My Nonprofit Reviews

I first got involved in Together Women Rise 14 years ago when I was on the Board of a young, cutting-edge NGO that got a grant from them. I spoke to some of the Rise chapters, and was incredibly impressed with the depth of their knowledge of and compassion for girls and women in low resource areas. I went back home and started a chapter myself, which turned into 3 chapters. We meet monthly and have become well-informed, committed supporters of Rise, loving the grantee we learn about each month. It has transformed the lives of 10s of 1000s of women and girls, providing guidance, education, role models, agency, and best of all HOPE. The total below is the combined amount our 3 chapters have raised. It's $91 a day. That might not sound like a lot, but in places where people live on a few dollars a day, it makes an enormous difference.

I first learned of DIning For Women when I sat on the Board of one of their grantees, Shining Hope for Communities. I volunteered to speak to any Dining For Women groups in my metro area (Philadelphia) and was so impressed and envious of the comraderie, purpose, and vibrancy of the three groups I met that I started a chapter in my neighborhood! We now have 4 chapters, have raised over $200K, and I am just about to join the Dining For Women Board. I love this organization. It brings women together, and collectively we help raise up other women. Over a beautiful monthly dinner. Friendship, sharing, learning, and supporting one another, too - I cherish these connections.

I had the extraordinary good fortune of meeting the founder of WINGS Guatemala, Sue Patterson, the medical director, and Kirsten Taylor, development director on a trip to Antigua, Guatemala. They are doing great work on women's health, framing reproductive health issues as part of general public health. One of their portfolios that I particularly admire is their work with Guatemalan men. In a macho, Latino culture, men's reproductive health and role is often ignored. When men and women are educated and encouraged to be on the same team, the future is brighter for everyone.
Recently WINGS mobilized donors to help with the post volano health crises; we appreciated having a reliable NGO on the ground providing direct services to those in crisis.

As a founding Board Member of Shining HOpe for Community, I cannot stop talking about this amazing organization. Organized around the Kibera School for Girls, a free, topnotch educational experience for girls from ultrapoor peri-urban families in Kibera, Kenya, the school has become a hub for community transformation. The clinic serves the local population and has built trust and confidence, expanding capacity. The biosanitation and water point have provided clean water and hygienic latrines, which use cutting edge tech to produce methane. The playground is a first in this impoverished shantytown. Kennedy Odede is a role-model par excellance. But most of all what this fantastic project produces in prodigious amounts is: HOPE! The rest happens!

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I love Earth Child's Institute's campaign to plant a tree for every child on earth. They have certificates you can purchase in honor of new babies - the perfect gift for kids with more than they need and the planet!

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Friend of the Arava Institute supports work that gives us hope - working on the idea that nature has no borders and that people bond over common goals, creating a new generation of Middle East environmental problem solvers will help bring peace as well as a healthier earth.

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