Lukas Haynes – Executive Director, The David Rockefeller Fund
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Special WRWF Education Event
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The WRWF is excited to welcome Lukas Haynes, Executive Director of the David Rockefeller Fund back to the Wood River Valley on March 12! As our Winter Forum speaker in 2018, Lukas emphasized that “Collective-giving organizations like the Wood River Women’s Foundation have a major role to play in making individual dollars go farther. All of us, at every level, can be philanthropists. The power of individual giving is the real power in philanthropy.”
At the upcoming special event, Lukas will focus on strategic philanthropy, including the process of defining our future goals as an organization. “We are extremely fortunate to have access to Lukas’s deep expertise and appreciate that as a ‘friend of the foundation,’ he’s willing to generously share that with us even while he’s on vacation,” said Terri Bullock, WRWF President. “With limited space and much to learn, I encourage members to sign up as soon as possible for this fantastic opportunity!”
Space is limited – please register early!
Café Della, 103 S. Main St. Hailey
Thursday, March 12, 2020
5-6:30 PM
Drinks and lite bites are included. Space is limited to 60 members.
$25*
Please register by March 1, 2020. Click here to register.
*To help cover expenses without using general operating funds, there is a $25 event fee. Several members have volunteered to subsidize the remaining balance that will be due. Many thanks to these members for their generosity!
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New Member Recruitment Task Force
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Member Recruitment Task Force
2020, WRWF’s Fifteenth Anniversary year, is an exciting time to look at Member Recruitment and elicit ideas that embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. Our thirteen members attending the Catalist Conference in Seattle this week will meet with other collectives from across the country to have conversations around membership, organizational culture, grantmaking, and leadership. Two particularly relevant sessions are: Growing Younger: Strategies for Making Membership Age-Inclusive, and Create a More Diverse Membership and an Inclusive Organization.
With the goal of expanding membership demographics, we have formed a WRWF Member Recruitment Task Force and are already brainstorming ideas. The task force is Co-chaired by Terri LeFaivre, Membership Committee Co-Chair, and Heather Burnett, Membership Committee member, and also includes members Marcia Liebich, Carrie Morrow and Kat Vanden Heuvel. Stay tuned for updates on this exciting project!
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Strategic Planning Update
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Strategic Planning Committee at Work
Our three teams—Governance, Operations, and Leadership Development—continue to gather data and information, and are on track with the Strategic Plan timeline. Recently, the Steering Committee met with the three team leads to review their team’s progress according to the planned timeline. As a group, the members reviewed and discussed each quarterly objective set out for 2019 and for the first quarter of 2020. Where needed, objectives were clarified, relocated to another place on the timeline and/or reassigned to one of the other teams. All in all, the group agreed that the planning process is on track. A status meeting is tentatively scheduled for March.
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Impact Committee Update
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The Grants Coordinating Committee (GCC) presented recommendations from the Impact Team Task Force Committee to the Board of Directors. The Board unanimously approved the recommendations and has requested that the GCC proceed with re-instating the Impact Committee for work starting with the 2020 Grantees.
The primary purpose of the Impact Committee is to develop relationships with our grantees that will encourage candid communication about the progress of funded projects/programs, further understanding of how WRWF funds benefit our nonprofits and impact the community, and contribute to increased membership involvement promoting and supporting Wood River Valley nonprofits. The Impact Committee Charter and requirements will be similar to those used in the past but will include several changes to be implemented this year. Here are some highlights of those changes:
- Impact volunteers must have served on a Grants Committee prior to serving on the Impact Committee; however, previous Impact volunteers are exempted from this requirement.
- Grant volunteers who performed the site visit for a grantee will meet with the Impact team assigned to the grantee. This will ensure that the Impact team is well informed about the history of the grant process as it pertains to the grantee.
- Grantees will need to identify measurable results in their impact reports which are completed at the end of the year.
- Impact and Grant volunteers will be encouraged to attend grantees’ events and/or volunteer with our grantees, if they have an interest.
The Impact Committee will be in place by June 1st, so that when the grantees are awarded their checks in July, Impact is ready to start their work. If you have served in the past on either the Impact or Grant Committee, and would like to serve this year on Impact, please call or email Julie, Patti or Gina.
