Groups Pull Together to Help Women
If you can’t beat ‘em--and don’t care to try, for that matter--work out an arrangement in which you can at least share revenues to further your cause.
In this case, three organizations have forged a one-of-a-kind coalition that, according to spokeswomen for each, arose from an epiphany in which each organization realized that, because they shared goals, clients and supporters, they might work most successfully if they combined forces.
This realization came about more than four years ago at a meeting of Lucia Smalheer, director of development for the YWCA of San Diego County, Sister Raymonda DuVall of Catholic Charities and Episcopal Community Services’ Rev. Pat Moore.
Mary Lindenstein Walshok--an associate vice chancellor at UC San Diego in charge of extended studies and a sociologist whose books include a study titled “Blue Collar Woman”--will be feted tonight at the fourth annual “Women Together” dinner. The honor, in the form of a low-temperature roast, is regarded by dinner organizers as both timely and well-deserved. But of more interest to Walshok and the event’s supporters are the fund-raiser’s unique sponsorship and goal.
The beneficiaries might be considered the individual spokes in an umbrella that shelters many of the city’s homeless and battered women. The night will benefit the Women in Transition program and the Battered Women’s Services offered by the YWCA and the Julian’s Anchorage residence operated by Episcopal Community Services. A trio of programs operated by Catholic Charities--the House of Rachel residence, the Rachel’s Women’s Center (a day shelter for homeless women) and the separate Night Shelter--complete the roster.
“Pat Moore and Raymonda DuVall had been talking for years of the difficulties of fund-raising for women’s services,” Smalheer said. “We were each serving the same clientele, homeless and battered women, and, when we met, we asked why we couldn’t work together, since we were all working so hard for the same goal.” The idea developed to share the pain and the gain, or, as Smalheer said, “We were all out there individually beating our heads against walls trying to raise dollars, so we decided to do it together.”
“We created a new model by bringing three organizations together for fund-raising,” said DuVall. “This collaboration exists to benefit the women we work with, and we’ve gotten away from the need to compete.”
Katie Dessent, a La Jollan who has organized a number of major benefits over the last decade, chaired “Women Together” in 1991 and described it as an obvious idea that nonetheless had to wait to be discovered.
“I think that it was brilliant of these three groups, especially in this fund-raising era, to realize that they were better off working together and throwing one really successful event, rather than going it alone,” she said. “It works for them because they can divide responsibilities, and the public isn’t faced with buying tickets to three separate benefits.”
“This group could be a model for other cities,” added Ann King, director of the Transition Program for ECS. “When we put aside our differences and work together for the same goal, we become an awfully powerful group.”
Most of the principals associated with “Women Together,” including event co-chairwomen Maureen King and Jean Miller, defined the fund-raiser’s role in the same terms--as “a coalition of women working for women.”
Rather than organize the event themselves, the beneficiaries recruited volunteers with experience in giving charity galas. The largely self-directed committee retains some members from year to year and also attracts others when each new event is planned.
“The cause is the compelling part of the ‘Women Together’ dinner,” said King. “There are women on the committee who are not aligned with any of the beneficiaries but who like the cause. Women are really good at pulling together and sharing resources, and we’re doing what we do best.”
The presence of an independent committee, of course, makes it less likely that the beneficiaries would find occasion to clash over the direction or details of the benefit.
According to DuVall, fostering cooperation was the key to the first inaugural fund-raiser, but not to the exclusion of other considerations.
“I didn’t want us to set our sights so low that ‘Women Together’ became a glorified bake sale,” she said. “If it was to be an event for women, I wanted to give it some status, so we set a goal of $100,000 in net proceeds.”
DuVall added that the women by no means disdained the thought of looking to men for ideas.
“We examined successful male models for fund-raising, which is how we came up with the idea of a roast. We also simply liked the idea of honoring a woman, which isn’t often done in San Diego.”
But a certain delicacy typically lacked by the traditional roast concept was injected to give the event a specific and perhaps more palatable flavor. “It’s a toast, not a roast,” said King.
“We all felt that our shared event had to be fun,” Smalheer said. “We wanted to celebrate a woman who was supportive of women, one whom we admired and who had done things for other women or things of which we all could be proud. Our roast is not at the honoree’s expense, we have fun with her.”
The teasing takes the form of an amused examination of the honoree’s history, habits and accomplishments, conducted by friends and family.
In 1989, Maggie Mazur, a well-known community volunteer, became the first woman to be “toasted” by the coalition, to be succeeded by two other major figures from the charity fund-raiser circuit, Golden Door proprietor Deborah Szekely and UCSD Cancer Center benefactor Anne Otterson.
Walshok, who describes herself as a “frustrated mezzo soprano” and thus will undergo a musical basting tonight in a ballroom at the Sheraton Harbor Island hotel, said she agreed to accept the role not only because she is “a lady academic whose first job at UCSD was developing academic programs for women,” but because she regards the event itself as educational.
“People learn about the many needs in society, and about the many programs to deal with them, and become motivated to get involved,” said Walshok. “So the event isn’t just about money, it’s about awareness.”
Other major players agreed that community awareness, of both the organizations and of their clients, is a major goal of “Women Together.” DuVall, for example, said that the event has been “a vehicle for us to let others in the community know about the situation of some women in the downtown area.”
“Obviously, the money we earn at the benefit is a blip in Catholic Charities’ budget,” DuVall said. “I know that, but what’s far more valuable are the seeds we’ve planted all over the city through ‘Women Together.’ The long-term impact is the many donations provoked by the interest the event generates.”
However, fund-raising by no means plays a subsidiary role, although the original goal of $100,000 in net proceeds from each benefit has yet to be neared. The 1991 dinner raised about $40,000 to be shared equally by the charities, and King and Miller predicted that, given the current economy, $30,000 might be a realistic figure for tonight’s event.
But even one-third of $40,000 can make a big difference to one of these agencies. Ann King of ECS said, “This money isn’t gravy, it’s meat and potatoes, and the ‘Women Together’ funds go directly into our operating budget. We need this money to stay in business.”
