What brought you to ninety-nine girlfriends?

In 2016, I met Halle Sadle, one of the original girlfriends, as her husband was an actor in a play that my husband was directing. She saw that I was new to Portland and working part-time from home, so I hadn’t met many people, and invited me to the first award dinner which was the following week. It was quickly clear to me that this was a way for me to meet people, learn more about my new home city, and learn about philanthropy and the non-profit world as well.

Why do you volunteer?

Before moving to Portland, I’d always wanted to volunteer, but with a long workday, long commute and a family, I didn’t have the time and mental bandwidth. So it was always in my mind that volunteering would be part of my life once I’d moved here. Ninety-nine girlfriends was a good fit for me because by volunteering I can be around the people organizing events and planning and learn by osmosis, by observing the idea-sharing and the logistics. I started by doing the admin task of being the “nametag person,” brought my finance background to the Financial Review Team, and have also served on Grant Review teams.

Anything else you’d like to share?

One of the things I like most about ninety-nine girlfriends is how it adapts every year. In some sense, change is necessary as our size each year is different depending on membership numbers, but I really appreciate how few processes are set in stone, as the organization reflects on what we can do better and what’s going on in the world around us. Also, while I’ve had time to volunteer, I also think that our core model, which lets people scale their involvement from “write a check and vote”, up through attending events, and then helping with events or the many teams that make us work, is well structured to let people with different life and family commitments and interest levels participate.