The Baltimore Women?s Giving Circle, a group of 318local women who practice collective giving and pride themselves in program evaluation and exploring the nuts and bolts of community needs, will award more than $300,000 to 19 area nonprofits this year.
“It?s women helping disadvantaged women and children in Baltimore gain self-sufficiency,” said BWGC
co-chair Beth Lebow, who added that the group, which started with 52 women in 2001, has now meted out more than $1.2 million in grants.
“The other part is that we educate ourselves about the needs of women and children in our community,” said Lebow, a retired social worker. The group meets four times a year for lectures by experts on community needs. Lebow?s co-chair is Pat Joseph.
A local manifestation of a country-wide trend in philanthropy, BWGC is actually a fund within the Baltimore Community Foundation, though it mostly operates on its own. Its members ? a mix of retired and working women ? must each pledge $1,100 yearly to the cause. They collectively then decide which applicants will receive grants of up to $20,000 apiece. There were 77 applicants this year.
“We are just thrilled [with the $20,000 grant],” said Heather Harvison, executive director of My Sister?s Circle, a nonprofit that provides long-term mentoring to low-income, East Baltimore fifth- through 12th-graders. “Now we have a staff person to devote his or her time to making college attendance a reality [for the kids].”
My Sister?s Circle, which became a nonprofit in 2001 and draws 12 incoming fifth-graders each year from Dallas F. Nicholas and Abbotson Elementary Schools, now has 75 students across 40 area schools under tutelage. Fifteen of them are poised for college.
“I respect those women so much,” Harvison said of BWGC. “Their concept is brilliant ? to put people?s money together and increase the amount of funding that you have available, so your dollars can go so much further.”
“I think it?s a great initiative. ? That money will certainly help out,” added Tom Nealis, director of advancement for Baltimore?s St. Frances Academy.
The academy, which is run by the Catholic Sisters of the Oblates of Providence, educates low-income city children. Its $20,000 grant will go toward tuition assistance, Nealis said.
BWGC grantees for 2008 include the Community Mediation Program, Episcopal Community Services of Maryland, Hampden Family Center, Jewish Family Services, Kids on the Hill and others.
