Final Grants Awards Presentation

Since 2001, Women Making a Difference has awarded 91 grants (to the tune of $500,000!) to 44 different tri-county non-profit organizations thanks to contributions from 900 members.

Let me say that again.

Since 2001, Women Making a Difference has awarded 91 grants (to the tune of $500,000!) to 44 different tri-county non-profit organizations thanks to contributions from 900 members.

THAT is the difference that we made.

November 16th marks the date of our final grants awards presentation, and we’d like to take a few moments to reminisce over the last ten years.

We’ve helped organizations feed the less fortunate, teach children about the need for healthy habits, teach adults how to recognize the signs of abuse, support children with special needs, repair homes for the needy, promote good reading skills, advocate on behalf of battered women, educate and introduce women to the workforce, teach families how to provide for themselves, and the list goes on and on and on.

On a personal note, we’ve built friendships that will last a lifetime.  We’ve laughed and cried and had so much fun with each other, it’s not fair.  We’ve shared personal hardships, battles, triumphs and victories.  We’ve networked and reached out and welcomed those new to the area.  We’ve plugged in and stood out and MADE A DIFFERENCE.

To every one of you who has been a member, ever: thank you.  You are the reason we were able to make a difference.  You became the change you wanted to see in your community.  You are the one who helped every woman and child that we’ve had the fortune to reach.

To every grantee that has ever benefited from WMaD:  thank you.  You have given of your time and money and effort and sanity to make a difference to someone who needed help.  You have recognized a need and stepped up to the plate, without question.  You have cared when no one else would.

To every member who has ever sat on the board or served on the grants committee:  thank you.  You have spent hours pouring your gifts for planning or organizing or stamping or making site visits or finding out just where our money would make the biggest impact.  You have given of your time to make sure that each and every event went off without a hitch (save for the weather…we never could get that under control!).  You have been fearless leaders.

And a special thank you to the Coastal Community Foundation!  Without the team they have there, we never would have reached this accomplishment.  Thank you for all of the detailed work you have put in!

Thank you, all!

We will celebrate these and many more victories at our final grants awards presentation, and we hope that you’ll help us make this the best grants ceremony ever!

Wednesday, November 16th

6:00-8:30 pm

The Historic Rice Mill Building at the City Marina

17 Lockwood Drive Charleston, SC

 

 

 

Check out the list of amazing organizations that we’ve worked with over the years:

African American Family Center

Ascend Foundation

Begin with Books

Big Brothers/Big Sisters

Birthright of Charleston 

Boys & Girls Clubs

Camp Happy Days

Carolina Medical Assessment Center

Carolina Youth Development Center

Center for Women

Charleston Area Therapeutic Riding

Charleston Breast Center

Charleston Center/New Life Unit

Charleston Concert Association

Charleston Miracle League

Children’s Museuem of the Lowcountry

Communities In Schools

Crisis Ministries

Darkness to Light

Dress For Success

Dee Norton Lowcountry Children’s Center

Dorchester Children in Crisis

East Cooper Community Outreach

Family Connection

Family Resource Center 

Family Services

Fields to Families

Florence Crittenton Programs

Gibbes Museum of Art

Junior Girls Day Out

Habitat/Women Build (Sea Island)

