Women are excited for more reasons than just one! We kick off this month by celebrating WOMEN. This is our month, and although we should not wait until just March to celebrate, nonetheless, here we are with March marking the national observance of Women’s History Month. If that is not exciting enough, March 8th is International Women’s Day, a day that not only highlights and celebrates powerful women and their achievements, but also seeks to bring awareness to the issues that still exist for women around the globe.
Women from all walks of life are continuously creating history by recognizing their potential and becoming more empowered everyday. Women’s equality has also come an incredibly long way, making tremendous strides of progress throughout the years. Figuratively speaking, women have gone from just looking through to breaking the “glass ceiling” that separated them from the unique challenges they faced compared to men in the workplace. And now, in the most recent years, we hear of more and more women making strides professionally and “shattering the glass ceiling.”
Women are no longer seeking the proverbial corporate key, but are launching their own businesses and carving out their own pathways to success by creating atmospheres for themselves that allow them to be more flexible in supporting the needs of their personal and professional lives. Gone are the days of women walking into the unforeseen glass barrier that has awaited us for so many years, we are now seeing the glass pieces shatter as we walk through to empower ourselves and balance the playing field. We know that there is still much work to be done, however the advancements that women have made in recent history cannot be ignored.
This Women’s History Month, take time to celebrate all that women has accomplished. Here are a few snapshots of women who have made strides in 2014, check out Women Shattering Glass Ceiling, Reaching New Heights in 2014. Help continue the movement by recognizing some of the wonderful women in your lives that not only influence and motivate you but others as well to be empowered every day. By the way, make sure you stop by and post a comment recognizing your Powerful Woman. We would love to hear from you!
The first lady will be in New York to address the Democratic Women’s Senate Network policy conference, The Hill has confirmed. The group, chaired by freshman Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), is an arm of DSCC, which has several women running for the upper chamber in 2014: Natalie Tennant in West Virginia, Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky and Michelle Nunn in Georgia.
Most of the 17 female Democratic senators are expected to attend the luncheon, which will double as a fundraiser. Ticket prices range from $250 to $50,000, according to TheNew York Times, which first reported the news.
It’s a rare move for the famously non-political first lady. Obama did get involved in the Massachusetts Senate special election, campaigning and fundraising for now-Sen. Ed Markey, and stumped for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, but her campaign appearances for candidates other than her husband are limited.
She has been a strong fundraiser for the party. A planned West Coast swing was canceled during the government shutdown, but she is expected to join President Obama in his post-shutdown fundraising blitz, including an event in Washington for the Democratic National Committee.
This Friday, the first lady will address the Women’s Leadership Forum National Issues Conference in Washington.
Being the Chair of Business and Professional Women’s Foundation where fundraising is key to successful programming, I find this to be an interesting read…
Why I Think Nonprofits Should Act More Like Businesses
Could it be that everything we’ve been taught about charity, and about giving, and about change is backwards?— Dan Pallotta
How would you react if you knew someone was getting wealthy in charity? How would you feel if you saw your favorite charity run a $3 million ad on the Superbowl using charitable donations to fund it? What would you think if a charity lost a million dollars on a brand new fundraising idea that flopped? Lastly, what if you learned that a charity had just paid an investor a 100 percent return on a loan?
These are the kinds of scenarios that make our blood boil with rage and the kinds of practices that give charities a bad name, right?
But what if we’re wrong about all of it? What if the things that send us into a rage are actually the things it would take to end humanity’s most vexing and extreme forms of suffering? And what if you are only being given half of the story?
These are the issues that have consumed me for the last 15 years and that were the subject of my closing talk at the 2013 TED conference.
Ask yourself how you would feel if you were given the whole story.
