Honoring Black Women in History

February marks Black History Month, a time dedicated to reflect on the contributions made by women, men, and children in black history. One woman I learned about more recently is Anna Julia Cooper, who is currently featured on a U.S. postal stamp. According to the USPS, Cooper "helped establish local organizations for women, young people, and the poor that addressed a range of issues including education, housing, and unemployment" (http://www.usps.com/). In addition to obtaining advanced degrees, Cooper went on to become principal of a high school and teach at the collegiate level in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Anna Julia Cooper was not only a pioneer for black women in her time, she fought for issues Women's Fund cares about today; namely, insufficient income and economic empowerment for women.

As an undergraduate student, through The Other Side of Middletown book project, I had the opportunity to work closely with members of the black community in Muncie and meet many local women. The leadership of these women made an impression on me and led in part to my interest in issues impacting women and girls. One woman I will never forget is Daidra, a single mother raising a preteen son. Daidra lived in a house she built through Habitat for Humanity and, along with other women in her neighborhood, she helped look after the well-being of children in her neighborhood. While the importance of women like Daidra and her peers may never be written in history books, their significance is not minimized.

This month, the Indianapolis Star is highlighting important contributions by black Hoosiers, such as IPD officer Emma Christy Baker - the first black female police officer for the department. Women's Fund is thankful for the leadership of women like Anna Julia Cooper, Daidra, Emma Christy Baker, and other women who are inspiring leaders in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities. What black women have inspired you?

Celebrating Donors and Their Impact

Last night Women's Fund held an event to thank donors to the Endowment Campaign. An impressive crowd of 200 people gathered at the Indianapolis Scottish Rite Cathedral to celebrate the impact their support has made to women and girls in central Indiana (click here for highlights featured in today's Indianapolis Star, and here for an album of photos on Facebook).

Co-chaired by Dinah Bird and Anne Steinberg, the event featured highlights of Women's Fund's recent grantmaking, and the impact of these grants. Thanks to over 1,100 donors to the campaign, which ran from 2004-2009, Women's Fund raised $7 million, growing the endowment to over $11 million. Thanks to the generosity of campaign donors, Women's Fund has increased our capacity to grant to women and girl serving organizations in central Indiana.

Other event highlights include:

• Jennifer Pope Baker welcomed everyone, shared the success and growth resulting from the campaign, and detailed the impact of gifts to the endowment.
• A video featuring interviews given by Women's Fund volunteers, of grantee organizations: Business Ownership Initiative, Girls Inc. of Franklin/Johnson County, Ruth Lilly Health Education Center, Training, Inc., and The Julian Center.
• Elaine Bedel, Women's Fund Finance Committee Chair, spoke about financial responsibility through Women's Fund's strategic and financial planning.
• Myra Mariani, OPTIONS Alumnae and co-chair of the OPTIONS Tenth Anniversary Celebration, spoke about OPTIONS, including the leadership resulting from 230 participants over ten years and contributions totaling nearly a half a million dollars.
• Maddie Hudson, GO: Give Back Participant and 6th grade student, spoke about the impact GO has made on her and shared her philanthropic plans to grow her GO Fund so she can help others.
• Ann Murtlow, Women's Fund Advisory Board Chair, thanked volunteers leading the endowment campaign, past Advisory Board chairs, all donors to the endowment campaign, and event sponsors.

A special thanks to corporate and individual supporters, resulting in the event being no additional cost to Women's Fund:

• Eli Lilly & Company - Presenting Sponsor
• Detail + Design - event planning and decor
• Indianapolis Power & Light - invitations
• Barefoot Wine - wine and champagne
• Dinah and Larry Bird
• BMG Event Productions - audio visual equipment
• A Classic Party Rental - tables and linens

Women's Fund appreciates the support of all of our donors and thanks you for your generosity. If you are not a donor and would like to contribute, click here to donate now.

Following the Star and Finding Women’s Fund There

I’ve been reading with great interest the Indianapolis Star’s recent series: Our Children. Our City. It’s their commitment to bettering the lives of Indianapolis’ children. Their news coverage and community initiatives will shine a light on the successes and failures, challenges and opportunities facing children and those who educate struggling, underperforming or at-risk children in the city's schools.

