I love this time of year for the magic it produces.  There is a sense of hope and possibility abounding.   At Imagine Philanthropy, I think of all the worthy nonprofits that are coming to their year end and awaiting donor’s gifts which will bring joy to their clients, their team, their Board and you, the donor!   One of my fun tasks next week is to process some yearend gifts and I encourage you to join me. 

Kudos to Tracy Gary and her team at Inspired Legacies for creating a list of deserving groups that are doing transformational work.  I invite you to spend some time reviewing Tracy’s list and making a gift that matters to you – that moves you and inspires you.   I am adding to her list three groups that make my heart sing as I feel strongly about their leadership, and their important work in transforming cultures, systems, and policies for women.   Know that either as an advisor or Board member to these groups, I have been immersed in their planning and feel strongly about the impact they are making in shifting humanity.   As well, any and all of the clients that Imagine Philanthropy works with on this list are doing incredible work and are deserving of your support.   

Tides is a values based, social change platform that leverages individual and institutional leadership and investment to positively impact local and global communities.

Women Win is recognized as a leading global organization using sport as a strategy to advance women's rights.  Women Win envisions a world where women and girls are strong leaders and agents of change in their communities.

Women Effect Investments is a field-building initiative that seeks to mobilize more investment dollars toward improving the condition of women and girls worldwide.

A wise expert on management coaching, John Keyser, asked me to pen some thoughts that might be helpful to women seeking leadership positions in business.   John is one of the guys who gets it; he knows that men are promoted because of their potential while women must prove themselves
over and over to be promoted.  The research group Catalyst has confirmed this in their studies.

Much has been studied and shared about women’s leadership and the lessons that must be embraced for success.  Here are some helpful ideas for women to consider for advancement in the work place:

1. Get ‘investors’ behind you.  Find people who will go to bat for you and ask them to think of you for projects, committees, speaking opportunities, etc.  Ideally this would be a senior ranking male in your firm who knows your skills and will comfortably recommend you for projects and promotions.    Men will often say to a CEO; “I want to work for you”.  Women need to be bold and say the same. 
2. Share your wins.  As a general rule, women are averse to ‘bragging’ yet this often means they are overlooked for promotions as their accomplishments are not showcased or not known by the leadership.  After leading your team to completion of a successful project, write a thank you to all members of your team, with a cc to the CEO, that details these accomplishments.   Then the CEO will have clear data on your work and efforts. 
3. Raise your hand.  Find out what associations are applicable for your industry or sector -- where the leaders you admire are involved.  Join these groups and volunteer for committees.  The chairs of these committees are well respected and connected individuals and will notice the work of a good committee member.  Their recommendation of you for a position will be well received. 
4. Be your best friend… and saleswoman.  I am often in awe of how men introduce themselves compared to a woman’s modesty.  Humility works for sure but women must make sure they don’t discount what they have accomplished.  Try an introduction that truly summarizes the breadth of your work; “I am an  entrepreneur who has built four successful businesses including a real estate company, a health care practice, a consulting practice, and a national nonprofit organization.  All of my work incorporates women’s empowerment around their bodies, leadership, money, and the true ownership of power.”
5. Report to a Board that looks like you.   If you hear the leadership say, we can’t find any women for our Board, refer them to this smart list of resources.

Jennifer Buffett will change the world. You may not know her now, but when all is said and done I believe she will own the title, The First Lady of Women’s Social Change Philanthropy.  Jennifer is the life size symbol of NoVo – to alter, invent.  The NoVo Foundation she created with her husband Peter is based on the premise that if you give a girl an opportunity, she will become a successful woman who will in turn create successful communities, businesses, and families.  Jennifer’s story is just that.

After deep examination of the focus of their philanthropy and a personal examination of her own expression of her values and influence, Jennifer is speaking around the world sharing her personal story and experiences. She and her husband Peter spent years examining the interrelation between systems, culture, and relationships to determine place of impact and opportunity for change before launching the largest foundation serving women and girls, the NoVo Foundation.   Jennifer has incredible perspective to offer activists, social change drivers, and philanthropists and after hearing her recently, I distilled these ten concepts that are worth sharing; 

1. Look at the roots of the problems, examine patterns and themes and find the programs and the stories that rule the world and which ones make sense.
2. Acknowledge two conflicting truths:  1. Girls and women are the primary drivers of change.  2. Cultural attitudes and systems put girls in a vicious cycle; blaming them and affirming that they are not valued.   The girl effect demonstrates that if you invest in a girl, her family thrives, she contributes to her community, and eventually her country succeeds.
3. Invest in places where value is held and not yet recognized.  Note:  there are 600 million adolescent girls living in the developing world who are currently ‘undervalued assets’. 
4. Value balance and partnership and affirm feminine values. 
5. Encourage women to use their voice, say what is want and needed, take credit, and invite men to join as equal partners and co-creators. 
6. As a woman, choose to be seen and heard and work to change the course of the boat named Earth Community. 
7. Improve gender dynamics by recognizing that the qualities in the masculine ‘toolbox’ - force, hierarchy, punitive, and a focus on head not heart - are learned, normalized, and internalized. 
8. Honor and showcase the characteristics found in the feminine toolbox; listening, connectedness, experiential learning, honoring innate cycles and rhythms, and wholeness. 
9. Establish learning environments that allow for inquiry and participation. 
10. As conduits of feminine energies, allow the most precious qualities of clarity, strength, knowing and vulnerability of yourself to come into full light. 