HALOS

Hemangioma Treatment Foundation

Humanities Foundation‘s Shelter Net Program

Louie’s Kids

Lowcountry Food Bank

Lowcountry Orphan Relief

Magdalene House

MUSC/School of Nursing

My Sister’s House

Operation Home

Our Lady of Mercy Outreach

Outward Bound/FINS

Palmetto Health/Reach Out & Read

Pattison’s Academy

People Against Rape

Red Cross 

Respite Care Ministries

Roscoe Reading

Program Safe Moves

School’s Out

Sophia Institute

S.C. Birth Defects Foundation

Sidewalk Chalk

St. Matthews’ Community Outreach

Teachers’ Supply Closet

Trident Tech/Clemente Project

Windwood Farm

Wings for kids

YESCarolina

YWCA 

How YOU can continue to grow the WMD Endowment Fund at CCF

• Forget the cozy sweaters and fuzzy bedroom shoes at holiday time!  Honor sisters, mothers, grandmothers, and best friends with gifts in their honor to The WMD Endowment.  It won’t unravel or wear out but will last forever, benefiting women and children of the Lowcountry now and in the future.
• Ask your boyfriends, spouses, children, and grandchildren to give YOU a gift to the Endowment in YOUR honor.  Let them know you’re serious by giving them the address below.  They will probably give you “something to open” anyhow!
• Join iGive and let your online purchases benefit the Endowment.  Go to www.iGive.com and follow the simple directions using the information below.  Each time you shop online starting from the iGive website, you will be ‘donating’ to the Endowment.  You can even download the iGive icon to your desktop to remind you to use the site when you start shopping.  Easy peasy!  The more you spend, the more the Endowment gets!
• On those sad occasions when you experience the death of a friend or relative, make a memorial gift to the Endowment.  The Coastal Community Foundation will notify the family members of the deceased in a timely way to inform them of your thoughtful donation that will do permanent good.  If you are in the unenviable position of designating a charity for others to remember your loved one, remember the Endowment.
• Mother’s Day got you in a gift-giving quandary?  She doesn’t need more flowers, candy, or dusting powder, does she? Why not give a lasting gift to the WMD Endowment? She will feel honored, we guarantee it.
• Other gift giving occasions when a gift to the Endowment would work: birthdays, bat mitzvahs, anniversaries, administrative professional’s day, teachers’ gifts, graduations, congratulations of any type.  We all suffer from TMSS (Too Much Stuff Syndrome).  Even our children have TMSS.  Donating to the WMD Endowment not only feels good to you, it also reminds the recipient to ‘pay it forward’.
• Are your children bombarded with over-the-top gifts from well-meaning grandparents?  Help your children learn the gift of philanthropy at an early age by asking grandparents to honor them instead with a gift to the Endowment.
• Share information about the WMD Endowment with your friends and encourage them to consider giving.  Become a shameless advocate for women and children’s causes in our wonderful Lowcountry and continue the legacy of Women Making a Difference!

Dear Members and Friends of Women Making a Difference,

Thank you for your incredible support over the past ten years!  We are proud to say that Women Making a Difference has dispersed more than $500,000 in grants and amassed more than $100,000 in the Endowment Fund to date!  While the money we pooled with one another to improve the quality of life for women and children in Charleston County is substantial, the movement of women working together to truly make a difference is even more meaningful.

Since 2001, Women Making a Difference has awarded 91 grants to 44 different tri-county non-profit organizations thanks to contributions from 900 members.  Please congratulate yourselves for making our community a better, safer place for everyone!

Women Making a Difference will kick off its second decade with a new focus.  After this current year’s grant cycle, all future donations will be added directly to the Women Making a Difference Endowment Fund held in perpetuity at the Coastal Community Foundation.  Shifting the focus from an annual dues-supported membership organization to ongoing endowment means everyone can be a part of our growing legacy.

A tax-deductible donation to the Women Making a Difference Endowment Fund will be a wonderful way to honor family and friends while continuing to make a difference in the lives of women and children in our community.

We’d like to extend extra special thanks to the women who have served on the Executive and Grant committees over the years.  Without these dedicated volunteers, we would not have successfully achieved the goals of Women Making a Difference.  We also want to thank the Coastal Community Foundation for the amazing support and leadership of its staff.

Please join us on November 16, 2011, at the Rice Mill Building, for the final grants awards presentation.  We will disperse the membership dues received from July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011 and toast the future success of Women Making a Difference’s Endowment Fund.

We look forward to seeing you in November!

Katie, Weesie & Nancy

Katie Dukes, Weesie Newton and Nancy Snowden

Year End Event and Grants News

We came, we saw, we conquered!  Thanks to all of the wonderful ladies who were able to join us at co-founder Weesie Newton’s house for a wonderful wine tasting.   We had a great crowd of old and new faces!

Special thanks goes out to Afford-a-Bike, Berlin’s for Women, Palmetto Gear, King Bean Coffee Roasters, Fleet Landing, Urban Nirvana, Firefly Vodka and Kathleen Beck with Stella & Dot for their generous donations! Due, in part, to the famed “lucky scribble” of her name on her raffle ticket, Executive Committee member Jennifer Rhodes Mendelsohn went home with the awesome gift basket filled with local coffee, gift certificates and other awesome gear!

This was an incredible event, and we’re happy to announce that we had a rush of last minute membership renewals that brought our total to give away to: $28,000!  Since our fiscal year runs with the Coastal Community Foundation, we just started a new membership year on July 1.  With our new online giving system, you can set up a monthly payment system, and a $250 Ruby membership will be about $20 a month!  So, save your waistline from that once-weekly value meal and give to a great cause, instead!

The 2011 list of nominated organizations:

American Red Cross

Berkley Education Foundation

Camp Happy Days

Center for Women

Charleston  Area Senior Citizens

Charleston Concert Intermezzo Jr. Club

Children in Crisis

CYCD Bakker Career Center

Dream Center

HALOS

Integrative Cancer Center

Louie’s Kids

Lowcountry Food Bank

Lowcountry Orphan Relief

Metonia

Our Lady of Mercy Outreach

Respite Care Ministries

Sea Island Habitat For Humanity

The Neighborhood House

Veterans on Deck

WINGS

Current Grantee :: Fields to Families

With the beautiful weather upon us, the produce overflowing at the Farmer’s Market and the promise of Summer just around the corner, I figured what better time to talk about Fields to Families?!  We received an email a few weeks ago from Nikki Seibert with F2F updating us on just what she’s been up to for the last few months, and the list of accomplishments is quite impressive!  Nikki’s position was essentially funded by the 2010 grant from Women Making a Difference, and we’re pretty excited to share the work that she’s been doing in our community.

