| one year ago today, chris picked me up from work and took me to the animal shelter, where we first met our little pup, cowering in a director's office because he was too scared of the other dogs to be in his cage. :) we took him home and showered him with love and gave him everything he needed...and let him meet his best friend, portia.....and he has come a million miles from that scared little creature.
now he loves us and prances around our house (or our family members' houses) wagging his tail....and plays and cuddles with portia....and follows me around the house...and cuddles with us at night......and is a happy healthy member of our family <3
i love the sawyer pup :) | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment   |
| i can't believe that january 20, 2009 is actually here :) it's really exciting to be an american today. i didn't even mind waking up and coming to work (after a wondrous 3 day weekend :)) today....there is a buzz of excitement in the air today. it's wonderful. i can't stop saying wonderful :)
 | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 
ok, so people continually tell me i look like her. (this is taylor swift, young country singer, for those who, like me until very recently, don't recognize her).
although i take it as a very nice compliment each time i hear it (i think she's a beautiful young lady...who just turned 18!!!!)...i don't really see the resemblance. other than blonde occasionally wavy hair and a button nose. maybe that's all it takes. hmmmm....
what do ya'll think? | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| my dear friend emily just recently posted a list of her top ten favorite holiday movies...and i decided to do the same :)
1) ELF. my all-time favorite. i love it so much. it makes me laugh AND cry. :) i haven't watched it this year yet but am planning on it as christmas gets closer :)
2) the grinch (the old cartoon version, NOT the jim carrey movie). i watched it a couple weeks ago and it made me feel just like a kid again :)
3) mickey's christmas carol. see above. (when i was a kid, my dad made this epic "christmas shows" tape with all my favorites on it. these two plus the smurf's christmas - see number 4 - were my favorites on the tape :))
4) the smurf's christmas special. i found this on the tv guide!!!! it's on this saturday! you better believe i set my dvr!!!! aaaahhh! i can't wait to see this old favorite again!!!!!! all i remember is something about a poor puppetmaker...and gargamel trying to ruin christmas for two sweet poor kids. but i bet the smurfs will make it all better!!!
5) christmas vacation (chevy chase). my family always watched this together. :) super funny.
6) love actually. this is in my top favorite movies of all time. i watch it all year round, but it's technically a christmas movie right?
7) the chipmunks christmas special. three words: golden echo harmonica.
8) home alone 2: lost in new york. although i don't really like the parts at the end where he terrorizes the robbers and they repeatedly get hurt, i really love the rest of the movie. it showcases new york city AND christmas. PLUS it features tim curry. what's not to love? also, the music from home alone ranks in my favorite christmas music of all time (thank you, university singers and the brian paulsen christmas medley :))
9) emmet otter's jugband christmas: this is a new favorite. i never watched this jim henson classic as a kid, but it's chris's favorite. so we watched it together last year. i love it mostly b/c it represents his childhood christmas memories. i hope we continue to watch it together every year!
10) rudolph the red nosed reindeer. i don't think this one really requires an explanation :) who DOESN'T love this one????
what are some of your favorites??? did i leave anything special off my list??? | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| 
thanks to my dear friend Ashe, I scoured google images until i found this rockin pic of my favorite cartoon star of all time....She-Ra, princess of power!
dude, my 4th birthday party was all She-Ra, all the time....
how i long for those days.... :) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| rest in peace, michael crichton.
jurassic park was my first "grown up" book. i read it like 5 times.
he was a brilliant writer.
now i want to read andromeda strain. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| 
i seriously can't believe i'm part of this election...it's so freaking exciting!!!!! i didn't write very much about my early voting experience b/c i was so bogged down in other stuff last week, but it felt so amazing to VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!!!! :)
i can't wait for tomorrow night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
it was fun to drive through a part of southwestern indiana today....there were homemade Obama signs on hay bales :) if Indiana goes blue, i'm gonna FLIP :)
eeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| October 2008
A Gift of Her Own
Women wield more financial power than ever—and their strength is growing. What does it mean for educational philanthropy?
This article makes the case for cultivating women donors as a constituency, both for major gifts and for the annual fund.
By Diane Webber-Thrush
Not too long ago, when development professionals discussed the topic of women and philanthropy, the conversation was about theoretical potential—not headline-grabbing gifts.
The headlines have arrived.
