Washington Grantmakers just released its annual giving report, "Our Region, Our Giving 2007."

I haven’t had a chance to look over the whole report yet, but I did have a chance to steal some stats from their blog.

It seems that investing in the Washington metropolitan region is taking off, even if Newsweek is talking up giving globally this week.

According to the annual giving report, in our area:

• National foundations have more than tripled their investments in our region, with $1.5 billion today compared to $407 million in 1992;
• Local foundations are investing 63% of their philanthropic dollars in this region – a significant rise from only 46% fifteen years before; and,
• The assets of the region’s community foundations have grown from $31.5 million to $412.5 million.

Nothing to shake a stick at.

And just to round it out, here are some figures on how the philanthropic landscape looks in our region when seen through a gender lens–from our 2003 Portrait Project.

• Women-led foundations oversaw more than $141.2 million in giving in 2001.  However, analysis of 12,000 grants made in 2003 by the top 100 foundations showed that of the $441 million in grants paid, only $30.7 million–or 7%–went to women’s and girls’ programs (a trend still reflected nationally as of 2006).  Of those, only about half went to organizations in the region.
• Only 2.86%of grants made by foundations formed between 1996 and 2003 in the Washington metropolitan area currently with assets of at least $1 million went to women’s and girls’ programs.
• Women lead 28 percent of the largest foundations established in the region since 1996.
• Women play a significant role in the management of the top 100 foundations, directly leading 34 of them and serving on the boards of 85 in 2003.

Now, I know you’re wondering…where does Washington Area Women’s Foundation fit into all of this after being around for nearly a decade?

Washington Area Women’s Foundation:

• is the only donor-supported public foundation in the region that works to improve the lives of low-income women and girls and to increase philanthropy by all women (i.e. 100% of our grantmaking is devoted to improving the lives of women and girls).
• The Women’s Foundation currently provides more than $1 million annually in grantmaking devoted to women and girls in our region.
• Since 1998, The Women’s Foundation has provided more than $4.1 million in grants to more than 100 outstanding Grantee Partners throughout our region, all working to change the lives of women and girls.
• The Women’s Foundation is one of the fastest growing women’s funds in the country.

And that’s after just 10 short years.  Just imagine what we’ll do in the next 10. 

We’re more motivated than ever, particularly given the ever-increasing importance of focusing grantmaking, strategy, discussion and advocacy on the needs of our region’s women and girls. 

Because women and girls are worth way more than just 8%.  So, to make up the difference, we’re giving them 110% and growing, and changing the lives of everyone involved along the way.

Inspired by Roxana’s post on women entrepreneurs and the study Trinity University conducted for The Women’s Foundation about how to support them, I couldn’t help but click when I came across an article in the Jacksonville Times-Union called "Women mean business: $18 billion worth."

The article cited a study that showed how women-owned businesses in northeast Florida had made an $18.8 billion impact on the local economy and created more than 200,000 jobs.

The study was done similarly to the way that Trinity had done theirs in our area, and revealed some of the same findings.  Including how women just feel that they can do better on their own, rather than working for someone else.

The article states, "For some reason, [women] think they can do better on their own than somewhere else," said Gwen Martin, managing director of research at the Center for Women’s Business Research. "From these numbers, I’d say they’re right."

It all got me thinking more about the local statistics about women-owned businesses, and the power of investing in women entrepreneurs–and in programs that build their skills and help them step out on their own.

Programs like those found in the directory of women’s small business development that Roxana created with her students.

It got me to thinking about the status of women-owned businesses in our area.  From the Center for Women’s Business Research I learned that as of 2006:

• In D.C.: There are an estimated 21,706 privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms, generating $5.4 billion in sales and employing 20,667 people.  Between 1997 and 2006, the number of these firms in the District of Columbia increased by 52.3 percent and sales increased by 48.7 percent.
• In Virginia: There are an estimated 243,756 privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms, generating more than $42 billion in sales and employing 320,198 people. These firms account for 40.2 percent of all privately-held firms in the state.
• In Maryland:  There are an estimated 210,751 privately-held, 50% or more women-owned firms, generating more than $32 billion in sales and employing 223,760 people. These firms account for 41.2 percent of all privately-held firms in the state.

Not too shabby, particularly when you consider the challenges that women face in developing a small business, and particularly low-income women like those featured in the Trinity study.  The challenges cited include access to start-up funding, credit issues, lack of business knowledge and training, time constraints, family commitments, health insurance and a fear of failure.

