BJCWF's Late Fall Newsletter

A FEW WORDS FROM BARBARA

With the holidays approaching, I have the perfect opportunity to express my gratitude to our Fund’s leadership. We are truly blessed with an array of intelligent, determined, and thoughtful women committed to improving the lives of women and girls. I also want to thank Susan Ebert for everything she does on behalf of the Fund.

I want to welcome our nine newest members: Mollye Block, Deborah Feinstein, Barbara Grossman, Barbara Gutman, Ellyn Harmon, Erica Kaitz, Sonia Michaelson, Rosemary Putnam, Barbara Targum, and acknowledge a membership that Jennifer Silver established in memory of her mother, Nancy Katz. Our membership now stands at more than 170 strong women committed to making a positive impact upon women and girls.

The economic challenges we face today will test the outer limits of our strength. The types of organizations we fund will face increased demand and decreased resources. Therefore, our funding and grant making decisions will be more important than ever before. We must strive to fund strategically such that we maximize our grantee’s impact and create alliances and partnerships with and among our grantees.

To show our commitment to our communities and those who need our help most, our Executive Committee has recently approved a $10,000 donation to the CJP Economic Emergency Fund to help with food, fuel and other emergency costs resulting from the current crisis. (For more info, contact susane@cjp.org)

We are all looking forward to the 2009 grant cycle and to the work ahead.

Barbara Schultz
Co-chair



GRANTEE SPOTLIGHT

THE GIRLS OF BIRD STREET
They are writing poetry, making glass paperweights, and designing and producing handbags. They’re learning to use words to express themselves and develop skills to support themselves. They’re seeing the world outside Dorchester and opening themselves to new possibilities.

The Bird Street Community Center, which we are now supporting for a second year, serves hundreds of youngsters in Boston’s Upham’s Corner neighborhood. Our funds ($25,000 for 2007 and 2008) are directed to programming for girls at a time when girl to girl violence and gang membership are on the rise.

Bird Street Director Andrea Kaiser wrote to us, “The grant has been so critical to the growth of our services to high risk girls and teens in the inner city, and the results speak for themselves.”

For long time Fund member Roberta Crowley Gottlieb, Bird Street epitomizes the best kind of program for teenage girls. “They’re involved, engaged, they learn about each other, and they learn about alternatives and choices that can make sense for them.”


GRANTS UPDATE

• 48 letters of intent are now being read by 36 readers.
• We’ll request about 24 complete proposals, which will be due on January 9, and distributed to 3 grant committees. These will meet in the first week of February.
• A separate committee will review applications for long-term funding.
• You can still join a grant committee. Call or email Susan Ebert
(671-457-8590 or susane@cjp.org).


MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
BARBARA GUTMAN

Barbara Gutman joined The Fund after attending our September opening event. We asked her to write about her passions and interests, and to add a note about something that is very important to her.

“My passions are my family (including my dog!), fitness, politics (especially woman's issues) and social action. My hobbies include running, yoga, weightlifting, tennis, skiing, and reading.

I heard about The Fund from Beth Klarman. I decided to join because of my interest in philanthropy and my desire to focus on issues that work to improve the lives of women and girls. I hope to be involved in as many areas as feasibly possible in order to really understand the nuances of grant making.”

AND WHAT’S IMPORTANT…
I would add my sense of accomplishment at having run the 2008 Tufts' 10K in my best time of 53 minutes, and coming in 907 in a crowd of 5500 runners. What makes this meaningful is that this is the only time I ever ran a race, and it felt great to know that I could dig deep inside of me and finish with a respectable time.