Perhaps the most well-known in education circles is the $30 million given by Meg Whitman, the former president and CEO of EBay, to Princeton University in New Jersey in 2002. Whitman’s gift was not an anomaly. In fact, it is not even the largest gift to education from a woman to date. Investment banker Darla Moore gave $45 million to the University of South Carolina’s business school in 2005, adding to the $20 million she gave the school in 1998. Barbara Dodd Anderson gave $128 million to the George School, in Newton, Penn., in 2007. Betty Irene Moore led her family’s foundation to make a $100 million naming commitment to the school of nursing at the University of California, Davis, beginning in 2003.
All told, the 2007 Philanthropy 50, the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual list of the top givers, contained 29 women—eight of them giving on their own, the balance with their spouses or families. The list includes people like Jackie Simon, 48, who was the catalyst for her family’s $40 million gift to a foundation to support Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis—a place where one of the Simons’ five children received care in the neonatal intensive care unit. Simon was moved to become a board member after a single tour of the hospital’s pediatric cancer ward, which serves children from throughout the state. Simon then became the driving force who inspired 16 members of her family to pool their resources to make a transformative gift for the hospital.
“We’re privileged to be in the position to make a difference,” Simon told the Indianapolis Star at the time of the gift. “It became a collective family passion.”
In her favor
Clearly, women of substantial means have crossed a Rubicon, defying stereotypes of feminine parsimony. But what about potential donors at other levels of support? New analysis of data from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study suggests that women should be cultivated by educational fundraisers whether they are potential $100 donors or $1 million donors. “Women are the drivers in deciding whether or not to give to education,” says Debra Mesch, director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Furthermore, when women are the philanthropic deciders of the household, they give nearly twice as much to education: an average of $599 in 2002, compared with $300 when the man of the house writes the check, according to the COPPS analysis.
The data show an even bigger difference in higher-income families. For couples making more than $100,000 a year, women decision-makers gave an average of $1,327 to education in 2002, while men gave $583.
Mesch thinks that women have a deep and multilayered experience with education, which is reflected in their giving patterns. They are involved in their children’s schools; they are also grateful for their own experiences. “They think, ‘This is the best thing that happened to me and I want to support it for other people,’” Mesch says.
Worth the effort
Still, there is a perception among some fundraisers that female prospects are harder to cultivate and less likely to give large sums. More work for less payoff, goes the thinking. The Dallas Women’s Foundation ack-nowledges this perception and tackles it directly. The foundation organizes four philanthropy education events a year: an inspirational speaker for a crowd of 300 with breakout sessions; two more intimate gatherings of 75, where more self-reflection is possible; and an invitation-only weekend workshop retreat for 20 women. “We really explore how we can link your values and your giving together,” says Lesly Bosch Annen, philanthropy director for the Dallas Women’s Foundation. “Many of us give reactively and sporadically. Maybe that’s not the way we want to be. We talk about how we can give to have the greatest impact.”
Even at the intimate retreat, there is no ask, Bosch Annen says. Instead, the goal is to provide a safe haven where women can talk about money, a topic that is too often treated as taboo. Cecilia Boone, now the chair of the board of trustees of the Dallas Women’s Foundation, wrote about the “aha moment” she had at an event sponsored by the foundation. It was a seminar given by Lynne Twist, the author of The Soul of Money. “She drove home the concept of ‘enough,’” Boone writes at WomensEnews.org. Boone, along with her husband, Garrett, is one of the founding partners of the retail chain The Container Store. Twist helped Boone question herself. “I discovered,” Boone writes, “that at the same time that I was accumulating more and nicer things, there was always something else to want: bigger house, bigger jewelry, bigger car. But, buy as I might, none of these things translated to more happiness, more satisfaction or more peace.”
Boone continues: “In the meantime, my husband had begun to fund causes at the six-figure level while I, like many women, was giving smaller gifts. I was now able to ask myself ‘Wait a minute. What’s holding me back?’”
Boone ramped up her giving in 2005, and now she is trying to get more women to follow her. The foundation launched a campaign last month with the expressed purpose of getting women to give large gifts. The foundation closed its quiet phase with 14 women pledging $1 million or more and with another $25 million in planned gifts. “It’s about asking,” Bosch Annen reports. “Many of these women hadn’t been asked before.”
