What a difference 25 years can make! A quarter-century ago, a small group of women (along with two enlightened men) founded The Women’s Fund initiative within The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. They did so to level the charitable playing field and to ensure there would ALWAYS be money to support women and girls in Middle Tennessee who were in need.
After all, we don’t love our sons more than our daughters now, do we? But, at that time, the community did support the Boy Scouts at a whole different level than the Girl Scouts. And it supported the YMCA to a different degree than the YWCA, as another example. The Women’s Fund came to start the process of filling that gap, and doing so for perpetuity.
To help honor those farsighted philanthropic leaders, join The Women’s Fund for 2019 The Power of the Purse® presented by First Tennessee on Friday, April 12 from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. in the Davidson Ballroom at The Music City Center. All proceeds of The Power of the Purse© support the grant-making potential of The Women’s Fund of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. Since its inception in 1994, The Women’s Fund has made grants totaling more than $1.6 million to 132 programs supporting women & girls in Middle Tennessee.
Vicki Saunders is the keynote speaker and Ruth Ann Harnisch the honorary chair for this year’s 21st annual event.
Vicki Saunders is an entrepreneur, award-winning mentor, advisor to the next generation of change makers and leading advocate for entrepreneurship as a way of creating positive transformation in the world. Vicki is the Founder of SheEO and #radical generosity a global initiative to radically transform how we support, finance and celebrate female entrepreneurs.
Vicki has co-founded and run ventures in Europe, Toronto and Silicon Valley and taken a company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange. She was recently named one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from “EBW – Empowering A Billion Women”, In 2001, Vicki was selected as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.
Harnisch is an entrepreneurial force with The Harnisch Foundation and a founder and guiding light of both The Women’s Fund and The Power of the Purse®. She also is a trailblazing former Nashville journalist with WTVF-NewsChannel5, WLAC radio, and the Nashville Banner.
Tickets to The Power of the Purse® are $200 and are available at thewomensfund.com. The Community Foundation exists to promote and facilitate giving in the 40 counties of Middle Tennessee and beyond. It does this by accepting gifts of any size from anyone at any time and by empowering individuals, families, companies, nonprofits, and communities to respond to needs and opportunities that matter. The Community Foundation works with people who have great hearts, whether or not they have great wealth, to craft solutions that reflect their intentions and goals. For more information, call 615-321-4939 or visit www.cfmt.org.
