Women of Influence, Women of Vision by Helen Astin and Carole Leland

Astin and Leland examine the accomplishments of women leaders who strove for social and educational change in America from the ’60s to the ’90s — a study that spans three generations of women leaders.

Women Lead the Way by Linda Tarr-Whelan

Tarr-Whelan examines the underrepresentation of women in all fields, including the nonprofit sector, and sites startling facts: “83 percent of congressional seats and 86 percent of Fortune 500 board seats are held by men.”

The Structure of Women’s Nonprofits by Rebecca Bordt

What do women’s nonprofit organizations look like structurally? What explains their particular form? Rebecca Bordt explores these questions in the context of a wide variety of women’s nonprofit organizations in contemporary New York City. She conducted surveys of over one hundred organizations and supplemented these data with an analysis of in-depth interviews, organizational documents and field notes of a sample of these groups.

Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant

Crutchfield and McLeod Grant spent four years surveying thousands of nonprofit CEOs, conducting hundreds of interviews, and studying a dozen high-impact nonprofits to uncover their secrets to success. The secret? Great nonprofits spend as much time working outside their four walls as they do managing their internal operations. They use the power of leverage to become greater forces for good. This book reveals the six powerful practices of twelve high-impact nonprofits, and tells their stories.

The Transformative Power of Women’s Philanthropy by Martha Taylor

Written for any development officer or woman looking to be more effective in her philanthropy and volunteer leadership, this book explores how women’s philanthropy has shaped the world. The contributors, all experts in the field of women’s philanthropy, examine leaders in the modern women’s philanthropic movement and predict where the movement is headed. The volume closes with five new initiatives and a call to action for women’s philanthropy in this generation.

Reinventing Fundraising: Realizing the Potential of Women’s Philanthropy by Sondra Shaw-Hardy and Martha Taylor

Written by two women-in-philanthropy pioneers, the book includes research about causes that motivate women to contribute and the reasons major fund-raising organizations have not considered women as major contributors in the past.

IUPUI hosts the Center on Philanthropy, a leading source for philanthropic research and education, and home to the #3 philanthropy graduate school in the nation.

Within the Center, there exists the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, a leading research center on women and giving. Their Web site houses numerous resources focused on women and philanthropy and women’s giving circles.

One report, The Role of Womens Funds, focuses on how women’s giving plays into philanthropy and how women’s funds create change.

Other interesting resources, like 8 Strategies for More Effective Giving and The 6 C’s: Women’s Motivation for Giving give expert insight into women’s giving patterns and how to solicit to women. The Women’s Philanthropy Institute also teaches several classes and weekend seminars on women and philanthropy.

No third sector professional should go without reading through the Women’s Philanthropy Institute’s resources.

Kiva, an online microloan platform, allows you to loan money to men and women seeking to rise from poverty through entrepreneurship. You can view profiles of individuals requesting money, select your recipient, and donate to one person or ten people, in whatever capacity you choose.

For example, if you have $100 which you want to lend to those in poverty, you can give one person $50, another $30 and another $20. Basically, hundreds of people could lend small sums of money to one person, lowering the individual risk of each lender and making it possible for borrowers to obtain their loan faster.

When the individual begins to turn a profit, (s)he will repay the debt, allowing you to pull your funds out of the site, or redistribute it to other potential entrepreneurs. You can lend to impoverished individuals all around the world, in countries like Rwanda, Kenya, Cambodia, and Ecuador.

In November 2009, Kiva simultaneously celebrated its 4th anniversary and its success in microloaning $100 million.

Recently, a gay marriage bill was killed in the NY Senate (38-24). However, even though the bill didn’t pass, Sen. Savino’s powerful words linger in the internet. On Dec. 2, Sen. Savino commanded the floor in a powerful and mesmerizing argument for gay marriage. A video of her speech has popped up all over social media sites like Facebook, and has received more than 320,000 views on YouTube.

Sen. Savino began her career in public service as a caseworker for New York City’s Welfare Administration, providing assistance to abused children. In her career as a New York State Senator, Savino passed a law that ended the 5-year ststute of limitation on sexual assault, and a bill establishing a task force for the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. Savino also successfully campaigned for an increase in minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.15, the first raise in new york in over a decade. Savino sponsors a New York City mobile mammography unit, as well as a wide variety of programs for at-risk youth.

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 Violates Human Rights

by Liza Doubossarskaia, NOW Communications Intern

A bill that will strike a devastating blow to the fundamental principles of human rights might be coming to a vote in an immediate future.

The legislation in question is Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 proposed by parliament member David Bahati. The bill enjoys popular support in the Uganda Parliament, and if passed will become one of the most vitriolic anti-gay laws in the region.

