We are excited that Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder and CEO of 2020 Partner Grantee Generation Hope, will join us on April 22 to provide a sneak peak of her upcoming book, Pregnant Girl: A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Mothers, which will be released by Beacon Press in May. Nicole will share both her personal account of being young, pregnant, and Black and stories of those she has helped throughout her career. In early praise for the book, Soledad O'Brien writes: "Reading this book, you will learn something important about race, poverty, and gender, and how they play a role in teen pregnancy. And you will learn something about how hope can win over adversity."

This event is open to all. Invite a friend!

When: Thursday, April 22 @ 7:00 pm

Where: RSVP to receive the Zoom link.

Questions: Please contact Membership co-chairs Lynne Battle and Anna Gunnarsson Pfeiffer at membership@manyhandsdc.org.

Join Many Hands at any time before our Annual Meeting and you will be eligible to help select the recipient of the 2021 Many Hands $100,000 Impact Grant. Mark your calendar for the evening of Thursday, May 13 and get ready to hear from the four finalist organizations and vote!

Not yet ready to become a member? Your gift of any size will still go directly to this year's grantees. Help us make a lasting difference in the lives of DC area women, children, and families in socioeconomic need. Help us change lives!

Join us on Zoom on March 9 to discuss two deeply personal books that illuminate the challenges facing women and children living in poverty in the US: $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, an ethnographic study by leading researchers Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, and Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother's Will to Survive, a memoir by Stephanie Land, in which she describes her journey from the middle class to homelessness as a single mother. For links to book reviews and author interviews, click here.

Read one or both, or parts of each--or watch an interview--and join us for a rich and open conversation about poverty and income inequality in America.

When: Tuesday, March 9 @ 8:00 pm

Where: Zoom link will be provided to registered attendees.

Questions: Please contact Membership co-chairs Lynne Battle and Anna Gunnarsson Pfeiffer at membership@manyhandsdc.org.

More than a dozen Many Hands members participated this week in a workshop on trust-based philanthropy led by Shaady Salehi, director of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, and presented by the DMV Collective Giving Network. Trust-based philanthropy is an approach to giving that seeks to create more effective partnerships between funders and nonprofits by addressing the imbalance of power between them. Core principles include making multiyear unrestricted grants, streamlining applications and reporting, and building relationships based on transparency and mutual learning.

At Many Hands, we are always interested in learning about ways in which we can strengthen our grantmaking, and we welcome all members to participate in this process. Please continue to watch our emails for other education opportunities. If you'd like to know more about the thinking behind our grant process or become more involved in this aspect of our work, please contact Grants chair Kathryn Zecca at grants@manyhandsdc.org.

Have you volunteered with any of our grantees in the past year? We would love to hear and share your stories! Please contact Communications chair Charis Keitelman at communications@manyhandsdc.org, and she will follow up to learn more about how you are serving our community.

Put your review skills to work for the Catalogue for Philanthropy (CFP). CFP relies on a team of 150+ volunteers to help identify the region's best small nonprofits. To be a reviewer, you need to live and/or work in the DMV, have 5+ years of professional experience, and have a personal or professional interest in a social issue. Each reviewer is assigned 5-8 applications. Philanthropic, government, consulting, and nonprofit experience are particularly valuable, but all are welcome to join the team. Contact Co-Executive Director Matt Gayer (mgayer@cfp-dc.org) to learn more or click here to register by March 9.

We were thrilled to have Nan Monday (Grants and Communications Manager), Alejandra Carrera (Case Manager, shown right), and Heather Lynskey (Credit Counselor), from 2020/16 Partner Grantee Homestretch, join us last Thursday for our third virtual Coffee & Conversation. Those who attended learned how Homestretch has survived and even flourished during the pandemic, allowing them to continue to provide housing to the 26 families in their program with no reduction in services or staff.

In thanking Many Hands for last year's $55,000 grant, Nan noted how unusual it is to receive a grant of that magnitude: "It's phenomenal...it helped us provide housing for several families." Click here to watch the full presentation or to read a detailed report, including facts and figures highlighting the program's success, prepared by Many Hands member Kathy Slobogin.

Many Hands Board member Robin Berkley continued her inspiring series of interviews with former grantees as she caught up with Tyler Spencer, founder and executive director of The Grassroot Project (TGP), to learn more about the impact of receiving a Many Hands Partner Grant and how the organization has pivoted during the pandemic. Tyler noted that the 2018 grant not only enabled TGP to fully implement their planned expansion to create a three-year "pipeline" of adolescent health programming, but gave them the cache to bring on new donors, leading their budget to double in size. Tyler also explained how TGP quickly and seamlessly adapted programming to continue to support their students in the most dynamic way possible over the past year.

When asked about the experience of working with Many Hands, Tyler praised our unique approach, highlighting the diversity of our committee members' backgrounds and experiences and noting, "Each person brought a distinct and important perspective to our work, and it enriched the way we think about our programs and our long-term organizational growth strategy."

To read Robin's full interview with Tyler, click here.

Many Hands is a women's grantmaking organization committed to making a lasting impact on the lives of Washington, DC area women, children, and families in socioeconomic need and to helping its members become well-informed donors. Many Hands is a 501(c)(3) organization. All contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. EIN: 51-0486987. Mailing address: Many Hands Inc., PO Box 15048, Chevy Chase, MD 20825.