-Streamlined communications between volunteers, donors and contacts to ensure volunteers are automatically involved and donations are processed in a timely manner

-Forming and training of committees to help the organization in grants, fundraising, events and gleanings

-Centralized document storage to allow for easy, barrier-free communication and data input across the span of the five farmers markets, gleanings, events, fundraising and grant writing

-Increased partnership with local farmers and recipient agencies to ensure that all available produce is utilized as much as possible

-Increased social media and participation; press and awareness; fundraising, sponsorship and grants to continue the funding of the program; and increased presence at outreach events

-Securing of the land donation for use with the organization

If you don’t know about Field to Families’ mission, make sure to check out their website.  They essentially serve as the go-between for farmers with excess produce and Lowcountry organizations who so badly need the goods (soup kitchens, pantries, Meals on Wheels, etc.).  As their website states, “South Carolina has the second highest percentage of hungry people in the nation!”  Thanks, in part, to the member-funded grant from Women Making a Difference, this worthy organization continues to thrive in our community, but they can always use more help.  Volunteer positions are available, and donations are always welcome!

Style Swap!

We are thrilled to announce our involvement with the Style Swap event going on soon here in Charleston!   If you’ve never been to one of these events before, please check out the site asap.   I went last year, and I scored a fox stole and a vintage belt!   Basically, you bring two gently used designer items with, they all get sorted, and then you get tickets to put your name in the hat for other items.   It is SO much fun and a great way to get rid of a couple of things that are awesome but maybe don’t fit quite so well (too big, of course!) anymore.

This year, they have generously decided that WMaD should be the charitable sponsor for the event!  So all the money raised through raffle sales goes to…you guessed it…your favorite local giving circle.  More money to put in the pot, ladies.

I highly recommend this event as it is SUCH a great time.   We encourage all of our members to attend!   For more information, please visit their site.  The event is Tuesday, April 12th at the Renaissance Hotel, downtown.

Sarah

Welcome Spring!

Spring Soiree Alhambra Hall 131 Middle Street, Mt. Pleasant 5:30-7:30 pm Thursday, April 21st  Spring is on the way, and celebration is in the air!  Our membership drive is in full force, and it is time for you to renew (and grab a friend or two, too!)!  Save the date for our annual Spring Soiree event happening next month at beautiful Alhambra Hall.  Enjoy the beautiful weather and incomparable view of the Charleston Harbor while having a glass of wine and catching up with friends, old and new. This is arguably one of the best parties of the year and a great opportunity to hear from some of our grantees, meet new members and celebrate being a part of one of the City’s best organizations!  Some of our former grantees, including Pattison’s Academy & Operation Home, will be in attendance to tell you exactly how they allocate the grants that YOU help us give! This event is for all women who are interested in learning more and/or becoming members of Women Making a Difference.  Membership information and forms will be available, and several members of the Executive Committee will be in attendance to answer any questions you may have. Please RSVP to Sarah at womenmakingadifference@gmail.com. WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!    Bravo to the ladies who have recently joined or renewed their involvement with Women Making a Difference in 2011.  Now it’s your turn!    Weesie Newton Sarah Nielsen Kristen Quinn Jennifer Rhodes Mendelsohn Sherri Seymour Jennifer Snowden Nancy Snowden    Our 2010-2011 membership drive is over halfway done, and we’ve raised $17688 so far!  We want to give away as many worthy grants as possible, so renew your membership today to help us beat last year’s number! Years ago, we campaigned with a $100,000 goal for our membership year, and we reached it!  With your help, we can reach a similar goal this year and give larger grants to our worthy nominees.  Don’t forget, your gift combined with all of the other gifts quickly turns into a grant.  Our past grants have provided all kinds of services, including: After school programs to help children and teens learn life skills Give overweight children and teens a chance to get and stay healthy Improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities Help repair homes for those less fortunate Provide transporation and prevention education for child victims Distribute harvested crops to Meals on Wheels, local food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and churches Provide educational, health and outreach services  Counseling for children and families who were victims of abuse These are just a few of the services that our members have helped provide through grants to worthy organizations throughout the years.  Help us make this another banner worthy year by renewing or joining today!  As a member, you are eligible to nominate any organization or initiative in the tri-country area that benefits women and children, so start thinking now!   The 2009-2010 membership year featured the debut of our online giving program, designed to make being a member as quick and easy as possible!  So many members took advantage of the monthly payment program, we’ve decided to run it again this year.  If you start now, you can join at the $250 level for about $60 a month!  I strongly urge you to take advantage of this program and use the monthly payment as an excuse to sign yourself up for a higher level!  Every dollar counts towards our mission to enhance the quality of life for women and children in your community.    Thank you for being a part of one of the city’s best organizations.  We look forward to seeing you soon!  Sarah EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS 2011 Your 2011 Executive Committee: Jennifer Snowden, ChairBrantlee de Brux, MembershipJennifer Rhodes Mendelsohn, MembershipJodie Cochran, Grants Sarah Nielsen, Member Communications Sherri Seymour, Events Kyra Morris, Events  We welcome Sherri and Kyra as the newest members and look forward to the gifts they will bring to our table!