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Congratulations to our SC, Greenville-8 chapter which recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. We thank Chapter leaders Bill Stephenson and Crystal and George Maynard, as well as all their members.
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It’s Annual Appeal Time
Will You Say “Yes” to One Special Gift?
As we enter the fall season, we also kick off DFW’s 13th Month Annual Appeal. This is the time of year when we ask you, and your chapter members, to make one additional donation in support of DFW’s mission. Every gift helps transform the lives of women and girls by funding DFW’s four programs -- Grants, Member Education and Engagement, Grassroots Advocacy, and Partnerships – as well as our administrative expenses as an organization.
This year’s goal is to raise $360,000 by the end of December. To meet this goal, we need all our members to say “yes” to one special gift! Last year, we exceeded our 13th Month goal and had 670 more donors than the previous year. With your help, we can do it again this year!
As a Chapter Leader, you are very important to the success of this appeal. We ask you to please make your own donation and encourage your chapter members to donate as well. Let them know that just one additional donation by each member will allow us to reach our goal.
It’s easy to donate to the 13th Month Annual Appeal. In the coming weeks, we will be mailing a special letter and donation coupon to every active DFW member. Members can choose to make their donation by completing this coupon and returning it in the envelope provided, by submitting a check at their chapter meetings, or by using a credit card on our website.
In order to track our different revenue sources for planning purposes, we ask that you keep 13th Month donations separate from your regular monthly chapter donations. To assist you with this, a package is being mailed to each chapter with special instructions, envelopes and forms specifically for the 13th Month Annual Appeal. To minimize expenses, this package will be mailed to only one Chapter Leader for each of our 400+ chapters. You can also review the special 13th Month instructions below under "Meeting Reminders".
Thank you for your efforts as a Chapter Leader all year long, and a special thanks for your support during our annual appeal.
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Our Featured Grantee: The Tandana Foundation
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The mission of The Tandana Foundation is to:
- empower individuals of various cultural backgrounds with an increased awareness of the world, other cultures and themselves, and with an expanded sense of their possibilities;
- promote positive, caring interactions between people of different backgrounds and encourage consideration and lessening of global inequalities;
- promote respect and responsibility toward one's self, all people and the Earth.
The term Tandana comes from a Kichwa (a Quechuan language native to Ecuador, Colombia and Peru) root meaning “to gather together” or “to unite”, and this represents the spirit of the Foundation’s work.
DFW’s featured grant of $47,980 over two years will provide literacy and numeracy classes as well as training in association management, democratic governance and leadership so women can achieve self-sufficiency and fulfill their potential as leaders in their communities. The project will directly benefit 1,300 and indirectly benefit 9,900 women and girls served over two years.
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Our Conversation with The Tandana Foundation will be
posted here by October 1 st. |
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Sustained Funding Grantee – Fistula Foundation
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Our sustained funding grantee for October is the Fistula Foundation, which aims to end the suffering caused by childbirth injury and obstetric fistula. The Fistula Foundation was a DFW featured program grantee in February 2008 and September 2011. It has been awarded a sustained funding grant of $20,000 per year over a three-year period (October 2015-2017).
This grant will provide previously unavailable access to life-changing fistula repair surgeries for 135 women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, and South Sudan. This surgery helps end the shame and isolation that women suffering from obstetric fistula experience, and allows them to live more integrated and productive lives.
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The Proven Platter – Tilapia in Coconut Lime Sauce
By Linda McElroy, DFW Recipe Curator and Chapter Leader of WA, Seattle-1
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We are off to Mali this month, located in West Africa, in support of The Tandana Foundation. Their Women LEAP program provides literacy and numeracy training, as well as democratic governance and leadership skills.
Often, the program we are supporting will send us recipes that are rooted in their culture. This month we received a very detailed recipe called “Recipe for Toh, (Oro Dja), Traditional Food of the Dogon People,” by Jemima Tembiné. She started learning to cook when she was about 10 years old and has been preparing Toh since she was 15 years old.
