Author: Lisa Kays

Washingtonian: 64 ways to do good this holiday season, locally.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

If you’re looking for creative, different ways to give this holiday season, don’t miss this month’s issue of the Washingtonian, with their cover article, "64 Ways to Do Good."

The article features a lot of different ways to make your local community here in Washington, D.C. a better place, from volunteering virtually to coaching a kid.

We were also proud to note that 13 of the organizations listed are Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation.  Congrats on being featured to:

We’re proud to partner with these outstanding organizations!

Lisa Kays is Director of Communications at The Women’s Foundation.  Tia Felton, who works with The Women’s Foundation as an Urban Alliance intern, contributed to this post.

Tough economic times don't have to turn you into Scrooge.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

This is a cool Friday afternoon find.  Allison Fine and Marnie Webb have started an online project that is quickly catching on, asking people for ideas about how to give during this holiday season without spending a dime. 

The Give List already has tons of ideas posted, from Goodsearch (which is an easy online way you can even help The Women’s Foundation without spending a cent) to fun events that give back to helping a neighbor in need shovel their walk.

Check it out to post your idea or resource, or to find a way to give–what we call around here "beyond the check"–this holiday season.

As someone said to Allison and Marnie, “Just because I’m poor doesn’t mean that I have to be stingy!”

Well said.  Now, ready, set, give!

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

Giving circles proving a powerful way to give more by giving together–without breaking the bank.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

As donors try to think of a way to maximize their gifts at a time of such great need througout the country, a lot of attention is falling upon giving circles as an innovative way to give a lot–as a collective, without breaking the bank–as an individual.

MSN Money recently featured a piece called, "How to give away $500,000," highlighting the African Women’s Giving Circle as one example of how giving circles allow individuals to pool their resources and make their personal gifts go further.  Not to mention have fun and forge inspiring, powerful new friendships.

Additionally, PhilanthroMedia had a post recently on how a giving circle lets everyone be a philanthropist.

And, while not a giving circle, GoErie.com featured a story yesterday on how women in Erie are pooling their funds through the Erie Women’s Fund.  Each woman gives $1,000 a year over five years, resulting in their first grant of $50,000 to the "Listen, Mentor, Act Poverty Reduction Program."

If you’re in the Washington metropolitan area and are interested in learning more about getting involved in this growing trend that can help your individual philanthropy have a bigger impact through the power of collective giving, click here.  We have two giving circles currently recruiting new members.

Lisa Kays is The Women’s Foundation’s director of communications.

Through the Kitchen Door teaches culinary skills that nourish the body and mind.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

The day before Thanksgiving, as thoughts are turning to time with family and friends and, of course, holiday meals, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on the work of Through the Kitchen Door, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation that teaches culinary skills to low-income youth and adults as a pathway to better careers and nutrition in their lives.

Last week, the Washington Times ran a piece on Leisel Flashenberg, co-founder of Through the Kitchen Door, and how she and her husband came to create the organization while living in Costa Rica.

The article states:

In one 24-hour period, she [Leisel] says, she catered for a French ambassador who complimented her work and also heard from a woman who had participated in a training program Ms. Flashenberg had established for local women to learn kitchen skills — enough so that some could earn a living. 

The trainee told her: ‘Today I could pack up my children and leave the man who has been beating me for 25 years because I know now I can support myself.’

‘You can tell which one resonated with me the most,’ Ms. Flashenberg says. ‘The subtext became the curriculum of what we are doing today.’

A great story around the holiday that draws our appreciation not only to the value of a good meal in our lives, but in its ability to bring people together and nourish the soul. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

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

Stepping Stones Research Update: November 2008

Posted on by Lisa Kays

As part of our ongoing commitment–in partnership with The Urban Institute–to providing information and resources related to the goals of Stepping Stones, please find below a summary of recent research on issues of economic security and financial independence for women and their families.

This research is summarized and compiled for The Women’s Foundation by Liza Getsinger of The Urban Institute, NeighborhoodInfo DC.

