Membership Meeting Recap

Membership Meeting Recap

October 8, 2012

Hosted at Hera Hub

By Renee C. Herrell

Monday night’s Women Give Membership Meeting was a successful gathering of our new and seasoned members. A special thanks to Megan Lim and Amy Harmon for organizing the meeting and the agenda!

Linda Katz and Gayle Tauber gave an incredible oral history of Women Give San Diego beginning with Linda’s rendition of June Tuttleman’s inspiration to fund women and girls in San Diego.

“If we have economic stability for women and girls in California, we have health and education as well as a reduction in abuse. This levels the gender playing field.”

- Linda Katz

At first, June was hoping that there was already an organization in San Diego doing just this, but after meeting with other philanthropic groups funding women and girls in San Diego, she realized she was just going to have to start her own organization!

“There was a real gap in our community to provide economic stability for women and girls in San Diego and June wanted an organization to fill this gap.”

- Linda Katz

June decided to link arms with the Women’s Foundation of California and become a donor circle. She then commissioned Valerie Nash to research and write a report on the status of women and girls in San Diego. This report became the ‘road map’ for Women Give San Diego and the organization was born.

The mission of Women Give San Diego (WGSD) is to fund non-profit organizations in San Diego County that offer underserved women and girls the opportunity to become fully engaged in the prosperity of their local communities. We also advocate for public awareness of women’s economic issues and policy change at the local and state level. WGSD's model for change balances education, community collaboration and strategic and effective grantmaking.

Gayle Tauber continued the Women Give story and June’s passion to found Women Give San Diego.

“We are a village. There are no stars.”

- Gayle Tauber

When Linda, Gayle and June began to form Women Give, they did not want to create an organization of “old boomers.” One of the biggest challenges was to engage younger people in philanthropy – especially a giving circle. Gayle hosted a pivotal membership recruitment event in her home in May 2010. She utilized her networks and those of YNPN (Young Nonprofit Professional Network) to engage young people to attend the event and learn about membership. The youthful attendance was overwhelming!

And targeting younger professionals worked (along with the tiered membership levels). Members began telling friends because they believe in the work of Women Give. Today, there are 106 members of which 58 members are under the age of 40 years old.

To-date, Women Give has two grant cycles under its belt with $46,000 given in 2011 and $67,000 given in 2012. We expect to be able to give away close to $80,000 in 2013!!

 “We are a work in progress.”

- Gayle Tauber

JoAnne Berg, past Grants Chair, and Merle Brodie, current Grants Chair, gave an update on the grantmaking process. The committee (17 members!) read through 33 Letters of Intent and narrowed it down to 12 organizations they have asked for a full proposal (due November 9). The committee looks forward to reading through these proposals and conducting site visits with the top organizations.

“Based on the LOIs, there are very creative entrepreneurs in the nonprofit sector. I am really looking forward to seeing full proposals.”

- JoAnne Berg

The Grants Committee will host its next meeting on Monday, October 22 at 5:30 p.m. at Hera Hub. Sharyn Goodson from the Jewish Community Foundation will be hosting a training on how to conduct successful site visits with potential grant partners.

“I am a philanthropist.”

- Bunmi Esho

Shana Hazen and Bunmi Esho reported on the Women’s Foundation of California Conference held in September. They were able to meet and converse with many different donor circles who have varied focuses like raising scholarships for high school students to raising funds to support women after prison.

“This conference made me realize how unique the Women’s Foundation of California donor circles are and how much we can learn from each other.”

- Bunmi Esho

From this conference, Shana and Bunmi are inspired to host a mini-conference in San Diego for Women Give and our grant partners. They will be hosting a planning meeting on Monday, November 5 from 6-7:30 p.m. for anyone interested in helping.

The evening concluded with a speed dating rotation where each leadership team was able to brainstorm with members and engage them with their team’s efforts.

A final big thank you to Felena Hanson of Hera Hub for hosting us!!