The Dallas effort is part of a nationwide push, called Women Moving Millions, which aims to raise $150 million by April 2009 for the Women’s Funding Network. Helen LaKelly Hunt and her sister, Swanee Hunt, donated a lead gift of $10 million. LaKelly Hunt made the case in an interview with the Financial Times: “We are inviting women to take their place in history by being part of this new consciousness where, by transforming a woman, you transform her family and then her community. Funding women is the fulcrum for social change.”
What do women want?
Fundraisers looking for the best way to reach women have a deceptively simple task: Ask them, says Andrea Learned. Learned is an expert on marketing to women. Whether it is to get more women to write the checks to your annual fund or to get more women up to your major gifts level, Learned argues that there is no substitute for direct, two-way communication. “You can’t turn it around overnight,” says Learned, who is the author of Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy. “I would start with focus groups and surveys. Clearly tell women that you want their input. And then immediately start to reflect that you are listening to them. When they see that you actually are listening to them, that is when they will make a commitment.”
Bosch Annen, too, says that communication is key. “When we ask our donors what they want from us, they are very specific,” she says. “They want substance. They want to learn about the needs. They want some connection.”
Learned notes that the “connections” can be transmitted on a mass scale through story¬telling in your direct-mail and e-mail communications. Learned calls her ap¬p¬roach “transparent marketing” and argues that it is gender neutral. That is, it works on men, too.
“Women make the highest demands for connections,” says Learned, “but connections inspire men as well. You don’t have to bash men when you put the focus on women.”
Learned thinks younger men and women are moving closer together in their economic behaviors. “Men are watching the demands their partners make from retailers, whether it’s online or at the grocery store, and they are realizing they can make the same demands,” says Learned.
The greater good
Whether you are a major gifts officer or an annual-fund staffer, there is much to be gained by focusing on women. Those who are part of the first generation of women to attend law school and business school in large numbers are entering their 50s and 60s. Women write bigger checks to educational annual funds. And many women are inclined to put education on the top of their philanthropic priorities.
Gracia Molina de Pick is just such a woman. At the age of 78, she just pledged a gift of real estate worth $125,000 to the University of California, San Diego. Molina de Pick has been devoted to the school since her days as a pioneering feminist and Chicano/Chicana studies scholar there, which began a half century ago. “I am not a millionaire,” says Molina de Pick, “but I have always been an educator.”
Molina de Pick says she was moved by the concept of the greater good. “My children have their educations, and they can provide for themselves,” she says. “Philanthropy is the best tool against being selfish. My motivation, at this stage in my life, is to be free from selfishness.”
Bosch Annen and others are making the case against selfishness on a large scale, and they are finding a receptive audience among women. “We’ve all talked the talk,” Bosch Annen says, “but if we are truly in it for the long haul, we have to steward women in ways that are meaningful to them.” Bosch Annen continues, “It can’t be a golf outing, or worse, a shopping event. Women are looking for meaningful ways to connect with each other, learn about finances, learn about how they can make a difference. That kind of stewardship is the best part of my job.” | | comments: Leave a comment |
| In his last Commencement as president, Herman B Wells told the graduating class of 1962:
"I hope that our alumni will always insist on retention of our precious islands of green and serenity--our most important physical asset, transcending even classrooms, libraries, and laboratories in their ability to inspire students to dream long dreams of future usefulness and achievement-- dreams that are an important and essential part of undergraduate college experience." | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | I believe that we need beauty as much as we need truth. I believe that the university needs artists as much as it needs scholars. --William Lowe Bryan, IU president, 1902-37 | | comments: Leave a comment |
| 
i've always loved dali. i think his paintings are so fascinating....i think it would super fun if some great and really creative person would make movies about different paintings ...or write books....