Reading the stories, I have found myself making a comparison to the work of Women’s Fund of Central Indiana and all that they are doing to support women and girls in our community. Each of Women’s Fund’s core issues play into the success of the children in our city. Insufficient income, inadequate caregiving choices, and domestic abuse in the home, with regards to mom, significantly impact the success of their children.

One program in particular I found fascinating – a program I was not familiar with until now is Future Promises. This program involves a significant impact on a girl's life and her ability to stay in school. Future Promises is helping reduce the high dropout rate by offering support and programs for pregnant and parenting high school students. With case managers in Warren Central, North Central and Pike high schools, students attend weekly parenting and prenatal class that teaches the young mothers about proper nutrition, child development and appropriate discipline techniques. Once a month the students also have a class on pregnancy prevention. Run by the Health and Hospital Corp., Future Promises is working diligently to keep teen moms in school and show them how to become good parents and how to get out of unhealthy relationships.

I appreciate what the Indianapolis Star is doing to highlight the issues facing our children. I look forward to reading about the work being done in our community to help children – and I won’t be surprised at all to learn Women’s Fund may behind a lot of the organizations doing the incredible work making a difference for our children.

Q&A with J.A. Lacy, Advisory Board Member

Q. How long have you been connected with Women’s Fund of Central Indiana and in what roles?
A. I am currently serving my second term on the advisory board and have served on both the Executive and Campaign committees.

Q. What first drew you to Women’s Fund?
A. It’s evident how valuable Women’s Fund is to the community. The work that Women’s Fund does to leverage its philanthropic gifts to achieve desirable outcomes is incredible. I firmly believe in their mission and wanted to support an organization that plays such a vital role in our community. Women’s Fund addresses three critical funding priorities – economic self-sufficiency, caregiving and domestic violence – priorities that I believe offer opportunities to break cycles of poverty and crime while raising education levels – all of which make Indianapolis more attractive to employers and expanding of our tax base. I also support the belief that if an issue affects a woman, it affects a family – and if it affects a family, it affects a community.

Q. Who are/were your role models for "giving back" to your community and how did they influence you?
A. I believe wholeheartedly that stewardship is a learned behavior. I credit my parents and grandparents for teaching me life lessons in giving back and serving the community. They were great role models for me. Additionally, during high school, I participated in a Lilly Endowment program moderated by Dean Evans (former State Superintendent of Public Instruction) on Servant Leadership. That was influential in shaping my beliefs on leadership today.

Q. What issues impacting women & girls are you most passionate about? Do you have any personal connection to any of these issues?
A. As a father of four I know how important caregiving is to the success of a child. Research shows kids who don’t master education fundamentals, such as reading by third grade, rarely catch up. We need to invest in our children – they are our future. In order to succeed, children need to grow up in an appropriate environment. They need a safe, loving, nurturing environment. Women’s Fund reported back in 2006 that an estimated 59 percent of children under six have both parents in the labor force. This demonstrates the need for safe, quality and affordable caregiving options for families living in the Indianapolis metropolitan area.

Q. What would you tell other women and girls about Women's Fund to encourage them to get involved?
A. One of the attractive elements of Women’s Fund is that as an endowment, the organization is able to look at our community through a long-lens and support organizations through bold and transformative grants. By investing in Women’s Fund, you are allowing us to make a difference in ways such as making operational grants and providing guidance to women and girl serving organizations, ensuring these organizations are here tomorrow, as well as strong today. I also like sharing with people the pivotal role Women’s Fund plays in cultivating the next generation of philanthropic leaders in our community through programs like OPTIONS and GO.

Q. What aspirations and hopes do you have for women and girls in Central Indiana?
A. As an employer, husband and father, I have an interest in sustaining and enhancing the vibrancy of our community. While there aren’t enough philanthropic dollars to address every community need and I realize some concerns are merely symptoms caused by deeper issues, I believe Women’s Fund is improving the quality of life across our entire community -- men and boys as well as women and girls, by focusing on issues that derail our success at the root level.

Q. Tell us a little more about yourself.
A. I have been married to Elizabeth for 14 years. Together we have four wonderful kids, two boys and two girls. I am the President and CEO of locally based FinishMaster, a wholesaler of automotive aftermarket paint.

