The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham has been awarded the Critical Impact Award from the Council on Foundations for the Voices Against Violence initiative. We were nominated for this award by the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, and were one of two programs nation-wide to be chosen this year.

Steve Gunderson, President and CEO of the Council on Foundations, wrote in his congratulatory letter:

This award was created for a very special reason--to recognize those who
truly make a difference in their grantmaking while sharing with the
public examples of how philanthropy seeks to enhance the common good.
Twenty-first century philanthropy requires a focus on the impact of
grantmaking.

The Council on Foundations believes that extraordinary efforts deserve
widespread recognition. By all measures, The Women's Fund of Greater
Birmingham's effort in leading a community-level initiative to reduce
the incidence of domestic violence assaults in the Birmingham, Alabama
area has been extraordinary. In bestowing the 2009 Critical Impact
Award on The Women's Fund of Greater Birmingham, we acknowledge your
organization's innovative leadership and bold vision to enhance the
common good through effective grantmaking.

Thank you for establishing philanthropy as the innovators and architects
of social change.

A second letter from the Critical Impact Awards Committee described their decision process:

Voices Against Violence was thoughtfully considered among a field of qualified applications and rose to the top because of its innovative approach to a complex social change issue and effective execution. The Women’s Fund project team’s commitment to understanding the issues of domestic violence from a variety of perspectives and creating thoughtful solutions was noted by the Committee.

The use of landscape evaluation, connections with local organizations, and convenings at multiple levels created a logic model that the Committee recognized as having broad implications for social change.

Recognition by The Council on Foundations validates The Women’s Fund’s work. Over the past 5 years, we have moved from a charity model to a social change model.  Voices Against Violence  was our first demonstration to the community in creating the paradigm shift. The social change model has truly created:

• collaborations where we had competition
• respect for the myriad of perspectives held by the multi-racial, cultural, and socio-economic diversity in our community
• the community’s exemplar in the power of pooling resources and the power of giving together to address issues that disproportionately affect women and girls

Even more special to The Women’s fund is the award’s validation for social change led by women—women on our board and women in law who lead the giving circle.

Thank you to all of the members and sponsors of the Voices Against Violence giving circle. This year we have raised $88,000 to bring our four year total to $324,000 of gifts to the community.

Virginia Sweet, our Executive Director, says:

Kudos to all of you!!! Our fantastic giving circle members who all work
so hard to raise funds, our VAV partners who are working together like a
well-oiled system to really make a difference in our community, the
super women on our board and our former board members who have moved us
from a charity model to a social change model, and of course, the
Community Foundation folks who nominated us. This recognition of our
combined effort to make our community a better place for women and girls
and to address issues that disproportionately affect women and girls
says for me what is in my heart-you are all so incredible. Thank you for
your work and support.