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Catalist – PowerUp 2020 Conference
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February 23 to 25, 2020
Motif Hotel
Seattle, Washington
Thirteen WRWF members are heading to the Catalist conference this week to join hundreds of women from our sister collective giving organizations across the world. Two of our board members will be presenters in break-out sessions: Terri Bullock, WRWF President will be on the “Employing Strategic Planning as a Power Tool” panel, and Patti Zebrowski, WRWF board member and Grants Committee Co-chair will be on the “The Varied Facets of Catalist Grantmaking” panel. In addition to Terri and Patti, the group includes Barbara Thrasher, Sandy McCullough, Kit Wright, Darci Swanson, Leslie Silva, Carrie Morrow, Carol Jensen, Mardi Shepard, Melinda Springs, Marcia Liebich, Laura Midgely, and Gina Wolcott. Click HERE for detailed information about the conference.
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January Coffee Talk
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January Coffee Talk Participants
Approximately nine women, including one new member, attended the January Coffee Talk at Ketchum Works. We enjoyed good coffee and delicious treats as we shared information and answered questions about the WRWF. Future Coffee Talks are being planned. Watch for upcoming announcements.
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February Meet and Mingle
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Meet and Mingle at the Limelight Hotel
Well over one hundred WRWF members and their guests attended this spirited event on February 6. We shared good times with members old and new within the cozy and accommodating lounge at the Limelight Hotel in Ketchum.
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Photo Request for Fifteenth Anniversary
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Attention WRWF members! In preparation for our fifteenth-anniversary celebration later this year, we are seeking photographs from the early days of the foundation. If you have any photos from the years 2005-2015, and are willing share, we would love to hear from you! Please contact Christina Bauer, WRWF Executive Assistant, at (208) 309-2530.
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Your Amazon Shopping Can Earn Free Money for the WRWF
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WRWF has a new way to help fund our foundation’s operating expenses. Through its program, AmazonSmile, Amazon donates .05% of eligible purchases to a selected charity. This allows you to donate automatically to the WRWF whenever you shop. To link Wood River Women’s Foundation AmazonSmile to your Amazon account, click here and get signed up. This simple adjustment to your Amazon account will not change anything about the way you currently shop or pay. Please note, you will need to use the smile.amazon.com website when you shop to generate donations to WRWF. We are currently in the process of creating and updating our profile on Amazon and ask your understanding as we work to correct the language and mission statement currently listed on the site.
Thank you for participating in this exciting new opportunity!
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Save the Date – Upcoming Events
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Après Ski Tea
Thursday, March 5, 2020
4:00 – 6:00 PM
Jane Springman’s home
305 Golden Eagle Drive, Hailey
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Terri Bullock – President of WRWF
Closing Message
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WRWF President, Terri Bullock
Last month, we shared an update about our Endowment Fund and how it is providing a stable income stream to support WRWF’s general operating needs. This month we are pleased to launch the WRWF Legacy Giving Fund, our planned giving program.
As we know from Ruthie Leider, whose legacy gift inspired the creation of this fund, many of us have deep relationships with our Foundation and with Blaine County as a whole. In my vision for the future of this community that I now call home, I see us continuing to use our collective philanthropy to make significant and ever more sustainable impacts in the lives of all our neighbors.
Naming WRWF in our estates or wills sets up a game-changing opportunity for the Foundation to significantly amplify our mission and vision. Planned giving puts you in control of how you want to be remembered; the impact you choose to leave in Blaine County could be transformational.
In celebration of our fifteen years of women-led philanthropy, I encourage you to visit “Ways To Give” on the WRWF website to check out the Legacy Giving Fund information and consider adding WRWF to your estate plans. If you have already named us in your will or trust, please contact the office to let us know so that we can recognize and honor your generosity. As always, if you prefer to remain anonymous, we will respect your wishes.
Our continuing gratitude goes to all those who have contributed to the Endowment Fund, and now the WRWF Legacy Giving Fund. Your generous gifts ensure the WRWF mission and vision will continue to be delivered throughout our community.
Until next month,
Terri Bullock
