What’s the most interesting effort your circle is focusing on right now?

One of our goals is to educate our membership on the needs in our community and to do it in partnership with other like-minded local organizations. We recently connected with an organization of women of color and are brainstorming topics. We plan to offer the program to the broader community, not just our membership. We hope to spark more action in tackling problems, while also increasing awareness of our organization and encouraging greater diversity of our membership. 

What is something your circle is currently challenged by?

We recently reviewed our conflicts of interest policies relating to agency interactions. Through robust debate on options and their implications, our board found a balance to achieving fairness and objectivity, while avoiding unintended consequences. We recognized that too strict a policy would exclude women from serving on our board who serve in executive roles on local nonprofit boards or who work at those agencies. We want experience like that because it will help us improve how we operate and our decision-making. 

What Philanos resource has been most helpful to you this year, and why?

The “We Give Summit” in May was a tremendous resource for great ideas and best practices being used by other women’s giving circles that we could apply to our organization. One terrific aspect of my experience was being a presenter with 2 other wonderful ladies on how to grow membership in a pandemic. Through our collaboration I learned about some of their successful approaches that we plan to implement to enhance our member retention and acquisition results.