Author: Phyllis Caldwell

An Important Message from the President of Washington Area Women's Foundation

Posted on by Phyllis Caldwell

The fall is a really special time of year. More than any other season, it signals exciting beginnings as we all return renewed from the slower pace of summer.  It’s also the fundraising season – a time when we attend benefits, write checks, and implore our supporters to help keep our organizations going.  Here at Washington Area Women’s Foundation, our main focus in the past few months has been on our own fall fundraiser, our annual Leadership Luncheon.

I’ve been a participant in the Leadership Luncheon for several years, first as a guest, then as a donor, and now as President of The Women’s Foundation.  Since the first time I sat around one of the tables and heard about the work of The Women’s Foundation and its Grantee Partners, the Leadership Luncheon has been my favorite fundraising activity.  It brings together a cross-section of wonderful women who participate. They are a terrific group who put together and take part in an amazing event.  The Community Briefing held in the morning right before The Leadership Luncheon, always provides stimulating insight into the programmatic work of The Women’s Foundation. 

Each fall, the Leadership Luncheon has been an opportunity for me to reconnect, and share; introduce others to the cause, and inspire and be inspired.  No matter where I’ve been in my life, I’ve always found a place in October around one of the tables at The Women’s Foundation Leadership Luncheon. 

On the eve of our 2009 Community Briefing and Leadership Luncheon, I’m anticipating it with bittersweet excitement: it will be my last Leadership Luncheon as President of Washington Area Women’s Foundation – though it certainly won’t be the last time I attend.  The Women’s Foundation was my among my largest philanthropic investments before it became my career, and I will remain dedicated to its mission, even as my role in it changes.

That role is shifting because I have accepted the Chief of Home Ownership Preservation position in the Department of the Treasury, Office of Financial Stabilization.  It’s a position that will allow me to continue all of our efforts to make sure that families are able to buy and keep affordable homes.  As we all know, owning a home is critical to wealth creation for women-headed households in particular.

I will be leaving The Women’s Foundation staff on October 30th, however I remain a member of the Washington 100 donor network.  As a donor, I’m confident that The Women’s Foundation and its supporters will have no problem continuing on with our important mission: changing the lives of our region’s women and girls.

When I look back at the many Leadership Luncheons I’ve attended, one stands out most clearly.  At the 2008 Leadership Luncheon, the guest speaker at the event was “The Community.”  We heard from a broad range of people and found out what participating in and benefiting from The Women’s Foundation meant to them.  As those of you who attended recall, we saw a live community-based performance that showed the diversity and passion of the women and men who participate in The Women’s Foundation and our Grantee Partners.

The idea behind that play laid the groundwork for the theme of this year’s luncheon: Be That Woman.  Be That Woman is a phrase that represents the ways in which we’re all connected; the way we all help, and motivate, and inspire, and transform one another.  It’s a movement that you’ll be hearing more about in the coming months.

We can all Be That Woman (or that Guy Who Gets It!) for the people in our lives who need encouragement, advice, help or inspiration.  I first attended the Leadership Luncheon because someone was That Woman for me.  I’ve loved having the opportunity to Be That Woman for others. My title may be changing, but my commitment isn’t, and I’m going to continue to Be That Woman for The Women’s Foundation.  As this fundraising season comes and goes, I hope you continue to Be That Woman.

Phyllis Caldwell is President of Washington Area Women’s Foundation.

It's not always easy being green, but The Women's Foundation is trying.

Posted on by Phyllis Caldwell

A few weeks ago, a former staff member of The Women’s Foundation wrote us a thoughtful note in response to our annual report, wherein we’d explained that part of our reasoning for a shorter, more streamlined report was environmental concerns.  She rightly pointed out that our terminology regarding "going green" could be interpreted as misleading, unless The Women’s Foundation had truly adopted a full green strategy.

We were grateful that a member of our community had taken the time to point out the potential miscommunication in terms of environmental terminology, as The Women’s Foundation is not yet fully green.  On the other hand, we have made tremendous strides in aligning our business practices and work with environmental sustainability, which I thought I would share.

When I joined The Women’s Foundation, there was little attention to green.  Given our focus on building a movement of women’s philanthropy over the past 10 years, and addressing the serious challenges facing women and girls in our region, we had little time or resources to focus on our environmental practices. 

