It's been proven that women who are provided with basic resources can make the difference between a family rising above poverty, or being trapped by it. This fact was perfectly illustrated by Dr. Mohamad Yunus and his Grameen bank, but similar stories are being told all over the world, and many of the women telling them are gathered in Washington this weekend for the annual Women's Funding Network conference. The WFN may be under your radar now, but I invite you to check them out. The Women's Funding Network is helping hundreds of Women's Funds around the globe to maximize their efforts to improve the lives of women and girls which in turn elevates the lives of those around them. Women's funds put their money where the need is, with the clear understanding that since women and girls worldwide are under served, and are the majority of the impoverished, their needs require immediate attention. Funding women's initiatives is not only preventive medicine, it is a targeted intervention that can strike at the nexus of some of the most debilitating and chronic ailments imposed by the way our society functions, or rather dysfunctions.
Funds that directly serve women and girls are clearly beneficial for all of humanity, because as Dr. Yunus and others like him have shown, such grants empower women to make social changes not only for themselves, but for their families and the communities around them as well.
Women and men who recognize that focusing on women is necessary to bring about positive, sustainable, societal change are starting to speak up. Angela Bassett was here to lend her support to the Women's Funding Network, and to laud the efforts of one of the WFN's new partners, The Good Deed Foundation. And if you think such support is tentative, think again. Women are stepping and, speaking out, and putting their wealth to work. One extraordinary new project at the WFN is Women Moving Millions - which encourages high net worth women, and women with a lot of gumption to give million-dollar gifts to the WFN. Amazed? They've raised over a hundred million dollars from about 45 donors so far, and the campaign just got started. Women's funds are bringing about quantifiable change. Bravo.