On December 20, 262 women (and men) came together to effectively change the world. That was the day that Women Connect4Good Inc. partnered with Take The Lead Women in an exciting and monumental 24-hour crowdfunding campaign to support them in their effort to propel women to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all sectors by 2025. As a part of the effort, we had 24 hours to raise $300,000. Women Connect4Good Foundation pledged to match every dollar up to $300.000. Other sponsors also pledged to match additional funds to achieve $600,000 in 24 hours.
We not only met that goal, we surpassed it. Through crowdsourcing we were able to raise $312,160!!! Take The Lead will use these funds as well as the Women Connect4Good match to support program growth, provide more free community resources, and give more women the training, mentorship and coaching they need to take the lead in their own lives and careers.
Take the Lead founder and Leading Women co-author Gloria Feldt was thrilled with the response, and touched by the Women Connect4Good contribution. “I don’t think I personally can ever honor and thank her (Dr. Nancy) enough. The money is great and essential, but it’s what the money MEANS for the future of this leadership parity movement that is most significant.”
“We were just at the place where we couldn’t possibly deliver on our mission in a truly significant way without building an infrastructure to support it. I was trying to do everything and that was just not sustainable,” Gloria added. “This campaign, which could only have happened because of Nancy’s vision and collaborative spirit, is enabling Take The Lead to kick start the future. People love matching gifts because they know their own contributions will be doubled in value, and in this case, they were quadrupled in value, then Nancy matched them all!!”
The parallel missions of Women Connect4 Good and Take The Lead intersect with women’s empowerment, gender parity by 2025 and the support of women to work together to create a better world. It has always been Women Connect4 Good’s mission to educate people to develop women-helping-women networks to raise the status of women and change the world. And that runs perfectly with Take The Lead’s work.
Gloria, and Take The Lead’s co-founder Amy Litzenberger, a former investment banker with extensive experience in strategic planning and funding of start-up and emerging growth companies, came together in 2013 to form the organization. Amy was questioning why women had stalled at 18-20% across all sectors. Gloria, who had spent over 30 years advancing women, including having served as President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, had been so obsessed with the very question Amy asked that she had literally written the book on it, No Excuses, 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power.
“We both wanted to build a better world for the women we loved and respected,” Gloria said. “We did it for our friends and colleagues, women we watched hit the glass ceiling again and again. We did it for our daughters, hopeful we could create the right tools to help them embrace their power and live their lives without limits. We did it because we wanted to see women reach leadership equality and pay equity in our lifetime.
As Gloria says, as a community, we are united by our shared commitment and vision for equality. And as individuals, we must each do our part to support this movement and to build a better world. At Women Connect4Good, we can think of no better way to start a new year than to join hands with other women and together, change the world.
Donations to Women Connect4Good and Take The Lead Women are both tax deductible if you want to join us and help push these issues forward.
Women Connect4Good Working For Parity