In order to cement the narrow-minded social order, Uganda’s government is willing to further marginalize one of its most vulnerable social groups and hoist even more dehumanizing policies on its gay citizens. Gay people in Uganda are already subject to daily persecution. They face death threats, physical assaults, job dismissals and denouncement by their families and communities. Uganda’s police force has an established practice of arbitrarily arresting people accused of participating in consensual same-sex intercourse. Once detained, gays and lesbians are subject to torture and other mistreatment.

However, the new bill would make the abovementioned violations of human rights look like mild inconveniencies in comparison. Under the proposed legislation, A person who engages in same-sex intercourse or touches someone with the “intention” of such sexual activity is considered to have committed the “offence of homosexuality” and is subject to life imprisonment. An HIV-positive person engaging in same-sex intercourse will be charged with the felony of “aggravated homosexuality” and punished by death. The same penalty applies to persons in sexual relations with people with disabilities or people under the age of 18. An attempt to commit homosexuality will result in seven years imprisonment and an attempt to commit aggravated homosexuality carries a life sentence. Furthermore, efforts to aid and counsel gay persons will land you in prison for seven years. If the “offender” is a corporate body, a business, or a non-governmental organization, its certificate of registration will be revoked and the director will also be send to prison.

If you think the bill can’t get any worse, prepare to be further disillusioned. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill will also require Ugandan citizens to disclose known homosexuals within 24 hours. If a person fails to do so, he or she will be fined and/or sentenced to three years in prison. Even abroad, gay Ugandan citizens will not be safe from the callous persecution of their government. Under the new bill, the “offence” of homosexuality committed outside of Uganda’s boarders will still be punishable by Ugandan law, and the “offender” will be subject to extradition.

This bill will create a big obstacle to Uganda’s highly successful fight against HIV and AIDS. The bill prohibits distribution of any material that promotes homosexuality. The information pertaining to safe-sex practices and condom use for gay men would undoubtedly fall in this category . Daniel Molokele, Africa program officer at the World AIDS Campaign, stated that “discrimination and punitive laws like [the Anti-Homosexuality Bill] aimed at marginalized groups and at those often among the most affected by HIV drives people underground and does nothing to help slow down the AIDS epidemic.”

The bill will also effectively dismantle all domestic and international LGBT organizations in Uganda and deprive gay people of a much needed support network. Furthermore, the provision requiring a disclosure of homosexuals will not only force family and neighbors to turn on each other, but it leaves the door wide open for an all out witch-hunt.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated that United States will not tolerate the new legislature, and there have been some reports of the State Department engaging the Ugandan government on the issue. Thanks to The Rachel Maddow Show and other media for calling attention to this critical issue.

We must unite. Violence against women cannot be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in any circumstance, by any political leader or by any government.
-Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

All forms of violence against women must stop – from the use of rape as a weapon of war to the use of violence by a husband to terrorize his wife within her own home.
-Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro

By 2015, UNiTE aims to achieve the following five goals in all countries:

* Adopt and enforce national laws to address and punish all forms of violence against women and girls
* Adopt and implement multi-sectoral national action plans
* Strengthen data collection on the prevalence of violence against women and girls
* Increase public awareness and social mobilization
* Address sexual violence in conflict

Though I applaud the UN’s recognition of the issue and attempt to “fix” the problem, violence against women in Afghanistan, or any other place in the world, cannot be eliminated with a 16-day campaign, and it cannot be stopped through awareness-raising and increased attention to the issue, though those are both necessary actions to reach a solution. The solution to the problem must include interaction with women, providing women with education, and instilling in women a sense of empowerment that has been buried too long in the patriarchy of many cultures.

In this context, UNiTE serves as a call for social mobilization, more than a path to end patriarchy. As concerned citizens, we cannot rely on government, which in some cases is still firmly rooted in patriarchy itself, to end violence against women. We must attack it form the inside, as women and men who seek equality and change. Collectively as individuals, we must take the responsibility upon ourselves, and be involved in the change we seek.

Below is a moving call-to-action from Desmond Tutu, a South African human rights activist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. I hope his words inspire you as they have inspired me.

Last week, while discussing an upcoming cultural immersion experience at Franklin College which will stimulate various discriminations, a peer opened my eyes to the Museum of Tolerance.

Located in L.A., this museum hosts exhibits dedicated to dispelling various types of discrimination and encouraging tolerance. One exhibit I found of particular interest is the Tolerancenter, which focuses on incorporating tolerance into daily life. There are several aspects of the Tolerancenter, including the Millennium Machine, which uses interactivity to educate visitors on human rights abuses, including the exploitation of women and children. In the Tolerancenter, you can visit other interactive experiences dealing with hate crime, human rights violations, the Civil Rights Movement and more.