but anyway, this is one i saw in Chicago. i have a postcard of it at my desk at work...and i love looking at it. thought i'd share :)
it's called inventions of the monsters. | | comments: Leave a comment |
|
the choreographer of this said she wanted to portray what tim burton's wedding would be like :) | | comments: Leave a comment |
|
this couple danced on so you think you can dance on Wednesday night..i was moved to tears..i keep watching it over and over! check it out! i'll post my other favorite too :) | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| what an amazing experience. it was so much fun....and also, one of the hardest things i've EVER done. however, i think, if you are into this sort of thing, the Flying Pig is an excellent one to do! we went to the Expo on Saturday to pick up our race packets and for chris to do his lifting (he did the pump and run, which takes minutes off his race time for every rep he completed...that was fun...the people from Lord's gym were really supportive..and i saw a 60-something year old man do over 80 curls!) but the expo was really cool! there were decorated pigs everywhere (Cincinnati is Porkopolis and every year, people/companies decorate flying pigs and they are placed around the city..) and we got tons of cool goodies for doing the race (tshirt, really nice gym bag, poster, our race bib, plus all the fun samply things we got from the expo sponsors...). i also wound up buying a long sleeve tech shirt there to wear during the race (and i'm so glad i did b/c i only had a short sleeve one...and it was SO cold at the start on sunday morning!)
so..the expo was fun and got us all pumped up and excited for the next morning (also, it was really fun to be in downtown cincinnati all weekend....i grew up in cincinnati and just never spent much time there. if there isn't something specific like this going on, it's really not a downtown where you can "hang out"...but it's really cool and i love it when i do get to spend time there).
so anyway, we went to bed as early as possible saturday night (i actually passed out in the guest room bed while chris and i tried to watch "30 days of night" on his laptop....i don't think i missed much! :)) and woke up at FOUR AM!!! who does that?? our joke throughout the day was, WHY on earth did we get up at 4am to go into the cold and run 13 miles??? lol...we must be crazy.
but then, so must 20,000 other people. :)
we got downtown by 5:30 am and parked (with timing chips and bibs on..ready to go!)...and psyched ourselves up to leave the warm car :) even an hour before the start, there were runners EVERYWHERE!!! i've never seen so many asics tech shirts and mizuna running shoes in one place :) we went into paul brown stadium for awhile to use the restroom, do some stretching and try to stay warm...and then headed to the starting line at about 6:15.....
of course, chris started in a way faster corral than i did....but i meant some really fun people at the start. that's one of really cool things about the world of running....for the most part, people are incredibly friendly and supportive of on another. and we were all different genders and ages....and just talking about the race and other marathons. the girl next to me had done the pig half a few times, but she said she just couldn't psych herself up to do the full. i don't blame her! oh my gosh, i still would like to do one at some point in my life, but man....all throughout the race yesterday, i just kept thinking, "how could i possibly do this TWICE???????" so anyway, back to my most recent accomplishment :)
the race was delayed about 15 minutes (for what i later learned was a fire around mile 20! they had to re-route the marathon..and actually made it about a tenth of a mile LONGER! those poor runners...)....and once the gun went off, it took about 8 minutes for my pack to actually cross the start line....and the beginning was all chaos and fun :) there were just SO MANY people....there was lots of noise and cheering and laughing....and loud music (kanye! got me pumped...this was also my first race sans ipod....and i actually kind of liked it...b/c the whole time i could hear encouragement from the AMAZINGLY supportive and plentiful spectators..and also conversations between my fellow runners...it added a fun element to the run). at one point at the beginning, these 3 guys were running togehter and one of them went, "oh my god, i'm already tired"..and we'd been running for 3 minutes. lol. the first 3 miles went by really fast! i was all caught up in the magic of the event...there were lots of cheering people at the beginning, and i felt great....and there were lots of funny signs to read that people had made (one said, "26 miles=26 beers!")...AND every mile had a water/gatorade station, plus porta potties (and yes, i actually did stop and pee once, at mile 10! :)) AND a band. the bands were so much fun! the very first one was this guy singing that song that says "don't hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself!"..and it made me laugh and think of chris..b/c he used to sing it at the top of his lungs every morning on the way to school to me.. :) and there was a barbershop quartet after mile 6 or 7 at the top of the big eden park hill, looking out over the city (oh my gosh, what a beautiful view! there were people with cameras during the race!!! and i wish i'd had mine at that moment in particular!! breathtaking!)....even the policemen who were blocking traffic were fun...they would give high fives and encourage us...one in particular was AWESOME. he was like a drill sargeant and was YELLING things like "YOU KEEP GOING. YOU LOVE THIS. YOU HAVE NO PAIN!! IT'S ONLY WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY!"...i sort of wanted him to just run behind me for the entire race... :)
but it's seriously amazing how much the crowd support helps...there were times when i felt like i was going to literally fall over b/c my legs hurt so much (mostly after about mile 9)and i didn't feel like i had control of them...but then we'd approach a screaming group of people and i would somehow feel myself picking up the pace....it's just incredible.
