WOMEN'S COLLECTIVE GIVING GRANTMAKERS NETWORK
Annual Meeting - APRIL 10, 2014
Remarks by Colleen Willoughby
"YOU CAN'T RESPOND IF YOU DON'T KNOW"
- I'VE ALWAYS FELT YOU HAD TO LEARN BEFORE YOU COULD LEAD.
Today we celebrate a watershed moment in the life of WCGN. Our first incorporated and official annual
meeting of members. Let's give ourselves a hand on this occasion and thank the members of our now
board of directors for making this moment happen.
I have always loved the sage comment Eleanor Roosevelt once penned: "The future belongs to those
who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
Mother Teresa said, "The ocean is made of drops."
We are both today....dreamers of possibility, and like an ocean, we have become a force by our
collective number.
Our network has grown member-by-member, and fund-by-fund across the United States. Together we
have become a new major asset for our communities, and at the same time become collegial partners
within the network by our shared learning together.
A shout out to the women at the Idaho Women's Charitable Foundation for inviting us to what became
the first network conference in 2008. At the time it wasn't an official conference, but the women in
Boise invited us to join their members and help them celebrate their first million in grants. Many of us
here today were there. In addition to also going to Sun Valley to visit the Wood River Women's
Charitable Foundation, we were treated to a wonderful two days of learning in Boise. The educational
program for that meeting was a text, a new book by Paul Brest, then president of the Hewlett
Foundation in California, titled, "Money Well Spent". The Boise women titled their celebration, "A
Million Well Spent Dollars."
You know from the history of WCGN in your notebook the rest of the story - San Diego, Austin, Texas
and now beautiful St. Louis. 7,500 members - $58 million - and counting.
A wonderful success story. But one might ask, why women, why now??? Times have changed for
women in this generation. We are so lucky to be living now.
In 1995 when Washington Women's Foundation began, statistics reported that women owned 61% of
the wealth in the U.S. We were told that there will be a several trillion dollar transfer of wealth over the
next decade. Actuarial tables told us that women will outlive men by at least 5 years.
This is the first generation of women as wealth generators. I used to say, " There are now two kinds of
women - the newly minted (my daughter) and the newly discovered (my friends)," who were brought
up with a different construct of who earned and managed the wealth in families. This change has been
the result of independence, increased education and expanded employment opportunities for women
today.
At the same time, the need for our generosity continues to grow. I remember a cartoon, I often shared:
two women - "I know, Isabel, bake sales are tried and true, but we have to raise $5 million here." The
stakes are higher today.
Today's donors are expecting engagement in their charitable giving and making gifts and grants while
still living are no longer rare. Sam Stroum, a very significant philanthropist in our town always said, "I
want to give while I can watch my interests grow."
With more money available, larger grants are possible. But training and education is necessary if large
strategic impact grants are to be successful. Patsy Collins, a WWF mentor told us, "Philanthropy is easy
if you give everyone $50 bucks." She was also the one to encourage us to think big. She counseled, "We
have only one way to thank those who gave us our community, and that is to take care of it. There are
'no pockets in our shrouds,' so it is up to us today, to fulfill our promise to the future.”
That is what our funds are doing today. Standing on the shoulders of women who have gone before us
and fulfilling our dreams for the future. I refer you to a great read by Claire Gaudiani - Daughters of the
Declaration. She describes these women who mapped the way, as the social entrepreneurs who built
the American dream.
It is exciting to be a grantmaker in our organizations today We gain intimate knowledge of the project goals through hands-on participation
We develop relationships with the new people we meet in these organizations
The transformation we witness is a satisfying accomplishment.
"It is not only the dollars we give, but the dollars we influence" with this information and these
connections.
From this close association with our grant experiences we learn:
The financial fragility of not-for-profit organizations from reading the tax forms 990, and close
personal association with the executive directors and staff.
We understand how the money we grant is used - and follow the results in our regular
assessment conversations -- often providing guidance or changes along the way.
We are accomplishing great work in our communities - some examples:
providing quality child care to low-income parents who are pursuing college degrees full-time,
giving voice to sexual abuse intervention in Spanish-speaking communities,
creating culturally and linguistically appropriate health resources for refugee women,
restoring historic community treasures,
providing college access for disadvantaged students,
preserving organic farmland, making fresh food accessible and farming sustainable.