Suppose that the person getting wealthy in charity was worth it. Imagine, for example, that the Boys & Girls Clubs hires a leader that triples revenues in 8 years from half a billion annually to $1.5 billion annually. This allows the clubs to double the number of kids served. She gets a total compensation package of about $1 million annually. This is not a fairy tale. It really happened. And the Boys & Girls Clubs were criticized for it. Is $1 million not a cheap price to pay for $1 billion in new revenues and double the kids served? Would we rather they hire a leader for a more modest $150,000 who is incapable of increasing revenues and serving more kids? Save $850,000 in salary expense and lose a billion dollars a year in revenue?
And what if the $3 million Super Bowl ad brings in $6 million in new revenues in just the first showing, and another $6 million in gifts over time from new donors who repeat their gifts? The charity would have turned each original donor’s dollar into four dollars.
What if the $1 million lost on a charity fundraiser that flopped taught the charity something they never knew that allowed them to create a new fundraiser that raised many millions, in the way, say, a cancer researcher’s big failure points them to their next big breakthrough? That would mean the donors that funded the “loss” were actually funding an investment in learning that reaped millions.
Could it be that everything we’ve been taught about charity, and about giving, and about change is backwards?— Dan Pallotta
And as for the investor getting a 100 percent return on a loan, what if the loan was to finance a brand new, risky fundraising event idea — a new triathlon for the cause, for example. The charity needs a million to cover the upfront costs to launch it. But it’s risky. It could fail. There’s no data on it. It’s never been done before. No bank will touch it. So an investor comes along and says I will put up the million, but I want $2 million back if it succeeds, to compensate me for the potential risk of the loss of my money. The charity agrees. The event is a huge success, netting $10 million in the first year. The investor gets $2 million, leaving $8 million for the cause — a figure that would have been zero without the investor. Because the concept is now proven, banks are willing to finance the event in future years at much lower interest. The event nets $8 million a year for ten years — $80 million total, all for the tiny cost of $1 million paid to the original investor.
None of these are fantasy. I’ve seen versions of these examples manifest in the real world, many times.
When you hear the whole story, suddenly it seems unconscionable not to do the things we’ve all been taught it would be unconscionable to do.
Could it be that everything we’ve been taught about charity, and about giving, and about change is backwards? That when we show people only the means, without revealing the ends, we mislead them? Is it possible that in the name of an ethic we are actually prolonging the suffering of millions of adults and children the world over? Do we really think it is of some comfort to a mother who has just lost her little boy to bird flu that at least no one made a profit in the failed effort to save her son?
We allow the for-profit sector to feast on the tools of capitalism, while we deny those tools to the nonprofit sector, and all in the name of charity, no less. Real charity, as in grace, could not be undermined with more reverence paid to the notion of something noble. It is perhaps the greatest injustice ever perpetrated against all those citizens of humanity most desperately in need of our aid. But it is an injustice about which we have been largely unconscious. If we take responsibility for the thinking that has been handed down to us, revisit it, and revise it, we could change our whole approach to changing the world. And then things could really begin to change.
It is a staggering question — what if everything we’ve been taught about charity is dead wrong?
I found this to be a very interesting read and even found myself going through the list and checking things that I am going stop doing. So here is #22 just to give you a little teaser of this really great list of things:
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#22 Being embarrassed about your interests. “I want to be a f**king feminist and wear a f**king Peter Pan collar. So f**king what?,” said Zooey Deschanel in Glamour magazine’s February 2013 issue. Take a cue from the actress and stop caring what you “should” look like/care about/talk about. If you love girly things, love girly things. If you don’t, don’t. Embrace your lack of knowledge about music, your hockey obsession and your weakness for both “Breaking Bad” and “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.” And if there’s a particular subject area you don’t know about but you encounter someone who does? Take the opportunity to ask questions.
Rania AL Abdullah, Queen of Jordan states that “If one girl with courage is a revolution, imagine what feats we can achieve together.” This was in an open letter to girls all around the world as a part of CNN’s “Girls Rising” project which I had the opportunity to see. What a moving and effective film displaying how the power of education can help to change a girl. Read more on her open letter: Rania Al Abdullah, Queen Of Jordan, Writes Amazing Letter To Girls Everywhere.
Roslyn Ridgeway 