Financial Education and Wealth Creation News

The Urban Institute explores whether low wage workers are are destined for low income at retirement.  (Abstract) (Full text)

Jobs and Business Ownership News

Harry Holzer asks whether living wage laws do (and can) matter. (Abstract) (Full text)

Child Care and Early Education News

The National Center for Children and Poverty finds that chronic absences as early as kindergarten have a significant impact on educational performance in first grade. (Abstract) (Full text)

DC could be a more family-friendly city through investments in education, affordable housing and revitalizing neighborhoods. (Abstract) (Full text)

Health and Safety News

The Kaiser Family Foundation releases new fact sheet on women’s insurance coverage.

Other News and Research

A nationational investment in children before they enter public schools would pay off. (Abstract) (Full text)

Washington Post story on local sex trafficking features work of two Grantee Partners.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Yesterday, Washington Post reporter Robert Pierre’s story, "Anti-Prostitution Initiative Taken to D.C. Schools," explains how children in D.C. are being coerced into prostitution and sex trafficking, and how agencies throughout the area are working together to stop this phenomenon.

Two of the organizations involved in this work are Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation: Fair Fund and Polaris Project.

Read the full story in the Washington Post here.

For more on Fair Fund’s work on this issue, and the report they just released on trafficking of youth in D.C. and Boston, or for information on how to get involved, click here.

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

Sex trafficking strikes in D.C. just as it does in Dakar or Dubai.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

When I lived in Africa and worked on girls’ education and HIV/AIDS prevention issues, I encountered what was known as the Sugar Daddy phenomenon.

In various countries in Africa, girls are the first to be pulled from school when money in a family is tight.  They’re also the last to eat, and the last to receive basic necessities like health care or clothes.  Busy with caring for siblings or fetching water, they also often go without much attention or sense of self-worth.

But Sugar Daddies are more than willing to make up for that. 

Older men, usually with means, they prey on these young women–sometimes as young as 11, 12, 13.  At first, they just show them attention, maybe by paying school fees or purchasing a new uniform.  Then, they might take a young woman out to dinner or pay for her to have her hair done.

All innocent enough.  Until he begins to convince her that she owes him and that her debt can be repaid with sex. 

I got all too used to seeing this in various African cities and villages, where poverty is rampant and there are few social services to assist vulnerable youth who may fall through the cracks into such situations.

Of course, now I’m all too used to hearing about it happening on K Street, in my city’s schools, throughout the region where I live.  In our nation’s capital.

It’s not okay that this happens to children anywhere, but there is something about it happening in one of our country’s wealthiest cities, just blocks and miles from the White House and Capitol Building, that I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to.

Which is why I was so pleased to attend an event on Tuesday evening hosted by Fair Fund–a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation.  The event brought together members of our community to learn more about how human trafficking and sexual exploitation are impacting youth in Washington, D.C.   

About how young men and women in this city are routinely entrapped by pimps who start out as friends or boyfriends and then demand a return on their kindness with sex, first with them, and then with others. 

And thus the cycle of entrapment in sex trafficking continues, here in Washington, D.C. just as it does throughout the world.

Here though, we are fortunate to have a committed coalition of activists, including Fair Fund and a number of other nonprofits and Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation (including Polaris Project, WEAVE, Latin American Youth Center, SMYAL, AYUDA, DC Rape Crisis Center, and Ascensions Community Services), who are all working together to break this cycle by advocating for a safe house to take teens to when they are pulled out of dangerous situations and building awareness among teachers, social workers and police officers throughout our community who can help identify, assist and protect young people who fall into this trap.

To learn more about this important work or to get involved:

Fair Fund’s new report documenting these trends locally: Pathways Into and Out of Commercial Sexual Exploitation 

3-minute interview with Fair Fund’s Executive Director Andrea Powell in the DC Examiner

WAMU radio piece on Fair Fund’s work and local sex trafficking

To learn more about how to get involved, visit FairFund.org.

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

The Women's Foundation and Catalogue for Philanthropy leverage collective wisdom.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending the 2008 Catalogue for Philanthropy awards ceremony, where we got a chance to hear from a number of past awardees about what recognition in the Catalogue has meant for them.