However, with the celebration of our 10 year anniversary this year, we took the opportunity to step back and reflect on what we wanted The Women’s Foundation to look like over the next 10 years, and determined that trying to be more green would be one of our internal priorities where possible.  As a staff, we set out to examine our practices in comparison, and to change those that we could. 

Even still, admittedly, The Women’s Foundation’s last annual report and recent collateral have not been as green as they could be. This is partly due to cost and partly due to our reliance on in-kind communications vendors who will comp services but not all the way up to the added expense of recycled paper or soy ink.  Candidly, given the economic conditions, we couldn’t come out of pocket for the difference. 

However, here is a sense of the Top Five “green” moves The Women’s Foundation has adopted over the last year.  While not where some would like to see us, it has been a major shift in our day-to-day business operations:

  • Recycling in the office – We negotiated with the building management to get desk side paper recycling boxes for each employee and a large box in the kitchen.  We added glass and bottle can recycling in the office for staff and meetings;
  • Recycled paper – We use recycled paper for all internal printing and correspondence on plain paper. For cost reasons, we have not moved that way for our letterhead in terms of cycling and ink content but hope to. We would welcome a donor that wanted to make a donation to expedite some of the transition.
  • Electronic banking/check scanning – We scan and remote deposit checks and keep electronic records. We still have some paper backup, but are moving to an electronic payments environment. Donating online is very simple. I encourage you to try it and experience the quick email acknowledgement;
  • Annual report – This year’s annual report was done in a shortened format, with additional information available in an online version.  While the print version still wasn’t perfect in terms of going green, it was certainly produced within the spirit of the real changes that occurred in the office during the fiscal year; and,
  • Elimination of the luncheon program guide – The 2008 Leadership Luncheon had the sponsors on the screen with the program booklet intended to be a 10th anniversary takeaway that could be reused. It wasn’t on recycled paper for the cost/in-kind reasons above, but it was content that had a shelf life beyond the luncheon.  2009 Leadership Luncheon leave behinds will be even smaller.

While many of these things could be viewed as cost saving measures–and in some way they are–rather, these changes are part of how I lead in general and, like all things with The Women’s Foundation, change is slower than one would sometimes like.

Phyllis Caldwell is President of The Women’s Foundation.

Annual report is a reminder of the "priceless" value of our pro bono partners.

Posted on by Phyllis Caldwell

I’m looking at our latest annual report, which is hot off the presses. It tells our story succinctly and poignantly—both in words and photos.

Looking at it is a reminder not only of all that The Women’s Foundation accomplished last year, but of the tremendous support we get from a number of pro bono companies that make those accomplishments possible.

So, in the spirit of annual report season, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge those who contribute to our work through their generous pro bono help.

The following companies have truly made a difference in the success and impact of The Women’s Foundation in ways that are visible and some that are behind the scenes. In many ways, we are who we are because of their contributions, because their support is what enables us to tell our story, and the stories of the women and girls we serve.

So, without further ado, our sincerest thanks to the following pro bono partners:

AXIS Communications, which designed the branding platform and Power10 campaign that have contributed so much to our messaging and ability to tell the story of our impact.

The Bivings Group, which designs and currently maintains our Web site, including the online votes we’ve held for the past two years.

Colella Photography, which provides photography of countless events, Grantee Partners and everything in between for our reports, luncheons, Web site and every other marketing piece we have.

EFX Media, which has diligently provided support in graphic design and video production for our reports, Leadership Luncheons and everything in between for years.

Rosenthal Partners, which came on board this year to design our latest annual report and continues to support us.

These companies are a true representation of what it means to work in partnership with nonprofits to improve your community, together. Their support is crucial to our work, now, more than ever.

And we’d encourage you, if you’re seeking services in these areas, to consider working with them. Not only are they outstanding professionals, but they’re invested in helping build a stronger region for all of us.  And as we all know, that’s good business.

Phyllis Caldwell is President of The Women’s Foundation.

Rainmakers give hope, in addition to grants.

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When I saw Becky’s inspiring post earlier this week about the first Rainmaker’s Giving Circle meeting, I couldn’t help but throw in my two cents as well.

