Congratulations Ellen Remmer

I recently wrote about the launch of a women’s foundation in Dublin, Ireland and had no idea that Ellen Remmer, a friend and champion of women’s philanthropy, was a speaker until seeing a report in a Dublin newspaper article  about the meeting and Ellen’s presence.

Along with the president of Ireland, Mary McAleese who also spoke, who could be a better advocate for women’s philanthropy and women’s issues than Ellen. She is the president and CEO of The Philanthropy Institute (TPI) in Boston and active in her family’s foundation that supports helping disadvantaged girls take charge of their lives. 

Ellen has always been a strong supporter of women and philanthropy and has advanced it in her own competent and confident way; both quietly and effectively. She also serves on the Council of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

In an interview conducted while Ellen was in Dublin, she said that regardless of which charities or causes one supports, she is adamant that it’s not just those with money who can make a difference.

‘‘Money is a powerful tool and gives you a place at the table and allows you the flexibility to do things, but the thing I have learned is that it is about deciding you are empowered to be able to change things.

‘It is just easier if you have money, but in fact, we all can play that role. Money is just a tool, but just giving money without the rest of the package is not going to be very powerful.

‘That’s part of what strategic philanthropy is - you are getting smarter and smarter about an issue, you know the right people to bring into it and that’s how you get the leverage."

You can read more about Ellen on her blog. 

The Power of the Purse and Vera Bradley

Until now this blog has been about The Power of the Purse meaning the power women have to give philanthropically from their increased earnings and control of wealth.  But what about the power of women’s spending?  With women making 80 percent of the nation’s purchases, what does the Power of the Purse represent in the consumer market?  What should it represent?

When making our purchases as the world’s largest economy (yes, author Tom Peters did say women were the world’s largest economy), I think we should ask these six questions that I call:

Six Spending Requirements From the Power of My Purse:

1.        How many women are on the corporation’s board?

2.        What charitable efforts does the company support?

3.        What does the corporation do to help women and girls?

4.        How is the corporation working to increase women’s roles in management and corporate executives?

5.        Does the company have a plan for increasing diversity?

6.        How is the corporation collaborating with others to further philanthropy?

Women's Power of the Purse is enormous.  Just as in our philanthropy, we can have an incredible impact on the corporate world; helping them see our way of thinking and living as the best way. 

One company that does just that is Vera Bradley.  Begun in 1982 in their basements by Patricia Miller and her friend Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (shown above), and named for Barbara's mother who died of breast cancer, Vera Bradley Designs is now a global empire.  In 1998, a Vera Bradley Foundation was established which created the Vera Bradley Center for Breast Cancer research and its Chair in Oncology. www.verabradley.org.  So in fact, Vera Bradley represents both sides of the Power of the Purse: philanthropy and corporate awareness. 

I personally buy Vera Bradley purses because they’re pretty, not terribly expensive and the company passes the Six Spending Requirements: 

§  4 of six board members are women

§  the company supports research for breast cancer research

§  this research helps women and girls

§  Vera Bradley is very supportive of diversity  

§  although I couldn’t find what the company specifically does to increase women’s roles in management and as corporate executives, more than 60 percent of their staff are women  

§  Vera Bradley has joined forces with both Aetna and MassMutual to battle breast cancer  

A score of 5.5 out of 6 is enough for me to proudly carry my Vera Bradley bag(s) because I know my “power of the purse” counts.  And I can also spot others in airports and on the street whom I know feel the same way about Vera Bradley and what it represents to us as women: caring and giving.

"Women, Wealth & Giving"

Recently, I spent the day reading Margaret May Damen and Niki Nicastro McCuistion’s  new book, Women Wealth and Giving: the Virtuous Legacy of the Boom Generation.”  Margaret May had given me the book in January with a sweet inscription inside and I had looked at various parts of it but never actually read it from beginning to end.  My impressions as I reflect on it today are that I am so sorry I missed being a boomer, and that anyone who cares about women and philanthropy should have this book. 

It seems we all like to relate to something in which we see ourselves and the details in this book about being a boomer are not only profound, but they are vastly entertaining as well.   For instance they write, "In the 1960s, we knew we could not trust anyone over 30, yet as the flower children who had issued that warning found careers, got married, and raised children or chose alternate lifestyles, we assimilated into the very system we had rebelled against.” 

I am always looking for new phrases and quotes to use when speaking, as well as new subjects or ways or expressing old ideas, and they are all are bountiful in this book.  A plethora of sources were used and I highlighted and turned down dozens of pages to use in future speeches and writing.  Being a wealth planner, Margaret May has included an abundant number of invaluable exercises, centering around women finding their values and turning those values into philanthropy.

Although I do not know Niki well, I first met Margaret May several years ago in Indianapolis at a women and philanthropy symposium put on by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.  Over the years we would occasionally run into one another at various meetings and conferences and then during the last couple of years, we often exchanged thoughts about writing a book--the discipline required, the long days and nights, the loneliness, and the joy of finishing.  Her book was published in January and ours will be out in September.  We have been assured by our shared publishers that the books will be marketed together. 

Our books do share the same topic: women and philanthropy, but are quite different in the information contained and genuinely enhance and complement one another.  I am proud to be Margaret May’s friend and colleague and extremely proud of her contributions to this amazing movement of women and philanthropy.  Bravo Margaret May!

Dining For Women & Marsha Wallace

I first met Marsha in 2008 in Washington D.C. when we on a panel for the Giving Circles Network at the National Press Club.  Her energy, enthusiasm and vision for Dining for Women (DFW) was contagious.  So much so that she has grown the organization from one dinner in 2003 with 20 women attending and $750 raised, to $285,000 raised in 2009 from over 3,000 women in 160 chapters throughout the United States. 

Dining for Women vows to “change the world, one dinner at a time.”  These potluck dinners are held at women’s homes and the women donate what they would have spent for dinner at a restaurant.  The money is then distributed to non-profits in developing countries.  Marsha says that most of the members are already giving in their own communities and diversifying their philanthropy through DFW.

In the booklet, Women’s Giving Circles: Reflections from the Founders I wrote last year for the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, I included Marsha and her great story that combines Marsha with a woman from Ethiopia, Oprah Winfrey and the Today Show.  You can find the booklet (look for page 23) under research on the Women’s Philanthropy Institute website: http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/womensphilanthropyinstitute/.

When asked why DFW give only to women and girls internationally, Marsha points out what Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and co-author of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide states, 

"The oppression of women worldwide is the human rights cause of our time. And their liberation could help solve many of the world's problems, from poverty to child mortality to terrorism." 


Check out the Dining for Women website at www.diningforwomen.com and do consider starting a chapter in your city.  DFW also sponsors trips to places they have made grants and recently returned from Kenya where they visited one of the nonprofits they had funded.