Finance the World You Want

I read an article today in the Harvard Business Review Blog written by Whitney Johnson, co-founder of Rose Park Advisors.  She says, "Investing is about financing dreams. Some of the dreams I finance are close to home. As we become fluent in the realm of the coin, money can be much more than a jar from which we pull assets in order to subsist, but rather a storehouse from which we can fund our child's education, buy a home, assemble the resources needed to write a book, start a business, or, as I would eventually like to, produce a documentary. Investing also finances the kind of world we want. I dream of a world, for example, where there are more and better employment opportunities, people parent well, appreciate one another, and volunteerism abounds. There are companies I can invest in that will help all of this happen."

I definitely agree with Whitney and know that giving philanthropically is about financing dreams as well.  And about creating the world we want.  Women have the money, now we must use it to make big changes.

Gerda Lerner's Legacy Will Live On

Gerda Lerner in her office in Madison, WI, in 2002.

Gerda Lerner, a longtime friend and colleague of Martha Taylor's, was a strong supporter of women and philanthropy from the time Martha first talked with her about the subject.  As the women's movement moved forward over the last thirty years, women from all walks of life have made it's progress possible and Gerda was the scholar who, as the New York Times said in her obituary published January 3, 2013, "...helped make the study of women and their lives a legitimate subject for historians and spearheaded the creation of the first graduate program in women's history in the United States," at the University of Wisconsin Madison.  She will be sadly missed but her legacy will live on as she has helped empower millions of women through her actions, her research, and her works.