Women Give San Diego presents: Women 4 Women

Women Give San Diego presents: Women 4 Women

Women love to gather, collaborate and help. We often find ourselves searching for organizations whose missions align with our passions and offer us an opportunity to gather, collaborate and help other women. More often, however, we underestimate our power when we combine these innate tendencies and skills. This month, Women Give San Diego, presented an event that opened my eyes to our power and impact.

Women 4 Women was held on May 7th and was graciously hosted by Dr. Walter and Mary Munk at their magical home in La Jolla. The event was targeted towards membership recruitment and it proved to be so much more. In fact, that day presented the reasons why I was proud to be a member of Women Give San Diego and how we are unique in a very powerful way.

When I first arrived at the Munk's home I was immediately transported into a mystical secret garden like get-away. It was in this moment I began my list of reason Women Give San Diego is unique and powerful.

Number 1: The generosity of our members. Every event we create a new member steps up and offers their home to host. I don’t think we have had a host need to provide their home twice yet because so many members graciously offer to share their sacred environments for our events. Simply amazing.

Gradually, members and guests began to arrive and indulge in tasty food, silky wines (generously provided by 12 Signs Wine) and engaged in stimulating conversation. As I made my rounds I started to see people who I had relationships with outside of Women Give San Diego that I had not invited myself. I saw women who worked for Shakti Rising, another organization that supports women and girls in San Diego that I also volunteer for. I spent time connecting with two women that I graduated with from Francis Parker School. I was thrilled to see women from Leap to Success, an organization that I supported through acting in the Vagina Monologues. Interacting with old friends and new friends brought me to the second reason why Women Give San Diego is so unique.

Number 2: Community, Friendships and Mentorship. Over the last couple of years, through Women Give San Diego, I have broadened my network to include some of the most influential and special friends and mentors of my life. No other organization that I am involved in offers the same opportunities for these relationships or brings so many different women with similar passions together.

Our membership is so diverse in age, background and careers that it opens up opportunities to connect and build life-long relationships with women you wouldn’t typically meet in your social and/or career settings. More importantly, if you were to meet them somewhere else you might not connect with them on the level you do when you are in this environment. There is some unspoken energy that fosters connected relationships in this group. That evening members were taking the opportunity to engage with one another by facilitating connections between potential members and current members. By the time you left, it was almost guaranteed you had made at least one new connection and friend, if not multiple.

As the evening continued, people took their seats in an amazing garden-like amphitheater and one of our members, Dr. Jenn Gunsulas, began the program.

 

Megan Lim, our Membership Leadership Team chair had so eloquently coordinated this incredible event from start to finish incorporating as many members as she could to truly give guests a taste of what Women Give San Diego does and who we are collectively as a donor’s circle. As I listened to each member share a story of their own experience with Women Give San Diego or a story of the women and girls who have benefited from our grants thus far I couldn’t help but think of the next reason.

Number 3: Helping women and girls in our local community. Women Give San Diego is helping women and girls that are underserved here in our own city of San Diego. We are able to focus our grant dollars on organizations that are genuinely dedicated to helping provide real opportunities for these women and girls so that our money is a wise investment that will ultimately positively impact our society.

As the program came to a close and women began to mingle again I stood back and took in the vision of so many powerful women coming together for a not only worthy but needed cause. I realized in that moment that if we want the world to have more women like this, and we do, it starts with us providing the opportunities for those women and girls now so that along the way they too can give back and support future generations to come. Women 4 Women couldn’t have been a better title for this event because the entire evening was just that; Women connecting, collaborating, sharing stories and focusing on a cause together to help and support other women.

There are many more than just 3 reasons that Women Give San Diego is unique and powerful. Those three reasons are my main reasons. I invite you as a member or member-to-be to consider your reasons and join us as we continue to provide what is necessary to build stronger communities starting with our women and girls.