Like Becky, I was also struck by that meeting because it was such an indication of hope to see so many women gathered around the table that we had to scramble for chairs and space to squeeze everyone in.

Given the recession, I had been concerned that we’d have the opposite problem.

Instead, not only was the room packed with women who had, as Becky said, given serious thought to their commitments and decided to reaffirm their investments in The Women’s Foundation, the Rainmakers and our region’s women and girls, but the group was seriously committed to thinking through how to best invest their funds so that they would be of the greatest impact.

As I sat and listened to the dialogue about how to best help nonprofits serving women and girls in this economic climate when increasing needs would make decision-making and prioritizing even tougher than in the past, I was struck not by the bad news that was at the core of the conversation, but by a sense of overwhelming hope.

For the conversation was not only an indication that women in our region are ready to continue to prioritize their investments in our region’s women and girls, but also that the wisdom, intelligence, thought and strategy that they put into how they invest will help ensure that funds invested in women and girls through women’s philanthropy, will, without a doubt, have a tremendous impact on our community.

Phyllis Caldwell is President of The Women’s Foundation.

Where are the investments in the sector that invests in others?

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There is nothing funny about this recession; however, I can’t help but find a bit of irony in what an understatement my words were about the economy back in June, when I was talking to the Washington Business Journal about wanting to pull the covers over our heads because of high gas prices and foreclosures.

Would that those were our worries today.

We didn’t know then that the entire financial industry was about to collapse with foreclosures being the first real human face of the crisis. Or that there would be record setting unemployment throughout the country with little end in sight.

But today, we know. We’ve emerged from under the covers to find that our worries now require action—often in the form of tough choices, including staff cutbacks.

As a leader, it is never easy to lay off staff, but as I had to make that difficult decision two weeks ago, it was particularly difficult given that I know that The Women’s Foundation is well-positioned and relatively stable compared to many other nonprofits.

Still, we are not immune from the impact of this down economy. And if we are not, then I know that our sector as a whole is in a very troubling spot.

I was reminded by Diana Aviv’s Washington Post op-ed, “Where Stimulus Funds Can Make a Difference,” that I am not alone in my concern.

“Buried in last month’s staggering unemployment numbers,” she wrote, “are the thousands of nonprofit workers now without jobs. These losses do more than damage the lives of the employees—they also undermine services that the unemployed and other vulnerable groups desperately need in these troubled times.”

And this sector is not an insignificant one. As Aviv says, nonprofits employ 13 million people—more than the finance, insurance and real estate sectors combined.

As Isabel V. Sawhill at Brookings writes, “But there is one big sector that got left off the [stimulus] list: human infrastructure—in the form of investments in the nonprofit sector…By including this sector we can take advantage of a huge network of institutions that work hard every day to improve the welfare of communities and individuals, that will spend the money quickly, that have the capacity to spread the dollars widely, and that in the absence of such help will need to shrink and thus become another drag on the economy.”

And I would be remiss if I didn’t point out another striking trend in this sobering reality, which is that layoffs affecting the nonprofit sector will not only be a drain on the economy generally, but will disproportionately impact women, who make up the majority of employees of the nonprofit sector—70 percent in fact.

It begs the question, that we asked on this blog more than a year ago, of if the nonprofit sector isn’t seen as bailout material because it employs a majority of women and that inherently, we as a society continue to devalue "women’s work"—despite the reality of its magnitude and impact as outlined by Aviv and Sawhill.

It’s also important to note that many of the services provided by nonprofits serve the needs of women and their children—from domestic violence shelters to job training programs that move families out of poverty to advocacy groups that help ensure pay equity.

And through our work, we know that that investments these organizations make in women and girls pay high dividends for our communities and country as a whole. For instance, in our work, over three years, investments of $5 million in our region’s low-income women, have yielded a return of almost $20 million in increased assets and income for them.

Pretty much exactly what you want at a time when you’re trying to spur economic spending and growth.

It seems unfortunate then that as the country takes on talk of bailouts and finalizes the new stimulus package, that nonprofits haven’t gotten as much attention as the auto industry or the finance sector.

As my colleague, Gwen Rubinstein, noted earlier this month, the stimulus is in many ways a potential win for women.

