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Help Create Connections

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The Membership Committee is looking for members to join the Connector Team to spend some dedicated time engaging with our newer members (girlfriends who joined in 2021). We want all members to feel welcome, adored, engaged, included, appreciated and attached. We realize that can be harder for newer members, particularly with everything being virtual the past year.

Attend Deconstructing Racism 

Join your fellow girlfriends on May 26, 5-6:30 pm for an evening of learning with Stephanie Montgomery, J.D., our Racial Equity and Inclusion Consultant. Register here to attend the Deconstructing Racism event.

For those who wish to serve as facilitators of small group follow-up discussions, Stephanie will offer a training session on May 22, 2-4 pm. Register here for the Facilitating with an Equity Lens training.

Grantee Partner Profile: Community Energy Project

Community Energy Project, one of our 2020 Grantee Partners, was just announced as an inaugural grantee of the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF). The grant will allow them to perform energy retrofits and repairs for 20 low-income Black homeowners, including installing rooftop solar panels on 5 of the homes. These energy-efficiency upgrades will deliver a 55% average energy use reduction and 38% average utility bill savings. What a great impact!

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Volunteer as Our Digital Archivist

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Do you pride yourself on strong organizational skills? Have a penchant for naming conventions? Love Google Drive and Dropbox? We are seeking someone who loves organizing files and folders to help us stay on top of our 5+ years of ninety-nine girlfriends materials, templates, documents and photos. Contact Deborah Edward if you’re interested.

Discovery Forum – Embedding Equity in Philanthropy: Stories from the Field

Each year ninety-nine girlfriends hosts interactive education programs about a learning question. This year our question is “How Do We Embed Racial Equity in All That We Do?

Check out the speaker line-up for our Discovery Forum event on June 10, featuring other philanthropic organizations sharing the lessons they’ve learned in their own efforts to adapt and adopt ways of working to fulfill their racial equity goals.

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Attend: We Give Summit 2021

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The We Give Summit 2021 is a virtual month-long event in May to celebrate everyday givers with virtual presentations, interactive sessions and online networking! Speakers share info, experiences and inspiration about many aspects of the collective giving movement. Each week has a different theme: Be Together, Learn Together, Grow Together, Dream Together. This international celebration of collective giving circles continues through May 27. A full access pass costs $50 after the first week – Register and jump in!

This Summit was organized by the new PhilanthropyTogether network of giving circles (which we’re a part of). Read about their first year here.

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Volunteer as a Connector

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The Membership Committee is looking for women to join the connector team. Connectors will have a small list of newer members (girlfriends who joined in 2020 or 2021) to periodically reach out to so they feel engaged and included. This is a great opportunity if you don’t have a lot of extra time. Email Kaye or Anne if you would like to join this engaging team.

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2021: How Do We Embed Racial Equity in All That We Do?

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In 2020 ninety-nine girlfriends and other collective giving circles participated in a program to explore how our organizations can embed racial equity in our activities, as an extension of our active commitment to diversity within our network. The program invited us to examine ways that our giving circles shape (1) values and shared beliefs, (2) leadership and governance, (3) internal and external language and visuals, (4) membership, (5) meeting style and structure, and (6) partnership processes with grantees and to make changes to become more inclusive.