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MEETING IDEAS & SUGGESTIONS
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Icebreakers
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Tell us the best ice breaker you have ever done at a meeting.
Yes, that is our recommended ice breaker this month. We want your suggestions so we can share them with all our chapters. Please email your ice breaker ideas to media@diningforwomen.org. We will publish them in future newsletters and give your chapter credit!
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Questions for Discussion
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- What role does education play in gender equality?
- How can women’s associations affect the future for Mali?
- How can this project change community infrastructures?
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Chapter Leader Tips & Reminders |
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13th Month Annual Appeal – Here are some important reminders about processing 13th Month donations from October through the end of December:
- Keep your chapter’s 13th Month donations separate from the regular monthly chapter donations.
- Ask your members to write 13th Month on the memo line of their checks.
- Be sure to write member ID numbers on the memo line of all checks.
- Send all 13th Month donations directly to the DFW home office in Greenville, SC, NOT the Charlotte, NC lock box. Please use the 13th Month donation transmittal forms and envelopes that are being mailed to each chapter.
- If you have any questions, please contact your Regional Leader or the DFW home office at donations@diningforwomen.org or 864-335-8401.
- All 13th Month donations must be received by the home office, or postmarked, by December 31st, 2016.
Monthly Chapter Reports – Each month, we send a report to Chapter Leaders summarizing your chapter’s donations during the previous calendar month. Also included is your chapter’s roster and important forms for your next meeting (New Member Information Form and Donation Transmittal Form). In the past, this report has been sent, by email, to only one Chapter Leader for each chapter. We are now able to send this report to all of the Co-Leaders that we have on your chapter’s record.
To do so, we must have accurate, up-to-date information on each chapter’s Co-Leaders and their email addresses. Please check that you see your Co-Leaders’ email addresses in the “cc” field of the email. If your Co-Leaders are not included, or an email address is incorrect, please contact donations@diningforwomen.org.
If it appears that you are not receiving this monthly chapter report, please first check your spam or junk folder. If you still do not have the report, email donations@diningforwomen.org to confirm that we have your correct email address on file.
 NEW! DFW Informational Materials – We now have new DFW informational materials, including a rack card and tri-fold brochure. These materials are available to you to promote DFW in your local area. The rack card allows you to add a label with local chapter information. Please contact your Regional Leader, or email info@diningforwomen.org, if you would like copies of these printed materials.
Important Links
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Sharing Best Practices
By Betty Purkey-Huck, Co-Leader of the Rocky Mountain Region
Joining Dining for Women is easy, but have you ever thought about the process after that? New members are often anxious about attending a meeting in a place they’ve never been and with a group of women they’ve never seen and who have already formed a bond. Why not make it easier on our new members? Think how much more relaxed they would be if you called them and chatted before the meeting? If they live close by, perhaps you could even meet them for a cup of coffee, or if not, offer to meet them in the driveway and walk into the meeting with them.
As a Chapter Leader, you have many other responsibilities and may not have time to do this. Why not see if someone in your chapter will volunteer to be the “social mentor” for new members. Most chapters have someone who loves to socialize. They could make sure that new members are assimilated into the chapter by welcoming them, introducing them to the other members, and making sure they get involved.
Your social mentor could also make sure that all members' birthdays are remembered, as well as weddings, births of babies and grandbabies, and other important occasions for members. A little bit of socializing will help keep your chapter vibrant long into the future!
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After meeting for more than 8½ years, the OR, Portland-2 chapter held its 100th meeting at member Wendy Swanson’s floating home on the Willamette River. Also cause for celebration was Patricia Andersson’s 10th anniversary of being a DFW Chapter Leader (bottom row of photo, third from the left). Patricia originally started a chapter in Corvallis, OR and then began another chapter when she moved to Portland. Thank you Patricia and all your members for your passion and dedication to DFW!
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