But neglecting the nonprofit sector leaves vulnerable one that not only employs a significant number of women, but serves our families, communities and country as a whole at a time when the social and financial safety net is more important than ever.

Phyllis Caldwell is president of The Women’s Foundation.

Congratulations to Doreen Gentzler, Washingtonian of the Year!

Posted on by Phyllis Caldwell

It is just like Doreen to accept an honor as huge as being named Washingtonian of the Year by turning the attention back to The Women’s Foundation and the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo—two community efforts she supports tirelessly.

But that’s exactly what she did Monday night on the news when her co-anchor, Jim Vance, proudly announced her award. Doreen’s response was about how pleased she was that the award brought attention to Washington Area Women’s Foundation and the NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo.

Having worked with Doreen, who serves on our board of directors, I echo Jim’s statements about Doreen’s commitment and efforts in our community.  She has been a tremendous force in fostering The Women’s Foundation’s success, serving first as part of our Rainmakers Giving Circle, and then as a board member and co-chair of our philanthropic leadership network, Washington 100. She also brings an amazing presence and energy to our Leadership Luncheon, which she graciously emcees every year.

As just one example of Doreen’s commitment, she—along with her co-chair, Barb Strom Thompson—helped solidify Washington 100 by recruiting more than 100 founding members to kick off the network in 2007. Many of the current members will say that they were impressed and inspired to join and to remain part of the network by Doreen’s outstanding positive energy and dedication to our work.

In addition to her tremendous talents as a communicator and her knowledge of our community, Doreen brings humility, humor, grace and passion to everything she does, and I know that I speak for everyone in The Women’s Foundation’s community who has had the opportunity to meet or work with her that we are very fortunate to have her involved in our work and mission.

Doreen, here at The Women’s Foundation, we are tremendously proud of you and are thrilled to see your contributions to our region acknowledged by this award.  Thank you for your continuing service to help improve the lives of our region’s women and girls.

Congrats Doreen, and to all the other 2008 Washingtonians of the Year. We’re grateful for the work you do to make our community a better place to live and work.

Read the article on Doreen’s award here.

Phyllis Caldwell is president of The Women’s Foundation and a member of Washington 100.

Arts are an important investment, even when resources are tight.

Posted on by Phyllis Caldwell

Looking at the recent grants issued by our two giving circles, they may seem a bit counter-intuitive given the current economic climate.

Some have asked me why I believe funding the arts for girls is so important when there are many other pressing issues and priorities in our city, and funds are so tight.

But I’m proud of these recent funding choices by our African American Women’s Giving Circle and the Rainmakers, who chose this grantmaking cycle to invest in the Cultural Academy for Excellence (CAFÉ), a music arts program for girls in Maryland, and The Art League, an art mentoring program for at-risk, pre-teen girls in Virginia.

I salute these choices because in tough economic times, so often the arts are among the first cuts made in schools and programs for youth.

And at The Women’s Foundation, it is part of our mission to encourage philanthropy that focuses on filling the gaps where services are most needed and our support can make a unique, significant contribution.

I am a long-time supporter of the arts. I serve on the board of the Cultural Development Corporation, which is committed to supporting artistic outlets in Washington, D.C. that also create economic return for our community.

I personally invest in the arts because I believe that they are a fundamental part of the health and vibrancy of any community, contributing a space for dialogue, reflection, spiritual and emotional growth and intellectual challenge. The arts remind us of our shared humanity.

Similarly, the programs our giving circles have chosen to support use the arts as a means to help our community’s young women to build self-esteem, academic skills, and an expanded sense of their place in their community and the world.

Opportunities like these are all-too-often lost in communities and families where resources are limited and must be directed to more basic needs like food, shelter and clothing.

So, at a time when attention is focused on where to cut back so many programs and opportunities, I’m proud to see our giving circle members taking the lead in recognizing the need for youth in our area to imagine and create a future based on all of their unique talents and potential.

Whether they lie in a book or on a computer, or on a stage or blank canvas.

Phyllis Caldwell is president of The Women’s Foundation.

This is a time for strategy, smart investing and sacrifice on the part of foundations.

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Last week, I had to inform my staff of two decisions—that will be the first of more, I am sure—that I never would have expected to make when I took this position almost a year ago.