Given that, it would make sense then that one of the study’s most important questions would be why a woman, and particularly a single, low-income woman without another breadwinner in the home, would even attempt it. 

The study found the following answer, "…As minority low-income single mothers, they are more likely to have experienced difficulties and disadvantages in the labor market. Inadequate income, lack of opportunities to build wealth and assets, insecure jobs, little opportunity for advancement, poor working conditions, and conflicts with supervisors appeared to encourage these women to consider self-employment as a more desirable option than their existing wage employment…"

Trends that sound similar to those expressed in a recent DC Women’s Agenda post on the challenges facing women wage earners in Washington, D.C.

Then there are the Portrait Project’s findings that throughout our region, women earn less than their male counterparts with the same level of education, due largely to the fact that women are crowded into fields that offer lower wages and fewer benefits.  Nationally, for instance, 23 percent of women are in administrative support roles (compared to 5.4 percent of men) and 17 percent of women are in service jobs (compared to 11 percent of men).  When women do hold professional or managerial jobs, they earn from $12,000 to $16,000 less than their male counterparts.

So it may be that women are feeling that they can do better on their own because, by and large, they can–particularly for low-income women looking at jobs that don’t provide stability, security, insurance or paid leave.

The risk of starting a business may seem small in light of the potential reward of succeeding.

And given the statistics about women-owned businesses in our area, it certainly seems as though investing in their success has a similar risk/reward ratio and is highly likely to pay off. 
 
As the Times-Union article stated, "We can reduce that stress so they can get on with the rest of their lives, whatever their dreams might be."

Learn more about how our Stepping Stones initiative is helping women in our area fulfill their dreams–from owning their own business to advancing in a secure career.  And how you can get involved!

Becky Sykes, Executive Director of the Dallas Women’s Foundation, wrote in the Dallas Morning News last week that when you help a woman, there’s a ripple effect.

Spoken like a true international development specialist, often quoted as saying, "To educate a woman is to educate a family," or other statements that tie the welfare of women to the welfare of families, and, by default, entire communities.

But Sykes accurately ties this accepted aspect of work developing communities abroad to the work of women’s foundations operating in communities throughout the U.S. 

Because the same principles that apply internationally to developing communities and the status of women also apply here at home, even if they are harder for us to see. 

Sykes writes, "International development studies and projects have shown time and again that an investment in women – more than any other – is the fastest and surest way to affect an entire community.  Here in North Texas, we often mistakenly assume that the needs of women and girls are not as critical as in other, less fortunate communities. What a dangerously incorrect assumption."

Sykes notes the realities that make this true for Dallas, and our region is no different.  Our Portrait Project has shown that in the Washington metropolitan area:

• Women-headed households, especially those headed by single mothers, suffer disproportionately from the region’s growing poverty.  In the District of Columbia, 30% of women-headed families live in poverty – above the national average and the highest in the region.
• Women still earn less than their male counterparts. In Fairfax County, where the discrepancy is largest, men’s annual median earnings outpace women’s by $18,700. 
• In 2000, in the District of Columbia, women-headed families at the median income ($26,500) could afford to buy only 8% of homes in the city. Many families are faced with childcare expenses that consistently exceed earnings. For example, the estimated cost of childcare in Montgomery County for an infant and a preschooler is $15,329, more than one-third of the median income for women-headed families in that county.
• Despite the improvement in the rates of teen pregnancy, communities in our region still lag behind in infant-mortality rates, a key indicator of healthy pregnancies. The District of Columbia and Prince George’s County have the highest infant mortality rates in the region.
• The District of Columbia has a higher incidence (new cases) of AIDS among women than anywhere else in the country. The rate of new AIDS cases among adolescent and adult women in the District of Columbia is 10 times the national rate.

As Sykes explains, " When you see women in trouble like this, it is often an early warning signal of deeper, growing problems. Because, just as helping a woman has a ripple effect, so does letting her sink into poverty and disenfranchisement."

Luckily, there is another side to this story, one of communities coming together to invest in programs and work that supports women, lifts families out of poverty and creates stronger cities, neighborhoods and regions for all of us. 

And when they do, the level of impact and transformation they achieve can be astounding.

That’s the work of foundations and funds like The Women’s Foundation that are operating throughout the country and world. 

As Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations has noted repeatedly, "Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, or to reduce infant and maternal mortality. No other policy is as sure to improve nutrition and promote health—including the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as powerful in increasing the chances of education for the next generation."