The wisdom of the Catalogue is based on the same wisdom that governs grantmaking at The Women’s Foundation.  The Catalogue brings together a diverse committee of volunteers–all experts in philanthropy at some level–to vet and evaluate potential candidates for the Catalogue, so that once in hand, philanthropists know that every nonprofit featured is doing excellent work and having an impact.

Similarly, The Women’s Foundation uses the power of collective wisdom in its grantmaking, placing the responsibility for decisions about funding in the hands of community members–whether through the Leadership Awards, grantmaking committee or a giving circle–and asking them to pool not only their resources, but their experience, perspective and wisdom to choose the most effective organizations in which to invest.

So it was no surprise to me today when I saw so many of our former Leadership Awardees and other Grantee Partners featured in this year’s Catalogue, or being honored as those who had best leveraged their appearance in the past. 

Among them, Fair Fund and A Wider Circle–2007 Leadership Awardees of The Women’s Foundation–are featured in this year’s Catalogue.

The Washington Middle School for Girls, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation and former Catalogue charity, was featured via film.

In addition, Ascensions Community Services and Friends of Guest House were honored for having taken full advantage of being featured in the 2007 Catalogue by leveraging various marketing, media and outreach strategies to increase their fundraising and build important partnerships throughout the community.

Looking through the Catalogue of the 2008 honorees and those of the past, there is a great deal more overlap between The Women’s Foundation’s Grantee Partner list and the Catalogue‘s selected nonprofits than I can list here.

All, I think, testimony to the value and power of investing in mechanisms that vet and evaluate the organizations working in our community through the common wisdom and involvement of our community.

In tough economic times like we’re facing now, when the needs are greater than ever before and resources are decreasing, there has never been a more important time not only to give to our community, but to invest wisely in it.

As Sidney Harman said during his remarks today, now is the time to give even more, not less, than we ever have before.   

Lisa Kays is Director of Communications at The Women’s Foundation and was a reviewer for the 2008 Catalogue for Philanthropy.

Women's philanthropy steps up as needs grow and other resources dwindle.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

This week, our president and a number of board members are attending the Indiana University symposium on "Moving Women’s Philanthropy Forward: Influences, Intent, Impact."

I look forward to hearing from them next week about what they learned, but in the meantime, news is already emerging about the issues being discussed.  Among them, that women are stepping up with their philanthropy at a crucial time when needs are growing around the country, and other resources are shrinking.

Stan Lehr wrote earlier this week that, "Women are emerging as philanthropists in a time when many feel they have less to give."

In her New York Times piece, "As Women’s Incomes Rise, So Do Their Donations," Elizabeth Olson explains that this trend may be because women have an inherent belief that those who have more have a responsibility to help those with less.

And as today’s economy worsens and that gap widens, the needs of those with less have never been more evident.

Other trends emerging in women’s philanthropy, writes Olson, include:

  • Women are more collaborative with each other in their giving;
  • Women give smaller amounts than men, but a higher percentage of women than men give;
  • Women are increasingly stepping out to make million dollar gifts; and,
  • Women’s giving tends to be focused on improving the lives of women and children.

So, while the economy may be taking a downturn and the uncertainty of changes with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are creating worry in philanthropic circles, there is an example of hope to be found in the trend of women’s philanthropy to step up and fill increasing needs as they emerge.

Because where there are leaders there is always the potential that others will be inspired to step up and follow their lead.

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

Grantee Partner explains why the color green can wake up a nation.

Posted on by Lisa Kays

Earlier this week, Deborah Avens, executive director of Virtuous Enterprises–a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation–offered a blog post highlighting her take on the recent news around the economy. 

Deborah explained in her post, "Why the Color Green Can Wake up a Nation," "’We must act now!’ are four words that have gained great momentum to bail out financial institutions (green giants) on the verge of bankruptcy or closure. These words have radically shaken the corporate giants and current administration from a deep sleep because they no longer see green, but red.  The words, ‘We must act now’ did not gain its popularity from the failing financial institutions. These words have been quite popular among advocates that have been working to restore the vitality of our debilitating communities due to spiritual, economical, and social woes.

To read the full post with examples of some of the most urgent issues that Deborah sees impacting low-income families every day, as well as posts on other topics–particularly those affecting women–visit her blog, Sister Table Talk.