The beauty of philanthropy is, it is not all about fulfilling need. We can also create opportunities.
Three examples The story of a couple in New York, and their quote, building a theatre for
graduates of professional schools who need performance and audience experience
before they are ready for the main stage.
"If all that was ever done in the name of charity was to redress dire need in the
world, we wouldn't have the Sistine Chapel or Handle's Messiah, or the
beautiful mosaics in the St. Louis Basilica just down the street. Those beautiful
things might seem frivolous to some people but they touch our soul, and if you
don't engage with things that touch your soul, what are you doing here?" Bill
and Judy Bollinger
Katya Matanovic -established an international non profit, One by One, to help
cure fistula - a devastating condition for women after childbirth - now with active
successful programs in Africa.
Holly Freishtat - now, the first food director in the city of Baltimore. It started
with an $85,000 grant to save agricultural land in a rural county in Washington.
Combining fresh food and health to inner cities and providing access to fresh food to
neighborhoods who do not have it now.
Last Friday, I attended an early morning breakfast (7:00am) to hear Madeline Albright, our first U.S.
woman Secretary of State and now teaching at Georgetown University. She was speaking at an annual
breakfast for Seattle Pacific University. She was wonderful, witty and sharp. She gave us much to think
about - megatrends today that influence our behavior, democratization of information because of
technology, globalization and our growing inter dependence among nations. Heady topics that beg our
attention.
But it was the young alumna of the university now working for Washington Global Health Alliance that
riveted my attention.
She spoke about the cathedrals of yore, where people labored patiently, putting brick by brick in place
year after year, knowing they would never live to see its completion. Bill Shore has written a book, The
Cathedral Within. He tries to understand the feeling that gives the cathedral such a unique flavor and
texture. It’s more than aesthetically pleasing art and craftsmanship. It suggests something
monumental, not about the cathedral as a building, but about the act of building it, about the forces of
humanity marshaled on behalf of this creation.
I ask - can our collective giving organizations be so imaginative and creative? Can we venture, and
innovate and build the necessary cathedrals of our time? That is the challenge, and this young woman
looked us all straight in the eye, and said,
What is the cathedral you are building today?
We are fortunate today that our collective giving organizations have changed the face of philanthropy.
It is no longer an elite old men's club. Women are engaged and are making significant investments
either alone or in concert with others. There has been a paradigm change. "We may not all be wealthy
women, but we hold great wealth in common." What is our vision for the future, what dreams are we
fashioning into reality?
The spirit of caring for others is in our DNA. Our American genes. Our constitution urges us to work
toward "a more perfect union." And our declaration reminds us, "We mutually commit to one another
our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." Powerful expectations of our citizenship. But we in the
WCGN network are ready. Across this land, women are empowered with leadership roles in community
after community, utilizing not only their valued time and talent, but investing the financing capital that is
necessary to build the cathedrals of our time.
John Gardner, a posthumous mentor of mine, said "helping each generation to rediscover the meaning
of liberty, justice, the words on the monuments is a perennial task for any society. Instead of giving
young people the impression that their task is to stand a dreary watch over their ancient values, we
should be telling them the grim but bracing truth that it is their task to re-create those values
continuously in their own behavior, facing the dilemmas and catastrophes of their own time. This will
strike some as a burdensome responsibility, but it will summon others to greatness." Members of
WCGN have heard the summons. They are building cathedrals - I can't wait until our next conference to
hear their stories.
When I was chair of our United Way, I had a poster on the wall in my office. It remains there today.
From the Rochester Community Chest of 1920.
It shows a little girl leaning on a crutch. I suppose it was about the time of the polio epidemic. The tag
line has always made me gasp!! It simply says, “Suppose nobody cared?” Just imagine, suppose nobody
cared?
Congratulations to you women of SOS for this wonderful conference. You have provided inspiration,
hospitality and collegiality and unparalleled energy to make it successful. We are truly grateful.
IF EVER THE WORLD SEES A TIME, WHEN WOMEN SHALL COME
TOGETHER
PURELY, SIMPLY FOR THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND
IT WILL BE A POWER SUCH AS THE WORLD HAS NEVER KNOWN.
- MATHEW ARNOLD
GOD SPEED AS YOU TRAVEL HOME. TRAVEL SAFELY.
COLLEEN S. WILLOUGHBY
APRIL 10, 2014
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