Women in History Who Paved the Way for Nonprofits

March is Women's History Month in the United States. What began as Women's History Week in March of 1982 was expanded to the whole month in March of 1988.

For a long time in the US, women were not recognized in the constitution. They didn't receive the right to vote until 1920 and they had to wait until 1972 for Title IX to expand opportunities in education and athletics. Because of these things and more, this month provides an important opportunity to recognize and celebrate the achievement of women. 

In the nonprofit sector, there is still room for improvement. While women dominate the nonprofit workforce, they are hard to find in leadership roles. And even when women lead nonprofits, these women face pay disparities that mirror the wage gap in the for-profit sector.

Despite the illusion that nonprofits are more enlightened than for-profit industries, women continue to lead, innovate, and enact social change. And today, we want to recognize a few of those women and the many women across the nation who keep up the day-to-day nonprofit operations that provide help to those in need. 

Women in History Who Paved the Way 

Judy Justad, Carol Truesdell, Marion Etzwiler, Kathy Keeley, and Avonne Fraser - Founders of WomenVenture 

What began in 1977 as CHART, an organization to help women re-entering the workforce, and in 1982 as WEDCO, a nonprofit to support women starting their own businesses, made history when they merged in 1989 to become WomenVenture. Based in the Twin Cities, WomenVenture has expanded its mission to provide a full spectrum of services for career and business development to women and teens. They have since expanded to microlending and other innovative ways to support women in business.  

Beverly Bond - Founder of BLACK GIRLS ROCK!

Beverly Bond founded the nonprofit BLACK GIRLS ROCK! in 2006 to share empowering images and representations of women of color to inspire girls. She has since partnered with BET in 2010 to create the BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Awards and bring it to television sets nationwide. She also published a book in 2018, BLACK GIRLS ROCK!: Owning Our Magic, in which she interviewed more than 40 women who are leaders and success stories in their fields. Bond continues to work hard to showcase empowered women of color to inspire the next generation. 

Brandi McHale - President of the Citi Foundation

As President, Brandi McHale leads the Citi Foundation's efforts toward economic opportunity and community growth through investing, inclusive finance, community relations, and philanthropic efforts. She has spent three decades developing initiatives that connect low-income communities and communities of color with jobs and housing. Citi Foundation's work in these communities sets them on a path to a more secure future. She also chairs and serves on the board of several national and global nonprofits. McHale has dedicated her life to bridging the corporate and social sectors in order to drive philanthropic efforts. 

Women Paving the Way to A Better Future

Angela Scott - Executive Director of MEDIAGIRLS

MEDIAGIRLS was founded in 2014 to teach middle-school girls and young women media literacy to enable them to become critical media consumers. With a focus on social media, the organization empowers young women to identify, analyze and reject sexist or other harmful imagery and messaging. This mission inspired Scott to begin volunteering with MEDIAGIRLS in 2016. She recently became the Executive Director after holding several positions within the organization. In her role and as a leader in the nonprofit sector, Scott is dedicated to helping women find their unique voice and empowering them to work for the good of their communities. 

Mary Zhu - Co-Founder and Executive Director of Develop for Good

Develop for Good was inspired in 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic, as Zhu and her co-founder Amay Aggarwal recognized the dire need for technical and financial support for nonprofits across the country. As many of their peers at Stanford University were being sent home, they spotted an opportunity. They wanted to connect nonprofits with students who now lacked internship opportunities and faced a halt in their education. The goal of Develop for Good is to pair technologically-inclined and underrepresented university students with nonprofits to gain real-world experience while making a real-world impact. To date, Develop for Good has accumulated 79,000 volunteer hours and has saved nonprofits more than $3.6 million in development costs. 

Dr. Ijeoma Kola - Founder and Executive Director of Cohort Sistas

Dr. Ijeoma Kola started Cohort Sistas as "the community that I wish I had when I was completing my doctoral degree." Founded in 2020, Cohort Sistas is a digital network for women of color and non-binary people to support each other on the path to pursuing doctoral degrees. The organization provides community, mentorship, and resources to improve financial, academic, professional, and emotional outcomes. In just two years since it began, Cohort Sistas has supported more than 2000 black women pursuing doctoral degrees. 

Juvaria Khan, Founder of The Appellate Project

The Appellate Project was founded in 2019 with the mission of empowering law students of color to become the next generation of judges and attorneys in America's highest courts. The founder, Juvaria Khan, who began her career as a civil rights litigator, believes that our courts should reflect our communities. By diversifying the people in the courtrooms, The Appellate Project believes that we can create a stronger and more equitable legal system representing our diverse nation. To achieve that goal, the nonprofit provides innovative training opportunities and racial equity-based networks. They help underrepresented students gain access to places in our legal system that have previously been off-limits. 

Alexis Akarolo, Co-founder of Rebuildtheblock

Rebuildtheblock was founded in 2020 to address the need for accessible financial and social capital for black-owned businesses to improve their outcomes and the conditions of the communities they serve. Rebuildtheblock operates as a liaison between business owners of color and resources and institutions that can help communities and business owners. Their goal is to accrue generational wealth and capital that stays in and supports black communities. They aim to increase black business ownership and entrepreneurship through their mission and the financial access they can provide. 

Looking Back to History and Looking Forward the Future

Congratulations to all of these powerful and successful women in the nonprofit sector who have found ways to lift other women and communities through their work. They are an inspiration to us and to the next generation.