profiled by the article, going to emergency rooms to receive primary care.

To learn more about Spotlight visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.  

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team 

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

You know how they say you should be the change you wish to see in the world?

Well, now you can make the change you want to see in the world for women and girls!

And, becoming a change agent for our region’s women and girls will only cost you your spare change!

How?

Through The Power of Giving Together, The Women’s Foundation combines gifts of all sizes to make larger gifts that really make a difference for women and girls in our community.
So, while your spare change may not seem like a lot, when we combine it with everyone else’s, it is!

And, it will help fuel our work, which helps make make financial literacy, better jobs, health and safety, and affordable, quality child care and early education a reality for our region’s women and girls.

So, click here to ask us for your free change purse.

We’ll send it to you, you’ll fill it up and then mail us a check or make a gift online for the amount of change you gathered.

Then, we’ll combine it with the gifts of others to change the lives of our region’s women and girls!

And you can keep the purse as a reminder of how you helped make change for our region’s women and girls!

If you have any questions or would like to request a number of change purses for a group activity, feel free to contact me at lkays@wawf.org or 202.347.7737 ext. 202.

Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s Director of Communications.

I wanted to share a story from a recent case of human trafficking in D.C. that Polaris Project handled to show the impact of the work we’re doing and how The Women’s Foundation plays a role in it. 

Like many others, Rosa* was struggling to find employment.  While at the mall, Rosa was handed a business card and told about the opportunity to become a waitress. Rosa called the number and set up an interview.  When she arrived, she was pulled into a vehicle and taken to a brothel.  Rosa was forced into prostitution and suffered horrific abuse and threats. Thankfully, she found a moment to escape, ran outside, and flagged down a moving bus.  The driver called 9-1-1. Once the police arrived and identified Rosa as a trafficking victim, they immediately contacted our on-call staff to provide emergency assistance.

We provided Rosa with her first meal in three days and clothing and accompanied her to the hospital for treatment.  Rosa is steadily recovering.  She secured safe housing and hopes to reconnect with her family members living outside of the United States.

The Women’s Foundation has been really ahead of the curve in recognizing human trafficking as a grave danger to women and girls in our community and across the country. 

I wish that the story I provided was a rare case, but we help people in similar situations on a regular basis.  With the support of The Women’s Foundation, Polaris Project has helped 50 trafficking victims locally in 2009 and provided more than 850 nights of shelter through our transitional housing program in D.C.

The support The Women’s Foundation has provided has been really important to our local efforts.

*Name was changed to protect the identity of the client.

Tayler Wilhelm is the Senior Development Officer with Polaris Project, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation and winner of the 2009 Leadership Awards online vote.

There is something about being with a group of women and sharing the collective spirit of a common purpose that turns delight into magic and conversation into revelation.

On Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending a recruitment event of the African American Women’s Giving Circle. Though a little warm outside, the heat was no match for the cool conversation and comfort of good company.

Held at the home of Claudia Thorne, one of the circle’s co-chairs, the meeting reminded me more of a neighborhood cookout than a recruitment event!  The pot-luck table was spread with all manner of sumptuous foods from catfish and chicken to lasagna and Thai noodles – a temptation to even the most disciplined of “weight watchers.”

More than 20 women gathered together on the screened porch – old friends, new friends, and Grantee Partners– a.k.a., friends in the making.

Out on the lawn, a brother and sister duo from the Cultural Academy for Excellence (CAFÉ) Positive Vibrations Youth Orchestra regaled us all with their steel pans.

If that had been all there was to the day, it would still have been a perfect way to spend an afternoon!

But again, there is something about being with a group of women and sharing in the spirit of a common purpose that turns delight into magic and conversation into revelation.

This was my revelation.

We are all challenged about how to make adjustments to our spending and saving habits to insulate the best we can from the effects of the economy.  And often, one of the first ways we do that is by pulling back on our philanthropic giving.  Because for most of us, giving is a “luxury,” something we do when we are in a place of abundance.

As a donor myself, I have to admit that I have been tempted to “rethink” my giving in order to feel more “secure” in otherwise uncertain times.

But yesterday, as I sat and listened to the stories of appreciation and gratitude, from the Grantee Partners attending the event, the voices and visions of so many of our Grantee Partners and the communities they serve, echoed in my head.

The grants made to the organizations in our community working on behalf of women and girls are anything but luxuries.

The work being done by these organizations, and so many like them, often on already shoe-string budgets, are the heart and life blood of our communities.

They cannot be separated from us or our priorities, even when resources are tight.

Sandy Jibrell, one of the founding members of the AAWGC and member of The Women’s Foundation’s board of directors, spoke about her motivation for participating in the giving circle for what is now her fourth year.  And while I know that I will not capture the eloquence and passion with which she spoke, the message is still an important one:

We are one community. When a woman is able to care for her family and see her children succeed, we all succeed. When that woman stumbles, and those children slip through the cracks, we all lose. Because we are they.

From the time he was on the campaign trail, President Obama talked about not being able to separate what was happening on Wall Street from what was happening on Main Street.  And maybe we all agreed in spirit, but perhaps Main Street and Wall Street were just too far away to feel the real weight of that sentiment.