As we hired staff earlier this year—filling several positions that had remained vacant in anticipation of my arrival—we planned to take over some additional space in our building to accommodate everyone comfortably.

We have put that decision on hold.

Times are different now, and with predictions that more than 100,000 nonprofits nationwide could close in the next two years, we’re considering all of our operational spending very carefully, and doing what we can to ensure that despite the downturn, we’ll be able to maintain—if not grow—our grantmaking over the next few years.

Our mission is to support our region’s nonprofits as they work to change the lives of women and girls.  Many of the organizations we support are small, or just starting to establish themselves. They have lean staffs and do their programmatic work on a shoestring budget.

So, rather than making sure that we have enough space behind our doors during these tough economic times, we’re turning our focus to doing what we can to help our Grantee Partners keep theirs open and providing critical services throughout our region.

This is a time when strategy, smart investing and sacrifice are going to be required of foundations, just as they are of individuals, to ensure that the impact of our giving is as meaningful as possible.

To that end, the staff at The Women’s Foundation recently completed a strategic retreat to reflect on our priorities, goals and how we can meet them as efficiently and effectively as possible during this economic cycle.

Last week , we sent out an email asking staff to bring their own lunches to the retreat, as food and beverage costs for meetings and other events are another way that we’ve identified to cut costs and keep the focus of our spending on our work.

It may seem like a small gesture, but over time these decisions will add up and allow us to focus resources where they are needed most—with the women and their families who are being disproportionately impacted by this economic downturn.

This is similar to our strategy of increasing the impact of gifts—whatever their size—by combining them with the gifts of others so that when we give, we give more and your dollars go further.

In many ways, applying The Power of Giving Together in every way we can has never been more important.

Phyllis Caldwell is president of The Women’s Foundation.

Fireside chats at Camp CEO reveal mixed messages facing today's young women.

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After taking a few weeks off this summer, I’ve returned to The Women’s Foundation re-energized and excited about the coming months.

Having the time away also gave me time to think about the power of inspiring people to change the course of our lives and work by changing our perceptions of what is possible. I started thinking about this as I prepared my blog on one of my personal heroes and role models, Madame C.J. Walker, and the last few weeks have continued to lead me down this trail of thought.

Particularly my experience at Girl Scout Camp CEO, where I joined other women executives at to spend time with young women leaders in high school talking about the skills and qualities that lead to success and leadership in the corporate world—and life in general.

Spending a hot summer day roughing it with these bright, energetic young women, and sharing my experience as a woman in business and now as the leader of a nonprofit, reminded me of the importance of the mentors that had made a difference for me—that had inspired me to think of my potential in terms far greater than I might have imagined on my own.

As I worked on badges and sang camp fire songs with these young women, I was inspired by their confidence, their intelligence, and their proud sense of all they could do in this world. Of their sense of unlimited potential, and of their determination to unlock it in themselves, and in each other.

I couldn’t help but wonder who their role models were, and what messages were helping them develop this broad sense of who they could be?

Was it the impact of seeing Hillary Clinton run for president, or knowing that Nancy Pelosi was the first female speaker of the House that had to do with their bold ambitions? Was it seeing Michelle Obama’s successful career, poise and leadership as the potential first African American First Lady?  How much of their optimism was driven by their mothers, their sisters, their teachers, their Girl Scout leaders?

But as the week wore on, and many of the young women were far more able to identify and discuss a contestant on American Idol than Nancy Pelosi, it struck me that their hard-won sense of place in the world had emerged through a far more complicated set of messages than I could have ever imagined—even with two daughters of my own.

For their role models seemed to be the contestants on the reality shows they followed enthusiastically, which showed them that fame and fortune could happen overnight. And the movie and television personalities—from Beyonce to Angela Jolie — who made it look effortless to achieve lifestyles of incredible wealth and fame, and stunning good looks.

These figures were such a far cry from the hard working, disciplined, bright, serious women before me with expectations of success in a diverse array of careers that I couldn’t help but wonder where the balancing messages came from.

Were there real life examples of success of political, academic or medical leaders that touched them?  Who are the voices that have been able to cut through the many messages that tell young women that their worth is their appearance, their ability to fit in, the size and shape of their bodies?  Who have been the examples that have, like Siobhan reminded us earlier this month, shown them that a woman is evaluated for her mind far more than her looks, for her mental strength more than the numbers on scale?