i also saw one of my hs friends, maurice at a water station..which was fun, b/c he screamed my name and that gave me energy...and then, chris (who finished over an hour before i did! :)) came back to mile 12 after he finished and cheered me on and then jogged a bit of the last mile with me....and of COURSE that helped (although i was so dead tired by then..i was saying nonsensical things to him...and i kept talking about how i wanted a hamburger...omg, i was SO hungry by mile 10...all i could think about - besides how much i hurt- was how HUNGRY i was...and all the things i was going to eat later that day....and how i'm going to schedule a massage for later this week :)). BUT..the BEST part of the whole entire race for me came just before mile 6 (which is also the start of a THREE MILE UPHILL CLIMB up to eden park)....i was running up a street and i started noticing the leading half marathoners coming down the other side of the street (they were on mile 10 or 11 by this point!)...and i thought, "oh wow, i bet chris will be coming by soon"...so i stayed to the outside of the street and started looking for him....but then i saw that i was about to turn a corner and got a little disappointed..but then, RIGHT before i had to turn the corner, chris came around his corner and we saw each other! we waved and smiled, and blew each other a kiss at the exact same time!!! :):) it was so cute...just like a movie!! LOVED IT :) and that was what gave me the energy to power up the hill!
oh my gosh, but just...what a day. it was so fun...so cool to see the city..i swear, i saw parts of cincinnati that i'd never seen before. and mostly, it was to see all the people. i just can't get over all the support this race has. there were SO MANY people there, cheering us all on. at one point, right before mile 12, as i really felt like i was going to die, i saw this woman with a sign that said, "if this was easy, EVERYONE would do it. you are awesome" and i almost cried.....
coming down the last straight-away to the finish was awesome..there were tons of people lining the course...like a parade! and the mayor of cincinnati was standing right at finish, giving fives and shaking hands....i can't believe i didn't collapse at the finish....my whole body was shaking....but volunteers were there to give me my mylar blanket and to snip off my timing chip and to give me my medallion ( LOVE IT!) and then to pass out water and gatorade....and...FOOD! :) lol...omg, chris and i stuffed our faces. it's been estimated that you burn somewhere between 1600-2000 calories in a half....and i was ready to make some of them up! :) i ate a blueberry bagel, a million orange slices, vanilla ice cream (i dont' know WHY there was ice cream, but it was the first thing i saw and i scarfed it down!), this really awesome cherry yogurt that like, fizzed! (if i can find it at the grocery, i am stocking up..it was delicious!), sun chips, and veggie chips. yum.
so anyway, it was a really fantastic experience. i'm so so SO proud of myself for accomplishing this. for now, my entire body, but especially my legs, hurt so much that it's hard to imagine ever running again. hmmm..too bad we are already registered for a 5K this weekend. :) then again, a 5K is kind of like a walk in the park now....i remember doing my first 3 miles on sunday and thinking, hmmm i just have to do this 3 more times and then run a little more and then i'll be finished! ha! before yesterday, the farthest i had ever run was 7 miles....for about an hour...yesterday i did 13.1 (plus walking before and after)....and it took me 2 hours and 40 minutes. it's just...a lot. somebody pass the advil, please. :) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| gobama. he is one of the most inspiring people of our generation. it's time for a politician to mean something other than dishonesty and people-pleasing. i was brought to tears in the rally last night. i was brought to my feet in enthusiasm many times. we already know he is charismatic. we already know he dares to be bold and different with some of his approaches. this is just the kind of person i want to be my commander-in-chief, my leader. he's SO smart. so convincing, without being derogatory. caring, without it seeming ingenuine. (a girl passed out in the crowd last night and obama threw her his water bottle...and asked that the EMT's check her out...) he just makes you feel like things REALLY CAN and WILL get better under his leadership.
and that's just how the president of the united states SHOULD make us feel.
 | | comments: 7 comments or Leave a comment |
| there was an aftershock at around 11:15...and I FELT THAT ONE!!!!
crazy....
i was just working at my desk...and all of a sudden, i realized my vision was blurred...and a fraction of a second later, i must have realized WHY my vision was blurred...because my body was shaking!
kind of cool....but....also a little scary.....what is up with our world lately? earthquakes in the midwest..... | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
princessjennyjo's journal