Women United in Giving: Circles Join Smaller Donations to Benefit Common Causes

By Jenny Shearer, The Bakersfield Californian

Nov. 17–For Dr. Holly Spohn-Gross, practicing medicine in the underserved communities of the Kern River Valley lets her make an immediate difference.

The podiatric surgeon’s philanthropic work complements her professional passions. She supports the Women’s and Girls’ Fund of Kern County.

“I have passion for helping our youth,” she said. The Kernville resident donated to the fund because “I want to invest in our future, I believe that’s where you start.”

Her giving is just one example of developments in women’s philanthropy — giving circles and funds that focus on women and children — emerging in Kern County that reflect national trends.

Women have more individual financial clout than in the past, according to the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

–In 2001, nearly 3.4 million women were among the nation’s top wealth-holders, according to the IRS.

–Because women live longer than men, they’ll end up in charge of much of the $41 trillion expected to pass from generation to generation during the next 50 years.

Giving circles involve groups of donors who combine their resources for common causes.

“Not everybody can sit down and write a $1,000 check,” said Judi McCarthy, chairwoman of the Women’s and Girls’ Fund of Kern County. It’s administered through the Kern Community Foundation.

The fund counts seven giving circles among donors called founders who gave $1,000 or more. Women and men who live in the Kern River Valley are members of three circles — the Mountain Momma’s and its offshoots.

Licensed clinical social worker Heather Berry lives in Wofford Heights and started Mountain Momma’s. She was at a Women’s and Girls’ Fund meeting and wanted to help. A $1,000 donation wasn’t in her budget, but 20 people giving $50 was within reach.

Berry said fundraisers often look for big donors.

“But yet an awful lot can be accomplished by grouping together, people who can afford smaller amounts of donations.”

Cal State Bakersfield employees and residents of Brighton Parks, a 55-and-older community, formed their own circles.

“Women like joining together, they like affiliation, they like to be part of a cooperative effort,” McCarthy said. “What these giving circles do on a small level, what women’s fund does on a larger level, (it) allows the opportunity of cooperative grant making.”

David Parker, the Kern Community Foundation’s executive director, got the idea to start the fund after hearing about similar funds in Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.

“I realized there was a segment of our population that wasn’t being addressed as much as it could be,” he said.

Fund facts

The Women’s and Girls’ Fund will start making grants in the spring. Nonprofits that support education, training and mentoring opportunities for women and girls are welcome to apply. The fund has amassed more than $360,000 in donations. Grants come from the fund’s earnings and accrued interest.

People who give at the founders level may review grant applications and make decisions about which agencies receive funding.

There are two spots for teenage girls on the review committee, as well. McCarthy hopes having younger members on the panel will plant a seed about giving in them.

Donors received a document with statistics about eight areas of needs women and girls face.

Members chose to focus on education, mentoring and training, which McCarthy believes reflects donors’ proactive stance.

Supporting basic needs such as food and shelter are important, but if a girl receives education and training opportunities, “perhaps she won’t need emergency help later,” McCarthy said.

Through the fund and the agencies it will support, McCarthy is hopeful that donors can learn about the community’s needs.

Berry has two young daughters, and she said it’s possible her kids will one day access services supported by the Women’s and Girls’ Fund.

Women as donors

Although women have consistently been involved with philanthropic work, the academic research about that involvement is an emerging field.

Women’s and girls’ funds and giving circles are new entities, said Andrea Pactor, program manager for philanthropic services at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University in Indianapolis.

She’s not sure what prompts women to form giving circles, but she views them as natural extensions of women’s sewing circles, book clubs and investment clubs.

“Is it because women weren’t invited to sit at philanthropic table, so they created parallel constructs? Or is it because women felt the spirit of collective giving, so deeply engrained in their experiences?” Pactor said.

Organizations and foundations may be recognizing women’s potential in new ways.

“The giving potential of women, it’s a market that in the past has been overlooked,” said Miriam Krehbiel, president of Kern’s United Way chapter. “Women who are extremely successful in and of themselves that may have different giving ideas or giving goals or philanthropic goals than what we have ever recognized.”

McCarthy agrees and believes women donors and volunteers are “potential energy waiting to be tapped.”

For Susan Hersberger, public affairs director at Aera Energy LLC, philanthropy has professional and personal significance.

She directs Aera’s philanthropic activities and recalls her mother’s active volunteer work. Hersberger’s mother was president of several service organizations in Indiana, and she remembers her working at a living room desk juggling calls and organizing projects while Hersberger and her siblings played.

Her sense is more women serve on boards of directors of major community organizations. But she thinks women have always been engaged in philanthropy in one form or another.

Hersberger contributed to the Women’s and Girls’ Fund to honor her daughter, who’s in her mid-20s, working and in business school in Los Angeles.

Although there are myriad differences between the genders, no one is saying women make better philanthropists than men.

Wendy Wayne, executive director of First 5 Kern, believes men and women with passion to volunteer do so.

“I just think we’re all in this together, whether you’re a man or a woman,” Wayne said.

“If you see a need and go after approaches that will resolve that need, that’s a good thing. It doesn’t matter what gender you are.”

How to apply

Interested nonprofits seeking support from the Women’s and Girls’ Fund should submit a letter of intent to apply by 4 p.m. Nov. 30 to the Kern Community Foundation, 1626 19th St., Suite 14, Bakersfield, 93301 or via fax, 661-325-5358. Information about applying is available online, www.kernfoundation.org/Womens/Our_Grants.html.

Letters will be reviewed and organizations will be invited to apply by Dec. 21; final applications are due Feb. 15.

Why women give

Academic study of what motivates women to give is a new field.

Sondra Shaw-Hardy and Martha Taylor of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute identified six C’s as women’s motivations for giving:

Create: Women want to create new solutions to problems and like to be entrepreneurial with their philanthropy.

Change: Women give to make a difference and are less interested in giving unrestricted support to preserve the status quo of an organization or institution.

Connect: Women prefer to see the human face their gift affects and want to build partnerships with the people connected with the project they fund.

Commit: Women commit to organizations whose vision they share and often give to groups for which they have volunteered. Collaboration: Women prefer to work with others as part of a larger effort. They seek to avoid duplication, competition and waste.

Celebrate: Women seek to celebrate their accomplishments, have fun together and enjoy the deeper meaning and satisfaction of their philanthropy.

They then identified the three C’s for the 21st century: The results of women’s giving

Control: Women are taking control of their lives, their finances and their philanthropy.

Confidence: Women have gained the confidence to become philanthropic leaders.

Courage: Women have the courage to challenge the old way of doing things and take risks with their giving to bring about change.

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