Just as these problems are not unique to countries and communities abroad, neither are the solutions.  The power of Investing in women is a principle that is just in true in Mauritania as it is in Maryland. 

Ready to invest in the single most effective strategy for improving your community?  If you’re in the Washington metropolitan area, learn more about The Power of Giving Together.

Elsewhere, visit the Women’s Funding Network to find a women’s foundation or fund near you.

In Fairfax County, more babies are born in August than at any other time of the year. Working parents who added children to their families this summer face tough choices this fall. 

Will they be able to find child care that will allow both parents to go back to work?

“More than one-fourth of mothers who don’t work say the reason is that they can’t find good or affordable child care,” says Judith Rosen, director of the Fairfax County Department of Family Services’ Office for Children.

The Office for Children runs the Child Care Assistance and Referral program, which helps families find and pay for child care. This free service gives parents information about 2,100 providers who have state licenses or county permits to care for children in their homes, and more than 300 licensed child care centers. The Office for Children ensures that child care providers with county permits have met the health and safety standards required by Virginia law.

In Fairfax County, 56 percent of households with children 12 years-old or younger have both parents working outside the home. The demand for child care continues to grow as a result of the county’s low unemployment rate and high cost of living. Among children from working families, 73 percent are regularly cared for by someone other than a parent.

“Parents without dependable child care can become worried and distracted employees who, despite their best efforts, end up repeatedly missing work or dropping out of the workforce altogether,” Rosen says.

The Office for Children helps reduce employee stress by helping parents find care for their children.

For more information about child care providers in Fairfax County, call the Office for Children at 703-449-8484, or search the online database.

Lois Kirkpatrick is the Marketing & Strategic Analysis Manager for the Fairfax County Dept. of Family Services Office for Children. 

Do you have something to say about child care, or other issues impacting women, and particularly low-income single moms, in Virginia?  Join Washington Area Women’s Foundation for a Voice and Vision Forum in Fairfax County, Virginia on November 16.  Come learn about the impact Stepping Stones is having on women’s lives in Northern Virginia and throughout our region, and offer your take on how we can best shape its second phase–with a focus on child care and the health and safety of women and girls.

According to today’s Washington Post, there’s good news to celebrate for our region’s women and girls–a declining teen pregnancy rate over the past decade.

In Washington, D.C., Arlington and Prince George’s County, teen pregnancy and birth rates have markedly declined–along with those around the nation–and have inspired hope that programs aimed at young people–and especially young women–are working.

A few take-aways from the article:

• Investing in issues that impact women and girls works.  For everyone.
• To be effective, efforts require a unified effort across communities.
• Investing in messages and work that protects the health and well-being of women and girls does inspire marked behavior change.
• Efforts to truly impact diverse communities, such as Latinas, where rates are, unfortunately, still rising, requires approaches that view challenges, problems and program design through a culturally appropriate lens.
• Providing information and access to health care to young women leads to wise decision-making.

In all, a very hopeful picture about the power of investing in women and girls.

But there still remains much work to be done, particularly in our region.  In Montgomery County, teen birth rates crept up this summer.  Alexandria’s teen birthrate increased over the past decade, and experienced only a minimal decline in its teen pregnancy rate.  Rates among Latinas are rising.

Overall, however, a hopeful picture of how investing in programs, messages and people that improve the health and well-being of women and girls does lead to positive change that impacts not only those women and girls, but their families and entire community.

A great message to carry with me as I prepare for Thursday’s Leadership Awards meeting, where a group of volunteers who have been working for the past few months to evaluate and learn more about innovative, effective nonprofits that are impacting the health and safety of our region’s women and girls, will award eight of them with a Leadership Award of up to $10,000.

The news from this article is a great note on which to finish up our efforts this year–and to remember that the decisions we make about how we invest our money, and the organizations and issues that we support, do have a defining impact on the health of our community.

It’s nice to have a voice in work that’s really making a difference.

The Leadership Awards committee is just one of many ways that you can be involved in the work of changing women’s lives through The Women’s Foundation.  Learn more.

Sometimes a handshake is returned with a hug. Not always, but sometimes.

This was my experience walking into Friends of Guest House–one of our Grantee Partners–for the first time this past weekend. When the director introduced me to a young woman–a fifth grader who was there visiting her mom–my outstretched hand was summarily discarded in favor of a hug.

