{"id":3398,"date":"2022-11-18T14:49:27","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T19:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3398"},"modified":"2022-11-18T14:49:27","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T19:49:27","slug":"special-feature-womens-fund-founders-built-legacy-for-communitys-daughters-and-granddaughters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3398","title":{"rendered":"Special feature: Women\u2019s Fund founders built legacy for community\u2019s daughters and granddaughters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Renee Gadoua<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peggy Ogden remembers a woman walking into her office about 25 years ago to contribute to the newly-created Women\u2019s Fund of Central New York. \u201cShe said it was the first time she had written a $1,000 check,\u201d Ogden recalled. \u201cIt was self-empowerment for her: \u2018This is something I believe in and will use my resources to support.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ogden was among several Syracuse-area women who harnessed determination and donations to start the Women\u2019s Fund of Central New York, an endowed fund to address gender inequity that limited opportunities for the region\u2019s women and girls.<\/p>\n

After participating in the national Leadership Women America program in the mid-90s, a small group of Syracuse-area women wanted to use their leadership positions, skills and resources at home. Hillary Clinton\u2019s 1995 declaration to the United Nations that \u201cwomen\u2019s rights are human rights\u201d had highlighted the low profile and paltry resources the community committed to women\u2019s and girl\u2019s programming. A nod to the region\u2019s history of female leaders in the Iroquois Confederacy and the women\u2019s suffrage movement also influenced their thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re leaving a legacy for our community, our daughters and our granddaughters,\u201d one fundraising appeal noted. \u201cThis fund is another chapter in that legacy of women\u2019s rights,\u201d said Aminy Audi, who hosted one of the early organizing meetings.<\/p>\n

Their initial goal was to raise $100,000 through 100 founding donations of $1,000. They raised more than $170,000 in about four months. \u201cWomen just took out their checkbooks and started writing checks,\u201d Ogden said. \u201cWe were helping women recognize the power of philanthropy.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The timing was right,” said Ann Higbee. “Women were looking for an outlet to be supportive of ideas and programs that were meaningful to them and supported women and girls. It was bite sized. It was manageable. It was local.\u201d<\/p>\n

The founders partnered with the Central New York Community Foundation to create the endowment, formalize their goals and create an advisory council. The Women\u2019s Fund now has more than $1.2 million in total assets and has awarded nearly $450,000 in grants since inception.<\/p>\n

Marcie Sonneborn, who was teaching entrepreneurship at Syracuse University at the time, was frustrated at the stark difference between how male and female students talked about startups and venture capital. \u201cThe men were gung-ho and ready to go out and do something and the women said, \u2018My ideas are not well thought out enough.\u2019\u201d She hoped the fund would help women realize their ideas were valuable, too.<\/p>\n

Council members also got a chance to learn leadership skills through networking and assessing grants. \u201cIt was a first experience for many women,\u201d Judy Mower said. \u201cThat builds leadership. That’s a skill. That builds mental capacity. It makes women better at civic leadership and entrepreneurship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audi agreed: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be the CEO to be a leader. Being able to see how others function, how they resolve conflict and how they interact with others, provide valuable lessons in leadership skills for women at every level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maeve Lanning Stockman, current Women\u2019s Fund Advisory Council chair, leads the 28-member group in assessing and awarding grants. \u201cWe are the stewards of this fund,\u201d she said. \u201cWe receive many more applications than we can fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

She finds the nonprofits\u2019 stories both inspiring and heart-breaking. \u201cWe know that women are often the economic powerhouse of their family,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is an honor and privilege and a heavy weight to be able to support these extremely worthy organizations to keep the basic foundation under the people they serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2022, the fund awarded 10 grants totaling $50,000. They included: Black Girls Don\u2019t Get Love, to convert a popular book into a short film for girls; Partners for Education and Business, to connect girls with local companies and hands-on activities to explore engineering, manufacturing and skilled trade careers; and BLOOM of CNY, to facilitate workshops for girls and young women on health and wellness, financial literacy and building healthy habits.<\/p>\n

Council members are being more intentional about diversity, equity and inclusion in their operations and grantmaking. They also want to hold events for girls around age 12 to start learning self-empowerment at early ages.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d also like to engage more with the founders, a goal the founders share. \u201cIt was a different time for women then, but the problems facing our community are the same,\u201d Lanning Stockman said. \u201cWe are extremely grateful for the generosity and foresight and gumption of these women.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>The founders, meanwhile, are still full of ideas: What are the unmet needs? How do we help women feel comfortable moving into the circles still filled by men? How can we act as connectors? The work, they noted, goes on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Renee Gadoua Peggy Ogden remembers a woman walking into her office about 25 years ago to contribute to the newly-created Women\u2019s Fund of Central New York. \u201cShe said it was the first time she had written a $1,000 check,\u201d Ogden recalled. \u201cIt was self-empowerment for her: \u2018This is something I believe in and will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1317,990,161],"class_list":["post-3398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-feature","tag-november-2022","tag-philanthropy","tag-womens-fund-of-cny"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Womens-Fund_11Flg-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=542","url_meta":{"origin":3398,"position":0},"title":"Karen DeJarnette","author":"Staff","date":"February 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Empowering Women in the Workforce By Riley Bunch | Photography by Mary Grace Johnson\u00a0 For 2016 Syracuse Woman of the Year Karen DeJarnette, it\u2019s all about the big picture. 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