As we sat on that porch in Cheverly, Maryland, we felt the inextricable tie to Prince George’s County (where CAFÉ is located), to Anacostia (where Ascensions, another AAWGC Grantee Partner, is located), to NE Washington, D.C. and all of the other places that have been touched by grants from the AAWGC.

The ties that bind us to these organizations and these communities are not defined by a proposal or a grant period.  And ultimately, their impact is not about a set of metrics or a report.

It is about how all of us will either rise together or fall together.  Because we are they.

Their survival is our survival. Their challenges are our challenges. Their successes are our successes.

And in times of economic crisis, it is more important than ever to make sure that these organizations have the critical support they need to continue doing what they do.

So when people ask me if I am sure that this is a good time to be recruiting for giving circles, or soliciting donors, my response is, absolutely!

Now, more than ever. And I say that not as a member of The Women’s Foundation staff, but as a donor and someone who knows more than ever that we are they.

So I thank this group of dynamic women for the wonderful food, the good company, and the very important revelation.

Nicole Cozier is The Women’s Foundation’s Philanthropic Education Officer.

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, a national foundation-led initiative, is excited to collaborate with The Women’s Foundation to bring you the latest news and analysis on women and poverty.

Spotlight is the go-to site for news and ideas about fighting poverty.

For daily updates and links to past articles, check out “Women and Poverty.” It’s a new section of our site with a comprehensive collection of recent news and analysis on women and poverty.

Along with these daily updates, continue to visit TheWomensFoundation.org for our weekly rundown of the top news stories on women and poverty every Monday.

Here’s this week’s news:

• A scholarship program designed to help single mothers out of poverty plans to shift their fund-raising efforts into overdrive after learning that the Massachusetts state budget eliminates their public funding, as reported by The Boston Globe.

• Traditionally male-dominated industries are experiencing a much bigger hit in the recession than female-dominated industries, causing women to suffer much lower unemployment rates nationally, according to a Wall Street Journal article.

• A New York Times report on the surge of families who are becoming homeless as the school year ends includes interviews with several mothers struggling to find housing for themselves and their children.

• The Boston Globe reports that the number of female service members who have become homeless after leaving the military has jumped dramatically in recent years, according to new government estimates.

• A Los Angeles Times article on a new summer program for children in inner-city Los Angeles includes an interview with a mother who credits a similar program with her children’s safety and success.

• The New York Times covers a story about two elderly women who promote recycling at General Grant Houses, a sprawling Harlem public housing development.

To learn more about Spotlight, visit www.spotlightonpoverty.org.  To sign up for our weekly updates with the latest news, opinion and research from around the country, click here.

The Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity Team

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity is a foundation-led, non-partisan initiative aimed at ensuring that our political leaders take significant actions to reduce poverty and increase opportunity in the United States. We bring together diverse perspectives from the political, policy, advocacy and foundation communities to engage in an ongoing dialogue focused on finding genuine solutions to the economic hardship confronting millions of Americans.

If there’s a time to tackle the virtual frontier, it’s now.

DC Abortion Fund is a grassroots nonprofit that is 100 percent volunteer-run that provides financial assistance to low-income women who are seeking abortions but cannot afford the full cost of the procedure.  The dedicated people that keep the confidential hotline running do it on their lunch breaks and at dinnertime. 

I sit at my desk each day and have one Twitter profile up for my job and another one up for DCAF.

With a budget of under $60,000 each year, I look for every free or low-cost option out there to raise DCAF’s profile in the community.  This keeps about 95 percent of our funds free to increase women’s access to reproductive healthcare.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are growing bigger every day and are now a major vehicle for 20 and 30-something people to get news and information.  But I don’t want to stop there. These social networking sites are easy-to-use and create a space for every person to be an advocate for DCAF – through a tweet, reposting a link, joining a Cause or RSVPing to an event.

Others see what you’re doing and join in – it’s the essence of grassroots organizing.

DCAF is plugged in and communicates with everyone through our Website, our E-news, and our Facebook page – everyone except our clients.  The women we serve have cut off their cable, pawned Christmas presents and skipped their electricity bills for months to keep a roof over their heads.  Our clients are not looking for DCAF in the online world; they hear about us from friends and family, or get referred to us by our partner clinics.

In years past, DCAF advised clients to sell things – a TV, a bike – anything that could give them an extra $20.  But in these tough economic times, they sold everything they could months ago.  They are in debt.  They are often out of work.  Many have kids and are struggling to keep food on the table.  They turn to us because the idea of increasing the size of their family during this recession is simply not a reality.

To those who have access to the Internet superhighway, join our networks and follow DCAF on Twitter and Facebook.  It’s the best way for nonprofits like us to have a conversation with you. 

And become an activist – an Internet activist – and harness the power you have through your computer or Blackberry.

It has never been clearer; we are only as strong as the community that supports us.  The opportunity to plug in is there for all of us reading this blog and we must open the door. 

It’s knocking!

Visit our Website and sign-up for the newsletter.
Join our Facebook Cause (DC Abortion Fund) or Fan Page (DCAF).
Follow us on Twitter.

Allison Mitchell is a member of DC Abortion Fund’s board of directors.  DC Abortion Fund is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.