This greeting of unconditional acceptance was symbolic of the work of Friends of Guest House, a transitional house that empowers former female prisoners in Alexandria and Arlington to kick addictions and secure employment.

Women apply to the program from prison, where they write an autobiography about themselves and request admittance into the program upon their release. In some cases, women are admitted to the guest house in lieu of jail time.

The first phase of the program is a stay at the house to help the women get on their feet–to get the counseling they need to avoid returning to previous behaviors, secure jobs and save the money necessary to start a new life. The women then leave the house and move into the after-care program, where they remain under the care of the guest house, receiving follow-up visits, group counseling sessions and other supports to ensure that they stay on the pathway to achieving their goals and ambitions.

This weekend, regardless of where they were on this pathway, it was clear that the 11 graduates of the after-care program were leaving completely transformed.

“The women look totally different. I didn’t recognize them. Look at you, after the work is done. All those smiles. Look at you,” said one of their counselors who had known them as prisoners, and then as women doing the hard work of recovery and rebuilding.

Every speaker echoes this sentiment. No one seems to be able to believe their eyes. Are these the same women they had known before?

But the transformation isn’t only in their faces.

As an alumni of the program explained, Friends of Guest House provided a turning point in her life. “It’s an honor to be invited here today,” she said, “because before the only message I received was ‘get out, stay out.”

This was at the height of her addiction to cocaine, when she was homeless and hopeless, and had had her children taken from her.

Until she wrote a 20 page autobiography and was accepted by Friends of Guest House, she says.

Today, she has her children back, has had a job for three years, is in school studying to be a dental assistant and, in October, she and her children will be moving into their own place.

“My name will be on something else other than a warrant!” she said proudly.

A board member explained that she hears the transformation in the women through their speech. First, no one talks, she said, while they’re getting the lay of the land. Then, she hears a lot of “I” statements. Then “we” statements. Then it’s, “I’m gonna try, I’m going to do…”

This, she says, is when she knows the transformation is complete, and it’s a process she believes in. She serves on the board even though she lives in Maryland. “I come across the Wilson Bridge to help at Friends of Guest House,” she said, “because I believe in the power of women. I believe in the spirit of women.”

Involvement like hers is crucial, explains Friends of Guest House’s director, Kari Galloway. “It truly takes a whole community to do this work,” she said, and it is done with the collective hope that the women would continue to fulfill their goals, by moving from renters to homeowners, going from employees to employers (one graduate already has!) and giving to others.

This seems to be the final stage of transformation expected, of going from receiver to giver. From their counselor came the words, “What was freely given to you—give back. Help those behind you. We need your help. Some people come in and don’t believe us. We need them to see you. We need you to talk to them. We need them to see your experience, strength and hope.”

The graduates were rich with all three.

As they shared pieces of their stories–including months of hard-won sobriety, the establishment of a successful family business and even the relocation of the graduation ceremony to city hall–it was clear that their lives had been transformed through the second chance they received at Friends of Guest House.

And that by writing down their stories to ask for a new beginning in their lives, they wrote their ways to an exciting, hopeful new ending as well.

It does take a community to do this work, which is why The Women’s Foundation supports Friends of Guest House and other nonprofits throughout the Washington metropolitan region investing in women and girls. Join us in supporting work that transforms women’s lives. Get connected at our 2007 Leadership Luncheon. We’d love to see you there.

As program assistant here at The Women’s Foundation, I get the opportunity to take in grant and award applications such as those for Leadership Awards, where I get a glimpse of what different issues nonprofits are tackling these days.

A good sprinkling address sex trafficking and other forms of human trafficking, bringing home for me how this problem is impacting our community. 

Law enforcement officials in Maryland report that one of the state’s fastest growing crimes is labor and sex trafficking.  WTOP reports about the extent of trafficking in Montgomery County, Maryland   In 2006, police uncovered a possible human trafficking ring in Loudon County, Virginia.  And in Washington, D.C., officials are working with local nonprofits to reduce the amount of sex trafficking.

Human trafficking, defined by Ayuda, a Grantee Partner, is "the recruitment, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining, by any means, of any person for forced labor, slavery, peonage or servitude in any industry or site such as agriculture, construction, prostitution, manufacturing, begging, domestic service or marriage."

As defined by a number of nonprofit groups, human trafficking is modern day slavery. 

And a form of slavery we often think of as occurring outside of our country–let alone our region. 

