Poverty Day Opportunities:

Take Action on Poverty Day With E-cards, Op-Eds, Online Petition

Countries around the world are currently in the midst of a serious financial crisis. This is a critical time for our members and the work they support; it's important to inform and educate communities about the importance of funding women's leadership to overcome poverty.

Poverty Day on October 17 presents an opportunity for you to raise visibility for your work. You can carry out the following three actions this month to bring attention to poverty -- and the solutions women offer!

• Reach out to your constituents with our cell phone recycling e-card and graphics for newsletters and Websites. Click here to download images and instructions on how to send the e-card and use the newsletter/Website graphics. Send it to your community, grantees, donors and business contacts, your friends, family and personal contacts. This opportunity is currently limited to funds in the United States and Canada.
• Write an Op-Ed or a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper to let them know how women are affected by poverty and how your fund is supporting sustainable solutions to poverty. If you are writing an Op-Ed timed for publication around Poverty Day you can refer to our guidance on writing an editorial, which includes facts and statistics on women and poverty worldwide.
• Stay tuned for an action alert from Women's Funding Network on Friday, October 17 inviting you to sign a petition hosted by the U.N.-affiliated Stand Up! organization. The Stand Up! campaign, which is an international effort, will run for three days from October 17 through October 19. Anyone with an Internet connection can participate.

If you have any questions about Poverty Day opportunities, please contact Program Associate Nicole Regalado at nregalado@wfnet.org or Communications Fellow Rachel Herzfeldt-Kamprath at rkamprath@wfnet.org.

New Online Groups:

Increase Your Raiser's Edge Skills

Join the new Raiser's Edge User Group on the Women's Funding Network Website. The group aims to create a community of RE users who can share tips and best practices, help troubleshoot problems and provide innovative solutions to assist group members in using RE more strategically. RE users of all levels are encouraged to join.

The group will be moderated by Debbie Zamd, Women Funding Network's Raiser's Edge Database Administrator. If you want to join the group or if you have any questions e-mail Debbie Zamd at dzamd@wfnet.org.

Calling All Communications Staffers: Are There Topics You'd Like Discussed at Conference 2009 in Atlanta?

Let us know what communications topics you would like to learn about at conference by joining the Communications Staffers discussion group on the Women's Funding Network site. If you are not already registered to use the site, get a username and password. After you've registered, log into the site and let us know what communications topics you would like covered during conference.

Update on Network Funds:

Women's Funds Increase Visibility in the Media

The media is continuing to look to women's funds for knowledge as the economic crisis unfolds. A number of member funds have lent their expertise to opinion pages and have been profiled for their leadership in feature sections. Below are stories by or about member funds:

• New York Times feature on The New York Women's Foundation
• San Diego Union-Tribune Op-Ed by Kavita Ramdas
• Op-Ed by Sara Gould (originally featured in Miami Herald)
• Helena Independent Record feature mentioning Women's Foundation of Montana
• Women's eNews feature mentioning The New York Women's Foundation
• U.S. News & World Report feature mentioning Women Moving Millions

Nokomis Foundation Welcomes Anne Hagen as Program Director

Nokomis Foundation has hired Anne Hagen as its new program director. Anne brings over 20 years of management experience to her new role. She will be responsible for program and grants management, ongoing development of technology and knowledge sharing practices, and other projects related to advocacy initiatives that support the Foundation's mission.

Current Job Opportunities at Women's Funds

Go to the Jobs page to see the latest job openings at member funds .

Latest Events at Women's Funds

Learn about events you can support and attend by going to our Events page.

New Research and Resources:

Bucks County Women's Fund Releases Study on Women's Economic Self-Sufficiency

The Bucks County Women's Fund, along with the Coalition for Women's Economic Justice, have released six issue papers providing in-depth gender analysis of issues affecting women's economic self-sufficiency in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. View the reports here.

Google Project 10100 Provides Opportunity for Funding

Google's Project 10100 is an initiative to fund projects around the world that will have the greatest positive impact. Ideas are submitted online and the public votes for the 100 ideas they think are best. An advisory committee then chooses the finalist. While organizations can not make submissions, individual staffers can. An RFP process determines which organizations get funding. Go to http://www.project10tothe100.com/index.html for details and instructions. The submissions process ends October 20.