Members Marty Wiggins, Ellen Krafve, Betsy Hahn, Lori Holt and Patty Machin headed to St. Louis on April 8 to represent The Women’s Fund at the 2014 WCGN (Women’s Collective Giving Grantmaking Network) Leadership Forum. Maxine Clark, Founder and “Chief Executive Bear” and Chairman of Build-A-Bear Workship ® opened the conference speaking on “The Power of Giving Forward” and presented all attendees with a special St. Lucia Build-A-Bear!
The next two days were busy with workshops presented by other giving circles from across the country. The various topics ranged from building membership, educating members, governance, grant making approaches, technology and so much more. The last morning of the conference Colleen Willoughby, founder of WCGN and founding member of Washington Women’s Foundation, spoke to the group on the topic “You Can’t Respond if You Don’t Know.” Finally, the group heard reports from some of the innovative and effective grant programs that have been funded by our host group, The Spirit of St. Louis Women’s Fund. How exciting and inspiring it was to see what other giving circles are accomplishing in their communities!
Our representatives left St. Louis with an abundance of information and enthusiasm. They were encouraged to learn that The Women’s Fund is doing so much right and are full of vision for new areas for growth and for increased development of our mission – leveraging the philanthropic capacity of women as a catalyst for positive change. Special thanks to Fourth Partner and an anonymous donor for enabling our representatives to attend the conference. We are looking forward to the next WCGN conference to be held Fall 2015.