1/ What is the purpose of your charity Investing in Women Ball?
I have recently created this new brand called Investing In Women, which I intend to use for two purposes:
- To partner with companies in the areas of diversity and inclusion (women in the workplace) and corporate social responsibility (giving back to causes concerned with the empowerment of women); and Anita Kouassigan
- On the pro bono side of things, to serve as a platform to host fundraisers on behalf of existing charities. The platform offers a strong approach in media and communication, drawing from my own experience. Meaning that the business of fundraising is perhaps approached in a slightly more emotional way with messages being sent wider than is usual by charities hosting their own galas. For instance, a charity may rely on its existing patrons and board of trustees to form a committee to get tables sold, whereas we approached it via our network and friends of friend and perhaps are approaching a younger demographic that may not be used to giving donations or who’ve never attended a charity gala. We feel we need to engage a fresh breed of future philanthropists.
‘Investing in Women’ invites corporate socially responsible companies to amplify their good work concerning the empowerment of women at its inaugural event on the evening of 19 May 2018 at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel. Guests will gather together with influential speakers and the organisations we support for a beautiful evening of dinner, entertainment and fundraising for a good cause. Anita Kouassigan
Why did I choose to launch with a fundraiser, rather than via another type of launch party? Because I like to try the most challenging way, as I learn best this way and I am very pleased with what I have learned. On a more personal level, this was a great opportunity for me to showcase every single skill I have ever used and pull them together to pull off a challenging type of event. Please refer to my CV for further details.
The 5 principle themes for the ‘Investing In Women’ movement are:
1) The importance of getting more women involved in politics, and why this is important;
2) The role of companies who are committed to closing the gender pay gap;
3) The existing initiatives which aim to foster economic growth by providing women entrepreneurs around the world with a business education, improved skills and access to capital;
4) The role of companies which offer return-to-work programs, which seem to benefit women in particular; and
5) The importance of partnerships between companies (eg in their corporate social responsibility capacities) and the organisations and charities that are committed to investing in, and empowering women (in their political, economic and human rights).
2/ How did you choose those charities, what interested you in their work?
I was always looking for:
- A well-established charity where I felt comfortable with the impact after giving; and
- An emerging charity/new player that had a lot of potential but perhaps needed some help with new networks.
Womankind Worldwide fulfilled 1. above for me, as this charity has been established for 30 years
Womankind for me is a special type of charity as rather than having branches in several countries it identifies local charity partners who they have done thorough research and due diligence on and avoids all the administrative headache of trying to manage operations centrally from the UK with local branches. They seek out partners who are making direct impact and who can report how the money is being spent. Their impact report which provides a detailed breakdown of our expenditure and income and the charity gives money to local partner organisations in the countries where they work. Their partnership agreements are based on high levels of accountability and transparency.
Through both programme and grant management they monitor closely how money is spent and accounted for:
– Monthly when budget holders leading projects in local communities report back to our partner organisations
– Quarterly when our partners submit quarterly financial reports and senior staff monitor the performance of projects we support against their budget
– Bi-annually through detailed learning and financial reports submitted by partner organisation
– Annually when our partners submit an external audit for each project they undertake
In relation to point 2. above
I came across Led By HER on LinkedIn and even though many of the posts were in French, it caught my attention. The comments people made to Chiara about her good work also caught my attention so I got in touch with her. There were some possible barriers to hosting a fundraiser for her charity, but every time I asked for a solution, she found one. I saw a very determined woman who really genuinely wants to make a difference and messages were exchanged late at night between us and I felt a connection.
I could also see she was very much as keen on the networking as what funds could be raised. This is an important part of her model, that it’s about giving the women she helps access rather than handing out cash. Of course the cash pays for the things they have access to. That is a forward-looking charity. Watching the Led By HER YouTube video and hearing about the women’s case studies and understanding the concept of ‘finding the light’ again was particularly touching. In the area of CSR, one of the top initiatives for me was Goldman Sachs 10,000 programme and I could see similarities between the type of women benefitting from Led By HER offers also benefitting from what 10,000 women has to offer.
I was hoping to link these two together. As an entrepreneur myself, I could also identify with the needs of these women and how important it is to have mentoring and encouragement to help you before you go it alone.
@veroniqueforge