Ms. Magazine just ran an article on this issue, and it is documented at the Tunnel of Oppression exhibit at the University of Maryland. 

It was at this exhibit that I became aware of the issue of trafficking, even though it has been going on for such a long time.

Polaris Project, another Grantee Partner, provides an estimate of more than 100,000 trafficking victims enslaved in the U.S.

It is sex trafficking specifically that interests me, largely because of its implications for women and girls.

The California nonprofit Captive Daughters offers a daunting estimated figure of two million women and children held in sex trafficking worldwide.

The sex trafficking industry, and I use the word industry because of its pervasiveness, seems to permeate in some way, shape or form all parts of the world. Daunting and astonishing are the only words I can use to describe my reaction to the research I find on this.

Captive Daughters talks about the Philippine’s tour packages. They are all inclusive, including one’s option to purchase sex from a female prostitute working as an entertainer.

PBS’s Frontline has a story on how five women, from Moldova, Ukraine, Turkey, and Hungary, were tricked (in some cases by their friends) into this abusive industry (in exchange for money), and finally managed to escape. The interviews with the women, available online, are saddening and disturbing.

What makes me really angry about all this, besides the pervasiveness and inhumane feeling the process must induce in its victims, is why it’s so prevalent.

It speaks to the priority of the almighty dollar, and the level of sexism, and devaluation of women and children that people still hold worldwide. Not that having more male or female victims makes sex trafficking better or worse, but the industry is disproportionately made up of women and children.

And isn’t this a theme?  Don’t women and children still disproportionately suffer from issues that help make them more vulnerable to trafficking such as poverty, hunger, and physical abuse locally as well as abroad?

Many of the women who get tricked into the sex trade are lied to and promised a new job in the new area they are being taken to. Deborah Finding, team leader of The POPPY Project, talks about what her project does to help female victims of sex trafficking, and steps we can take to reduce in the number of women trafficked.

For one thing, she says there should be greater public awareness. 

I agree, and find a perfect example of how U.S. media has a role to do this but doesn’t.  This week, I learned from CNN and MSNBC more about Lindsay Lohan’s arrest than anything else.

What about the grave issues that are eating away at the life and quality of life of women worldwide?  Why can’t we talk about these more? Why can’t the stories of those five women from the Frontline special be the hot topic of the news for two days in a row?

So, until the media does a better job of raising the voices and issues of women and girls, we can all start by learning more about how we can prevent and report human trafficking in the U.S.

There are individuals, groups, and great nonprofits in the U.S. and abroad educating on and working with victims of sex trafficking, but they need more support and recognition–and I’m left wondering how this will come about when there is so little information circulating about these realities.

My sense is that if this isn’t going to be a regular national media story, it falls upon us to continue to learn what we can, to act individually and support the local nonprofits tackling this issue, and to continue to support–together–the local organizations working to prevent and combat this phenomenon.

In our region, The Women’s Foundation is supporting Grantee Partners that are tackling human trafficking occurring right in our backyard.  They include:  Ayuda, Polaris Project (through their Greater DC Trafficking Intervention Program), CASA of Maryland and Tahirih Justice Center.

Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) (a Grantee Partner) just released a very cool new tool for our region: the D.C. Metro Area Self-sufficiency Calculator.

With funding from the Freddie Mac Foundation, WOW created the calculator to serve as "an online career and financial counseling tool that will help thousands of the region’s most vulnerable families move out of poverty and gain financial independence," WOW’s press release explains.

It works like this:  "The Self Sufficiency calculator is more than a tool; it offers concrete strategies in moving on a path to prosperity for the whole family while providing benchmarks and outcome information that will inform policy and practice from housing to workforce strategies…by helping struggling parents compute their earned wages and develop a financial savings plan to meet their families’ basic needs."

It will be made available, and used by, "several hundred local government agencies, nonprofits, libraries, and other organizations to help educate families about the cost of living in the District and throughout the region, how their current income compares to their specific self-sufficiency wage, and how to use the calculator to map out a plan for short and long term financial independence."

Women, and particularly single mothers, are the most economically vulnerable population in our region, and therefore have a tremendous amount to gain from this tool, and the research behind it. 

The use of this tool to link low-income women in our region to better paying, more stable jobs and to save towards their family’s economic security will no doubt greatly impact a vast number of children, families and our community as a whole in a positive way.

Now, that really adds up!

To learn more:
WOW press release
DC Metro Area Self-sufficiency Calculator
WOW Web site