So - with the energy and passion that hopefully pervades the work of the organization and its leadership, come on out and tell your stories - then true Fun Raising can happen and campaigns can be launched.  Feel free to read another blog I wrote on this from a philanthropist's perspective. 

I got three ballots to vote for Board members for companies that I own stock in.   Normally they would go in the trash but why not take action?  I know that Linda Tarr Whalen in her book has spoken about the 30% rule of needing at least 3 out of 10 underrepresented individuals in a decision making body to make an impact.  I found this sample letter that seems easy enough to produce for each company and as soon as my executive assistant gets hired, she and I will tackle this!  

Joe Keefe and Jacki Zehner have written and spoken about the impact a letter can make on institutional investors and how we can use our voice to shift the dynamic of Board rooms.  Feel free to read more about why this might matter according to Catalyst and others. 

I remember in the early days of advocating for more sports media and a coach or athlete would write the network or paper directly.  The producers and editors would show us the letters with a sense of awe – that people actually cared about the lack or quality of coverage and took action!  Your voice does matter.

So I will be taking a sample letter from PAX to my good friends at Northwest Mutual and also TIAA CREF to see where and how they see the use of this.  Keep speaking your truth - they will listen if we all commit to taking action. 

photo © 2006 Riza Nugraha  | more info (via: Wylio)

Seriously, how fun is it to celebrate and dance and how often do we do either of these things?  I love Emma Goldman’s statement – “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be part of the revolution.”  At the Women Moving Millions session we heard from the co-chairs, donors and leaders – all who danced as they came on stage to share their stories and ideas.   

 One of many highlights for me was the dancing!  Chris Grumm, Helen LaKelly Hunt and I dancing with the audience as we all took ‘back’ the word REVOLUTION moving to Tracy Chapman.  Next session we will be moving to Miriam Makemba’s Pata Pata.  

After hearing updates and perspectives on the campaign from the leadership and a distinguished panel of women, including Dobkin Family Foundation founder Barbara Dobkin, Mama Cash Executive Director Nicky McIntyre, Women Moving Millions Co-Chair Jacki Zehner, ACCION USA's Elizabeth Bueno, and Women's Foundation of Greater Kansas City President Dawn Oliver, I encouraged people to check in with our own individual experience of philanthropy and “moving millions” in our own lives.  

I believe that a key aspect of a good leadership is the practice of consistently looking at our own motivations and experiences around giving and receiving.  Spending time to reflect on what it is that keeps us open to receiving and to giving and understanding the conditions or environments that help us feel more generous is a good growth opportunity.    

Feel free to take some time to look at an exercise that I created that examines – “What is it that allows me to give time, talent or treasure with joy and ease? And how can we move towards this?”

I had the honor of being part of the Women’s Funding Network Worldwide Conference where women from Serbia, Mexico, Australia, Scotland, Nigeria, Canada, and every place in between, descended upon Brooklyn, New York for three days of convening and learning.  We spent time together skills sharing, relationship building, and listening to impassioned speeches from some of the world’s most dynamic female thought leaders. 

From the opening keynote featuring Marjora Carter, eco-entrepreneur, MacArthur Genius and founder of Sustainable South Bronx, to the closing keynote featuring Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile and first Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women, we all were in the presence of the power and resiliency of women leaders and the global women’s movement.  Being part of this ‘movement’ to me means that we choose to reassert feminine perspectives (also known as ‘a gender lens’) wherever it can heal cultures and communities.   

One of the panel discussions was hosted by filmmaker, scholar and founder of the Daphne Foundation, Abigail Disney. Abby spoke about the ways in which the feminine perspective has been erased from the media coverage of war across the world. Her documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell and her four part series called Women, War and Peace, which documents war through the eyes of women in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Columbia and the Congo, shows women’s contributions to war efforts on both the front lines and back lines. 

When we think about war, we think about combat. We think about the front line. Abby’s work showcases the role that women play from the back lines in conflict and the impact that these conflicts have on women’s lives.  The work shows how women are targeted with systematic violence in wartime and how, with incredible fortitude and strength and little support, they hold their families and communities together.  Abby and her team are successful in bringing visibility to the tragedy of their invisibility and dismissal from their solutions and peace building work. 

After showing the series trailer, Abby talked about how rape is being used as a strategic tactic of wartime violence. She recounted stories of deliberations by the United Nations Assembly about whether or not to try rapists as war criminals when the acts are being perpetrated as a tactic of war.  Abby’s series, Women, War and Peace is scheduled to debut on PBS this fall. I hope you’ll all find some time to watch it and extend your role in the movement in any way that works for you.

