Briana Babbit

What brought you to ninety-nine girlfriends?

I first learned of ninety-nine girlfriends several years ago when a nonprofit I worked for applied for a grant. I am interested in systems change and collective impact work and so it seemed like a natural fit to get involved. I was particularly drawn to the Fellows program to have a space to connect with other young women and nonbinary folks and carve out a sense of community.

Pip Meagher

What brought you to ninety-nine girlfriends?

I was invited to join by my amazing mother-in-law, Gun Denhart. Gun has connected me with many wonderful, community based organizations over the last few decades so I always pay attention when she recommends anything new. Being involved in a volunteer capacity within the community is not new to me so I was immediately curious to learn more as I didn’t know much at all about the model of collective giving that ninety-nine girlfriends was focused on. I met with co-founder Eileen Brady shortly thereafter and before you knew it I was co-leading a grant review team with Maura Koehler-Hanlon. That was in 2016 and I have never looked back.

Josie Greer

What brought you to ninety-nine girlfriends?

Like ninety-nine girlfriends, I believe in the power of collective giving and have witnessed its immense impact on the community. As someone who works for a local nonprofit, it’s inspiring to see how caring the community can be. I heard ninety-nine girlfriends is a compassionate organization with members who want to make a difference, which is why I wanted to become involved. Also, as a young professional focusing on nonprofit communications and development, I’m interested in learning more about philanthropy and connecting with others who care about the community!

Tina Romine

What brought you to ninety-nine girlfriends?

My interest in learning more about the non-profit community in Portland and the opportunity to make an impact locally with my time, talent and treasure is what brought me to 99GF. I followed 99GF for at least a year online prior to joining and was always impressed by member education offerings and the concept of collective giving with a group of like-minded women interested in making a positive difference. It also helped that a few volunteer friends of mine were members and spoke very positively about the organization and their experiences as members.

Barbara Hilyer

I joined ninety-nine girlfriends in the first year, 2016. I was invited by an old friend who had recently moved to Portland; I had not heard of it and did not know anyone else involved. Since I moved to Portland after having retired, I didn’t know many people in town and was looking to make more connections, as well as learn more about the needs of the community. Having spent my career in public education, I had always been involved in direct service and had never considered being involved in philanthropy. That seemed like something out of my league.

What brought you to ninety-nine girlfriends?

They knew I had been searching for an organization where I might find connection to like-minded people, make a difference in the community, and could offer my time and energy toward systems change that would move the dial toward racial equity in our community. I jumped in right away on a Grant Review Team and the training and engagement as a racial equity facilitator last year. I have been excited to discover this incredible group of women who are so intentional in their commitment to the work of philanthropy and to the open and thoughtful examination of the potential systems within the organization that may inadvertently be keeping the giving process from being fully equitable. I have thoroughly enjoyed the engagement and honest conversations with other members in structured groups, break-out-groups as part of racial equity presentations, and during the work of the Racial Equity Committee.

Holly Cook

What brought you to ninety-nine girlfriends?

A neighbor told me about ninety-nine girlfriends one evening as we were walking home from a get-together. She said something like "I wonder if you would be interested in this group I'm in. It's a group of women. We each put in $1,100 and....". I zoned out thinking that she was going to say something about getting a list of women's names, you send each woman on the list a pair of underwear and then, when your name gets to the top of the list, you get eleventy thousand pairs of new underwear! But then I heard her say, "...and then we give all the money away." What?! Please say that again. I had never heard of a collective giving circle. The idea of pooling resources, learning about the needs of our community and participatory philanthropy all alongside women who were interested in similar goals...well now that is exciting! You can keep your underwear. I was hooked.

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.

What brought you to ninety-nine girlfriends?
Molly Cliff Hilts. Molly was the first friend I made in 1994, when I moved from Manhattan to Portland. We met in a water aerobics class, were both pregnant, and we became fast friends. We lived in different parts of the city, started a very eclectic book club, each had two sons, and lived our lives meeting here and there over the years. Then, we reconnected in 2016, when she invited me to the home of Jinx Faulkner to learn about a new all women’s nonprofit called ninety-nine girlfriends. That group of smart, funny, kind, and accomplished women was inspirational. I joined to learn more.