Raising Awareness for Issues We Care About

As I walked into the CICF offices at the English Foundation Building today, I was greeted by four colorful banners with smiling faces on them. After looking more closely, I realized the banners featured people who lost their lives to domestic violence. Disheartening as this was, I found assurance from this effort to raise awareness about an issue Women's Fund cares deeply about, and to point to a resource many do not know about: 2-1-1.

Today is 2-1-1 Day. For those not familiar with 2-1-1, think of it as 9-1-1 for social service needs. It is a national dialing code, accessible in many areas nationwide (click here to access Indiana's 2-1-1 site). 2-1-1 Connect2Help locally fields calls for individuals in central Indiana needing direct assistance in areas of health and human service, helping provide information and assistance around food, utilities, shelter, counseling, and finding safety from violent situations. The call center has bilingual personnel and is open 24 hours a day.

I have not needed to utilize Connect2Help's services. However, women we strive to help through Women's Fund grants have. I’m glad women who need help have a place to call when they need it. Connect2Help refers callers to many Women's Fund grantees in our funding focus areas of caregiving, domestic violence, and insufficient income.

Domestic violence is one area that is more prevalent than we’d like. Domestic violence calls fielded by 2-1-1 in 2007-08 increased 33% from the prior year. 2-1-1 is able to direct women in violent situations to organizations like Women's Fund grantee The Julian Center (serving Marion County).

It’s important to raise awareness about the needs – and the available resources in our community – by celebrating events such as 2-1-1 Day and through other attention-getters, such as the banners at the English Foundation Building. I am excited about Women's Fund's role as an expert resource for issues impacting women and girls in central Indiana, and our efforts to raise awareness. How are you raising awareness for issues you care about?

Healthy Relationships: Among Many Ways to be Healthy

Recently we posted a question to our Women's Fund Facebook fans: "What makes you feel fit and healthy?" It was awesome to see the diverse responses of many of our fans (click here to see). It is so important to keep our health top-of-mind. Many things can come between us and good health; it depends on our eating habits, exercise, strong relationships, mental fitness, and more. I'm glad that there are campaigns to help us think about certain aspects of our health, such as breast or heart health. For example, February 5th was "Go Red for Women" day, where people wore red to raise awareness for women's heart health.

Last week, I had an opportunity to go to the Ruth Lilly Health Education Center, along with OPTIONS Alumnae member Melissa Averitt. Women's Fund provided a transformational grant of $150,000 in 2006 for the center to provide healthy relationships programming to all Indianapolis Public Schools 5th and 7th graders twice per year over three years. This is truly an amazing program focusing on an important area of overall health and well-being. We hope that this program will help break the cycle of domestic violence.

Melissa interviewed President Julian Peebles, Program Director Diana Ruschhaupt, and IPS School 39 5th grade teacher Aksa Shami, who shared the impact this program has made on students. Click here to learn more about "STOP: Know What's Right" for 5th graders and here to learn more about "STOP: No Excuse for Abuse" for 7th graders.

We heard that teachers strongly believe in the program, students are enjoying it, and Ruth Lilly Health Education Center receives requests for the program to be expanded to other schools (they need more funding to do so). Because of this program, students have an awareness of what constitutes a healthy relationship and what doesn't. And, the innovative way the center delivers the program holds their interest. Rick, an IPS middle school teacher, told Diana "With the use of technology, music, statistics, and real-life scenarios, the instructors' interactive program allows the class to explore and think critically about the subject matter."

I love that Women's Fund supports of this important program for girls and boys in IPS Schools. And, I appreciate the great work of Ruth Lilly Health Education Center to provide high-quality programs for youth in our community.

Reporting on Girls Inc. from the Streets of Franklin

I participated in a video project for Women’s Fund this week and although I was skeptical about my ability to be a “woman on the street reporter”, I had fun and learned a lot about the organization I was assigned.

The project: Women’s Fund, with the help of Smallbox, is creating a video (done by volunteers), that will highlight how donor dollars are making a difference for women and girls in our community. The video will highlight their three focus areas (caregiving, domestic violence, and insufficient income) through interviews with executive directors and clients. I was chosen to interview Girls Inc. of Franklin/Johnson Co. So with our Flip video camera, Abigail Coleman and I headed south.