(Photo credited to Pray the Devil Back to Hell.)

During a recent gathering of 600 dynamic women working for social and economic justice (2011 Women’s Funding Network Annual Conference), I facilitated a discussion  with my friend and frequent co-pilot, Ellen Landis, founder of Sharevision. The discussion was on donor activism (which later turned into a great conversation on power!) with the goal to create a safe space for women to vocalize their engagement and feel more confident and empowered to be the social change leaders they are.  As well, we had an intentional sharing of donor activism work from a mind, body, and spirit focus which helps people enter the “activist” conversation from different perspectives.

For that hour and a half these 40 women were able to share their successes, their challenges, their personal and professional triumphs and tragedies with each other. And, when it was over, almost all of the women remained to engage with each other like old friends with so much to learn from each other.  

The format of the donor activism work session was exercises that could be done with staff, donors, community leaders, Board members, etc.  One of the fun tools we used, that I am sharing, was the attached Donor Activist Bingo game.  We had the attendees go around and inquire of each other whether they were associated with or had used one of the action items (i.e. been a vocal advocate for an issue or has donated time to a campaign or made a bequest to an organization and told someone about this).  After this exercise, attendees were directed to find and listen to one other person talk about their proudest successful activism activity.  Finally, attendees were asked to move to another person in the room and imagine that she/he was a mentor in their life, describe what the mentor represented for them in their activist life, and then tell their success story again to their ‘mentor’. This is a good ‘get to know the people in the group’ exercise.  

I hope you found this helpful and feel free to let me know how it went!

photo © 2005 j9sk9s | more info (via: Wylio)

March Madness – I call it 'March Moving Mountains!' After playing basketball every day for more than a third of my life, the sounds and feel of the game is in my ‘bones’.  And yes, I was recently in the gym, shooting around and contemplating getting in a pick up game with men three times my size.   

As the President of the Point Guard Club of the Americas, I was excited to see the touted freshman point guards from Louisville, Tennessee, and Baylor. When these women were seven years old they were given an extraordinary gift.  Their childhood was spent watching role models in the WNBA. They had ample opportunity to play and be coached as future ‘pro’ athletes thanks to Title IX, and they have the desire and heart to play through ‘no matter what’… including the size of their opponent! 

Whenever people ask about my size and being a point guard, I gently remind them - quickness, smarts and speed can come in any size.  That said, the physical size and power displayed by 10 women on a basketball court is an expression of strength and feminism like no other!   Where else but during a women’s basketball game do you see women taking up space with such spirit, force, and courage?  

Early in March, a collegiate ski jumping championship took place in the U.S. for the first time in 31 years, but this time, the competition included women. In February, the U.S. Senate, passed a resolution in honor of the 25th National Girls and Women in Sports Day. It states, among other proclamations on the importance of sport in girls’ and women’s lives, that “women’s athletics are one of the most effective avenues available for the women of the United States to develop self-discipline, initiative, confidence, and leadership skills.”  I would also add to this resolution - the confidence to display their power, voice, and strength in all settings.  

Stay up to date on the women of the NCAA, WNBA, boxing, hockey, rugby and every other sport you’re interested in by checking out Women Talk Sports and the Women’s Sports Foundation now and throughout the year.

When we think of human rights activists, we are often challenged to name five women across the globe who have fought for those in their community, state, or nation.   Roots to Resistance is bringing forth the images and stories of 12 remarkable women activists, bringing their stories to life via a web based platform, postcard distribution to schools and organizations, and a four city touring exhibit with Denise Beaudet, the award winning visual artist and creative activist. An art and activism project featuring the portraits of 12 women doing activist work in the world, the project is a political postcard campaign that will link people around the globe.

These incredible 4x9 foot portraits are done on recycled wood, wrapped in and connected to plants and nature. Denise portrays these women in their true activist flame and spirit; sharing the stories of their communities, their hearts and the extraordinary effect that their powerful life forces have had on the planet.

 Featured Activists include:

Natalia Estemirova-Chechnya-Murdered Human Rights Journalist
Malalai Joya-Afghanistan-Woman's Rights Activist
Chouchou Namegabe – Congo – Journalist/Women’s Rights Activist
Zapatista Woman-Mexico Environmentalist/Indigenous Rights Activist
Vandana Shiva-India-Eco Feminist/Environmental Activist
Rebecca Gomperts-Netherlands-Environmentalist/Reproductive Rights Activist
Dita Indah Sari-Indonesia-Labor Activist
Aung San Suu Kyi-Burma-Human Rights Activist
Wangari Maathai-Kenya-Environmentalist
Marina Silva-Brazil-Environmentalist
Yvonne Margarula-Australia-Civil Rights Activist
Maria Gunnoe - U.S. -Native American Human Rights Activist