WOMEN'S FUND February 2020 E-NEWS
Join Us for Philanthropy Matters
International Women's Day is on Sunday, March 8 and this year the Women's Fund will be celebrating a few days later at Philanthropy Matters on March 12. We hope you will join us!
Learn from a leader and pioneer in women’s philanthropy. Martha Taylor, Ph.D., will talk about ways you can make philanthropy one of the most meaningful and joyous parts of your life. Martha will touch on differences between "feel good" vs. "effective" philanthropy and provide advice on how to invest in causes that reflect your values and represent real needs.

Stay for the social and celebrate the impact that you are making in our communities and around the world!
Martha Taylor, Ph.D. is the 4W Director of Women's Leadership and Philanthropy. She is the former Vice President of Development for the University of Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association, and was the first woman Vice President in Development in the Big Ten.

Taylor co-founded the Women's Philanthropy Institute at UW-Madison, which is now at the Lily School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. She has co-authored three books on women's philanthropy: Reinventing Fundraising: Realizing the Potential of Women's Philanthropy ; The Transformative Power of Women's Philanthropy ; and Women & Philanthropy: Boldly Shaping a Better World.
Scholarship Opportunities
Ashley Marie Abraham Scholarship - $2,000 
Established in loving memory of Ashley Marie who attended Oshkosh West High School. Female students graduating from Oshkosh North or Oshkosh West high schools majoring in nursing or pre-medicine are eligible to apply. 

Helen Spasoff Kratzer Scholarship - $2,500 
Established by Helen and Carl Kratzer in 2006 to support female students pursuing a degree in education at a UW-System school. Mrs. Kratzer is an Appleton resident and former teacher who wishes to help other young women become quality teachers. Female students from Appleton East, Appleton North, Appleton West, Fox Valley Lutheran, Hortonville, Kimberly, Little Chute or Xavier high schools are eligible to apply. 

The Women's Fund is honored to have helped the Abraham and Kratzer families put their philanthropic dreams into action.

Grant Spotlight: Life Tools Foundation
Shoulders to Stand On: $2,500
By Michael Voet, Life Tools Foundation Executive Director 
Each year the Women’s Fund gathers a group of teenage girls from the Fox Valley to examine the needs of girls, determine a funding objective, and then award $10,000 in grants to qualified organizations to achieve those goals.

This year, the Girls' Grantmaking Project prioritized access and opportunities for post-secondary education. Using this framework, the team at the Life Tools Foundation created the Shoulders to Stand On (SSO) program. The goal is to provide 50 or more high school girls in the Neenah and Menasha areas from economically disadvantaged families with the academic and life skills they will need to successfully pursue their post-secondary educational dreams.
Early in October, the Life Tools Foundation, in partnership with Neenah High School, began providing one-on-one academic tutoring, ACT test prep assistance, and life skills mentoring (organization, perseverance, daily accountability, confidence, etc.), to a group of high school girls selected for the program.

Life Tools Foundation tutors have been working on campus with Neenah High School girls on a variety of STEM subjects including Chemistry, Algebra II, Pre-Calculus and ACT test prep. The tutoring has also included the development of critical life skills that will allow these girls to successfully pursue their post-secondary educational dreams.

Kristin Mahoney, a seasoned guidance counselor at Neenah High School, has been instrumental in identifying girls who qualify for the program, as well as handling the logistics of student schedules and tutoring blocks.

Mahoney is very pleased with the results of the program to-date and shared a quote from a junior at Neenah High School who is benefiting from the tutoring: “Knowing that I can meet with someone each week to get help with my classes has been super helpful. It is also very encouraging to know I am preparing for the ACT in a way that I would not have been able to without the program.”

The Life Tools Foundation is hoping to expand the program this year to include Menasha High School and St. Mary High School.
Thank you to the Ethel Keller Fund for Women
for providing the grant funding for the Girls' Grantmaking Project.
19th Amendment Centennial Celebrations
The Women's Fund is proud to be part of the Fox Valley 19th Amendment Centennial Coalition. Be sure to check out the upcoming events that honor and celebrate the passage of this historic event:


Find more details and watch for additional events on the website.
LUNAFEST: Films By and About Women
LUNAFEST
Friday, March 6, 2020 | 7-9:30 pm
Fox Valley Technical College

LUNAFEST is a traveling film festival celebrating films by and about women. This year's event will feature 7 short films with a total running time of 96 minutes.

Proceeds from the event will benefit Girls on the Run Northeast Wisconsin, a 2019 Women's Fund grant partner.

Upcoming Events
February 18 & 19
March 6
March 7

March 12
September 10
The Equal Rights Amendment
LUNAFEST
Suffragists and the Struggle for Representation
Philanthropy Matters
Women's Fund Luncheon