The organization: Girls Inc. of Franklin/Johnson Co. serves over a 1,000 girls annually through really cool programs. I interviewed Sonya Ware-Meguiar, CEO and Tara Mirchandani, a Girls Inc. mom. Each had a personal story about the difference Girls Inc. makes in the lives of young girls. They talked proudly about their programs, services, community partnerships and outreach. They both agreed Girls Inc. is vital to their community. I enjoyed hearing about Operation Smart, Sisterhood and other programs. I also thought it was cool to know a former Mayor of Franklin was a Girls Inc. girl.

The impact: I’ve always been a fan of Girls Inc., but at some point during the interview I had an “aha moment”. As I heard about their programs and events, and I saw Tara’s face light up when she talked about what Girls, Inc. has done for her daughters, I realized I want that same thing for my daughter. At seven, Bailey still seems so young to me, but she’s growing up fast – and I want her to grow up strong, smart and bold. I was so touched and inspired by what I learned that when I got home I e-mailed Girls Inc. of Indianapolis (which serves my area). Thanks to their quick response, I now have Girls' Bill of Rights Day on my calendar (May 1); and will be exploring their summer camp for Bailey.

I can’t wait to see the final video. I’m not expecting an Oscar for my small part in the video, but I do hope the organizations featured will receive great applause and recognition for the award-winning work they do in our communities every day for women and girls.

Q&A with Julie Manning Magid, Advisory Board Member

Q. How long have you been connected with Women’s Fund of Central Indiana?
A. I was a member of OPTIONS Class 3. I served as the OPTIONS ex-officio representative before becoming a member of the Advisory Board. I have served as the Nominations Chair and Women’s Fund Society co-chair and participated on a finance sub-committee. I am currently the Vice-Chair elect and will serve as Chair in 2012. I will celebrate 10 years with Women’s Fund at the end of my Chair term.

Q. Who are your role models for "giving back" to your community and how did they influence you?
A. Certainly many of the women I have met through Women’s Fund. The leadership while I have been involved is incredible – Yvonne Shaheen, Wendy Yerkes, Karen Gentleman, Julie Davis and now Ann Murtlow. What fabulous women to learn from about community, philanthropy and making the world a better place! I would have to say that my original role model for giving back to your community was my mom. She had a full-time job running her own business, 10 children as well as care for her parents as they aged, she became a single parent in her early 40s but somehow never let all of that interfere with her community involvement, from helping organizations to giving time to friends. Whenever I feel overwhelmed I realize that I have not begun to tap the resources my mom draws from day in and day out. On top of that, she also taught me how to shoot whiskey and drive anything with a clutch.

Q. What issues impacting women & girls are you most passionate about? Do you have any personal connection to any of these issues?
A. Education is very important to me. It is one of the reasons I personally became involved with Women’s Fund -- to continue learning and seeking new experiences, but as a Professor at Indiana University Kelley School it is my life's work as well. Education empowers women and these women can change their community for the better. Also, one of my primary areas of research is on pregnancy and how it affects women in their careers. Pregnancy and childbirth challenges should be better addressed in the community to allow women to reach their full potential and to help the business community better utilize the potential of investment in its employees.

Q. What would you tell other women and girls about Women's Fund to encourage them to get involved?
A. Women’s Fund is like having personal philanthropic advisors to help you lean about philanthropy and the issues affecting women and girls but also to screen agencies, conduct due diligence, provide guidelines and follow-up to grants and assure grants will continue in perpetuity through an endowment. By donating and becoming involved in WF you can make an impact far beyond whatever personal resources and community involvement you already have because you are immediately connected to an organization that multiplies the impact of your investment and connections exponentially.

Q. Tell us a little more about yourself.
A. I have been married to Terry for 15 years. He is the Executive Director of Indiana's Public Employees' Retirement Fund. I have worked as a Business Law Professor at IU for 10 years, the last 2 as a tenured Associate Professor. Terry and I have 3 sons who all attend the Orchard School. Although we aren’t from Indiana originally, we have found it a wonderful place to pursue our careers and raise our sons.