20 Years, 20 Stories - #1: WGC Founders

This year, in 2022, the WGC is celebrating our 20th Anniversary in 2022, through our grantmaking, fundraising, events, and through our storytelling! 

One way we are telling our story is by providing highlights of the past two decades through "WGC's 20 Years, 20 Stories." We are excited to publish stories of our impact through 20 stories - two per month - from March through December 2022. 

These 20 stories are among many that have made the WGC what it is today, and are representative of the efforts of hundreds of women choosing to pool our dollars to have a greater impact together than we might otherwise have alone.

​We have collectively supported numerous nonprofit partners who are focused on women and girls and have engaged many along the way to try and make a difference.

20 Years, 20 Stories - #1: WGC Founders

​It all began in the fall of 2000. Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz organized a meeting on behalf of the Maryland Philanthropy Network (formerly Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers) and asked Barbara Lawson, at that time the head of the organization that is now the Community Foundation of Howard County (CFHoCo) to invite local women to attend. 

• “Buffy called me and said you know we're going to be doing this presentation in Baltimore and we're really wanting to gather together a group of women philanthropists that might be receptive to this idea of a different way of giving, and expanding on women's philanthropy - leveraging different ideas about how that could happen.” - Barbara Lawson

Yolanda Bruno, Jean Moon, and Linda Odum accepted that offer, and became fascinated by what they learned about the incredible power of collective giving inherent in the giving circle model.

Read the full story here