The museum’s current special exhibit is “The Power to Play – From Trash to Treasure,” a collection of handcrafted toys made by children in Africa, Asia and the Americas made from recycled and locally-available materials.

Add this one to your list of things to do the next time you’re in California. Or, make it a trip in itself.

When in search of feminist literature, I have found most trips to mainstream bookstores to be disappointing. However, occasionally I’m happily surprised. The following book review is a result of one of those surprises.

Half the Sky, by two former New York Times journalists, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, sets the agenda for ending global poverty and terrorism through educating and empowering women and girls.

In Half the Sky, Kristof and WuDunn shed light on three worldwide issues that form the core of women’s disempowerment: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence; and maternal mortality. The book is a collection of the personal accounts they collected during their travels to remote towns where young women are scarce because they’ve been sold into sex slavery, and large cities where thousands of homeless children roam the streets because their deceased mothers couldn’t afford access to hospitals and health care to ensure safe childbirth.

Now in its 11th printing, this book has transformed into a movement. With accolades from activists, authors and experts including Greg Mortenson, Khaled Hosseini, Farheed Zakaria, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney, this book is a must-have for any feminist bookshelf.

If you’re not yet convinced of the importance of this issue, I urge you to take advice from Eve Ensler. A feminist, activist, author and performer, best known for her book,  The Vagina Monologues, provides shockingly candid insight in her performance, Teenage Girls’ Guide to Surviving Sex Slavery.

After telling us she’d seen Steinem speak at the luncheon, she pointed us in the direction of Women & Children First, one of the largest feminist bookstores in the country. Located in a diverse, eclectic part of Chicago, the store hosts more than 30,000 books, including books by and about women, children’s books, and a large lesbian and gay fiction and non-fiction collection.

Our purpose [is] promote the work of women writers and to create a place in which all women would find books reflecting their lives and interests. We strive to do this in an atmosphere in which all are respected, valued, and well-served. -Women & Children First Web site

In November of 2005, the store established the Women’s Voices Fund to support feminist programming at the bookstore, the only venue in Chicago to offer such resources on a regular basis. Both the bookstore and the fund are staffed by feminists who seek to circulate feminist literature.

I would recommend every feminist check out their Web site. On top of a huge online store, they offer staff recommendations, feminist news, reviews and other resources.

If only the Border’s and Barnes and Nobles of the world would catch on to this idea…

When researching topics for my first blog post, I thought it most appropriate to start with a woman who has been critically influential in feminism and philanthropy, and has dedicated her life to seeking change for women worldwide: Gloria Steinem.

As the founding editor and publisher of the feminist magazine, Ms., the founder of several women’s rights nonprofits including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Women’s Action Alliance, the Women’s Media Center and Choice USA, Steinem is one of the most renowned reformists during the second wave of feminism.

In 1971, Steinem founded the National Women’s Political Caucus along with other influential feminist leaders (Betty Friedan, Fannie Lou Hammer, Myrlie Evers, Shirley Chisolm and Bella Abzug). In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

In September, Steinem gave the keynote address at the Chicago Foundation for Women’s 24th Annual Luncheon. In her address, she celebrated her 75th birthday by making nine wishes that would better the lives of women and girls around the world. They are listed below (courtesy of the Chicago Foundation for Women: www.cfw.org).

Steinem’s entire keynote address is also available in PDF format: Gloria Steinam’s Birthday Wishes

Gloria Steinem’s 75th Birthday Wishes

From her remarks at our 24th Annual Luncheon

Many people have asked us to share Ms. Steinem’s birthday wishes, which she mentioned in her remarks at our 24th Annual Luncheon. In honor of turning 75 this year, Ms. Steinem made the following nine wishes that would make the world better for women and girls.

1. On marriage equality: I want all grown-ups to be able to get married as long as they don’t hit each other.
2. On pornography: I want to walk past the newsstand and see a lot of erotica and no pornography.
3. On fair budgets: I want schools and childcare centers to have a military budget, and the military to have the school and childcare budget–provided they use that budget for peacekeeping.
4. On the media: I want to turn on the news and see women and men of all colors and ages reporting what went right, as well as what went wrong. And I don’t want to see everything divided into two. It is ready-made hostility in the media. In Japan, when they are discussing something important, they at least have three people. That alone is like water in the desert.
5. On non-violence: I want us all to know that you can’t reach useful ends by violent means.
6. On institutionalized inequality: I want to walk into Central Park and see as many white guys wheeling babies of color as there are nannies of color wheeling white babies. And I want all of them to be well paid.
7. On work-life balance: I want to turn on Oprah and see a show about men trying to combine work and family.
8. On race and racism: I want all of us to understand, we all came from Africa, all of us.
9. On healing: I hope that we learn from the original wisdom of this country, the land on which we stand, which is that it took four generations to heal one violent act.