This led me back to thinking about last year’s Leadership Luncheon, and the power of the stories shared by Laceiy and Sharan, about how they overcame harsh obstacles to utterly transform the course of their lives—about how they were shown the power of their potential and found the strength to unlock it.

Even when it seemed someone had not only hidden the key, but thrown it away.

And this is the power behind inspiration, I realized.  And why the voices of those close to the young women at Camp CEO–the voices of their personal mentors and role models—are able to get through to them, cutting though the chatter of easy success and glamour that is thrown at them every day from every angle.

And why Laceiy and Sharan had found the strength to change their lives.

Not because someone on TV told them to. Or because a movie inspired them. Or because they saw someone do it on Project Runway.

But because real people shared their stories—their defeats, their challenges, and their obstacles—and how they overcame them.

And in so doing held up a mirror that showed not only what was, but what could be.

And that is why I’m so re-energized and thrilled to be back at The Women’s Foundation and the work we do here. Because our work is precisely that—to hold up that mirror for women and girls throughout our region.

And to ourselves.

For by coming together, and giving together, we are able to see that our collective potential to change lives—and our community—is unlimited.

And that’s what is so exciting for me about the Leadership Luncheon.  Because giving together is at the heart of our work every day, all the time, but the luncheon is the opportunity to see it, to feel it, and to experience it all at once, in one room, at one time.  To truly understand the power of real people to come together to show one another—whether a CEO at a high-powered corporation or a woman on the journey to change her life—that, acting together, we can do anything.

That’s a true power lunch.

Phyllis Caldwell is president of The Women’s Foundation.

Beauty isn't just skin deep. It should also be defined by deep pockets.

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I was thrilled when the Dove representative told me how they’d found us.

"We did a Google search for “inspiring women,” she said, and we came up with a blog on your site by Wendy Weaver.

I can’t think of a better Google search I’d like for us to pop up on, since inspiring is really our business.

Our donors and volunteers inspire us, and each other, every day. Our Grantee Partners inspire change in women and girls throughout our region. And those women and girls inspire our staff, board and supporters to continue to give back and grow the powerful wave of women’s philanthropy we’re all creating together.

It feels good any time that this is recognized publicly, even by a search engine.

Dove was looking for inspiring women to invite to be guest columnists on their Campaign for Real Beauty site. They asked me to write a brief reflection on a woman that has inspired me in some way.

I chose to write on a long-term hero of mine, Madame CJ Walker, the first African American woman millionaire, a model of philanthropy and a smart, savvy business woman. She began life as a slave, and ended it a brilliant entrepreneur making the first hair products especially designed for African American women.

As I was writing the piece, which will be posted in the coming weeks on the Dove site, I couldn’t help but think about the relationship between women and body image—the very issue Dove is addressing with their site.

And how for many women, their perception of their worth, their beauty, their self-esteem, their bodies, is dictated by an externally imposed sense of what is beautiful—rather than by an internal acceptance of all the quirks and differences that make us all unique.

Yet, there are far fewer external voices dictating notions of what women should do with their money, how they should feel about their money, what they should expect from their money.

Women are to shop, to buy, to consume.

Buy this face cream, this outfit, these shoes, and you’ll look fine, be fine.

The messages that make it an equally powerful expectation that women will save, build wealth, take control of their finances and feel good about their wealth are rather quiet in comparison, keeping women, and particularly young women, focused on youth-saving face creams, rather than on financial savings—which is crucial to economic security and wealth building.

And to building a secure retirement plan.

Because all the face creams in the world don’t actually stop the aging process or the future from coming.

In retirement, women are far more likely to face poverty than men, because older women are far more likely to be unmarried, they live longer on average, and because Social Security doesn’t tend to pay women as much as men, just to name a few reasons.

But whatever the savings goal—be it retirement, a home, a college degree or a car—I wish that women received more messages that inspired them to invest in their own financial futures than they did to invest in losing weight, looking younger or dressing better.

Because there’s nothing more beautiful than a woman in control of her finances and her future.

Phyllis Caldwell is president of The Women’s Foundation.