March marks the celebration of Women’s History Month, a period to celebrate and recognize women’s contributions to the United States and the recognition of the specific achievements women have made over the course of history in a variety of fields.
The roots of Women’s History Month go back to 1978 when a school district in California organized a weeklong celebration of women’s contributions to culture, history, and society. History.com reports that a few years later, the idea had caught on within communities, school districts, and organizations across the country. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week. The U.S. Congress followed suit the next year, passing a resolution establishing a national celebration. Six years later, the National Women’s History Project successfully petitioned Congress to expand the event to the entire month of March. Every U.S. President has marked March as Women’s History Month since 1995.
The National Women’s History Alliance designates a yearly theme for Women’s History Month. The 2022 theme is “Women Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.” This theme is “both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history.”
There’s no better way to celebrate Women’s History Month at WIF than to spotlight past and present female leaders who, in their own ways, have provided healing and promoted hope through their work in philanthropy.
Dr. Monique W. Morris
Dr. Monique Morris wears a lot of hats – author, educator, activist, and the President and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, a national philanthropic organization focused on supporting girls of color (this includes any cis, trans, gender-expansive, non-binary, and/or any girl- or femme-identified person age 25 and younger who identifies as Black, Indigenous, Latin, Asian, Arab, Pacific Islander, and/or other People of Color). While this organization is young, forming during the early days of the pandemic, they have four major initiatives ongoing. These initiatives have distinct goals that focus on specific sub-groups of “Girls of Color,” including trans and gender-expansive youth, indigenous girls, and black girls. When asked about her inspiration during these trying times in a recent interview, Dr. Morris said, “I look to the wisdom of the mothers in my family and community. These mothers have developed strategies for feeding the spirit and bodies of our communities even when their resources were scarce. These mothers spoke the truth even when it was difficult. These mothers implored us to rise to our best selves in moments of crisis and encouraged us to nurture relationships that share responsibility, rather than view moments of crisis as times for selfishness or blaming. That is a skill that is required in moments like these in order to fuel movements that can be sustained, grow and transform society.”
MacKenzie Scott
Upon her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2019, MacKenzie Scott received 25% of his Amazon stake. She has since risen to prominence as one of the country’s top female philanthropists.
According to Forbes, she has promised to give away at least half of her wealth over the course of her lifetime. She adheres to a “no strings attached” style of giving in which nonprofits retain full control over how best to use her monetary gifts. In 2020, she announced just over $5.8 billion in gifts to 500 non-profits. Last June, she reported that she had given away another $2.74 billion to an additional 286 groups.
Forbes recently reported that Scott is giving away her $46 billion fortune faster than anyone in history. In February alone, nine organizations received gifts from Scott totaling $264.5 million. The largest donation, $133.5 million, went to Communities in Schools, a non-profit that helps keep at-risk children in schools.
Madam CJ Walker
It doesn’t always take a lot of money to become a philanthropist. Madam CJ Walker started with an investment of just $1.25 in 1905 (the equivalent of $40.30 today) and went on to become one of the wealthiest African American women of her time.
According to the National Women’s History Museum, Walker was born into poverty in the South in 1867, orphaned at age seven, married at 14, and widowed by age 20. Her fortunes changed when she launched her own line of hair products for Black women called “Madam Walker’s Wonderful Hair Grower.”
Given her prior financial struggles, she was a big proponent of women’s economic independence and provided training on the “Walker System,” employing 40,000 Black men and women who earned healthy commissions.
As a philanthropist, her favorite causes were the YMCA, Tuskegee Institute, and the NAACP’s anti-lynching efforts. On her death, she bequeathed two-thirds of her company’s future profits to charity.
