Hope, Light, Resilience and Love for all in 2023

Dear Members and Friends of Giving Women,

As the year winds to a close, we look back and reflect on how far we have come.

While global conflict and climate catastrophes continue to impact the lives of girls and women, we are humbled to see the growing commitment of the Giving Women community to give what it can to contribute to positive change to the most vulnerable women and girls globally. As we welcome more women and organisations from more countries into our project circles and events, we remain convinced that there is a place for everyone in this epic journey to fully address SDG 5.

Giving Women exists for and because of its members, the projects and the organisations and experts who share our vision. Our impact is always deeper and more sustainable when we break down silos, build collaborations and engage open conversations between actors large and small, private and public, in Switzerland and beyond. Our growing number of Non-profit members and the innumerable organisations that have partnered with us in our events and supported our project circles is a testament to this.

I look back on the Giving Women year and realise how much our organization and community has evolved.

The year started with us welcoming Estelle Zufferey as our Learning and Knowledge Centre Co-ordinator. A truly precious addition to our team who has helped us to plan our learning and events programme. Thanks to Estelle, Giving Women will offer a wide range of monthly workshops to build our skills to better support projects and organisations effectively. In addition, we are delighted to announce that a now beautifully organised knowledge-centre will be launched very soon. This will give our members access to recordings and resources from our workshops, curated templates and tools.

Thanks to our incredible operations and communication manager, Kathleen Holmlund, Giving Women has perfected the art of the hybrid event. Our annual conference was viewed live by over 100 online, and 125 in person participants. Online views have continued to rise since the recordings were made available to the general public. Today, all our events are open to everyone across the planet.

With our use of hybrid and online technologies proving so successful and efficient, Giving Women is thrilled to be able to offer an on-line membership to women outside of Switzerland so they can participate in our events and join project circles wherever they may be. Please see below for more details about membership options.

While we have come a long way, as a learning organisation, we continue to learn and grow every day. As we strive to improve, we are humbled to receive the honest feedback, ideas and support of our members, constantly helping us to professionalise the work we are doing. We are especially grateful this year to Tanya, Elena, Sonia, Tamar, Ana, Vicky, Lior, Deanne, Amika and all the ExCom for their tireless commitment and ideas.

 “The power of one and magic of many”

This year’s Giving Women Conference is an excellent example of Giving Women collaboration at its best. Bringing together incredible experts, practitioners and people with lived experience, it highlighted the significant need to support the mental health of girls and women in vulnerable communities. We could not have had such a successful and impactful event if it were not for the full and generous support of Gaia Montauti, the director of the Fondation d’Harcourt and Sarah Pederesini, their partnership officer. The intensity and relevance of the panels was felt by all our attendees, both online and in-person. This was a beautiful realisation of the magic of many. You can view the recordings of all the sessions here.

This year, we launched the #letsredefinephilanthropy campaign to amplify our commitment to make philanthropy accessible to all. Thirteen years on, we are more convinced than ever that philanthropy is no longer the domain of the rich and famous. There is place for each and every one of us to be a philanthropist, by giving of our time, our knowledge, our experience and our skills.

So, in 2023, we are calling out to women everywhere to join us to make our world a place where girls and women are safe, healthy, educated and in charge of their lives.

With our warmest wishes for a joyful, peaceful and healthy 2023!

Atalanti Moquette and the Giving Women Team