A new event, Women at Elon: Moving Philanthropy Forward, offered a variety of perspectives on how women can become involved in giving.
Those gathered Thursday for Women at Elon: Moving Philanthropy Forward heard firsthand from students and donors about the role that women are playing in modern philanthropy and received guidance about how to get behind the causes one believes in.
Among them was Elon parent Abbey Roberts Chung, who has held executive positions at Johnson & Johnson. Chung explained that her own journey with philanthropy has gone from disengaged support that relied on contributions through payroll deductions to a more active and involved approach to giving. “Women in particular want to be engaged,” said Chung, whose daughter, Katie, graduated from Elon in 2012. “They want to be part of the conversation.”
The event, new to Elon this year, is designed to recognize the impact that women can have on philanthropy through their service and charitable giving. Women at Elon: Moving Philanthropy Forward was made possible by the generosity of Chung and her husband, Jin Chung.
Abbey Chung was joined in the panel discussion Thursday by Kerrii Brown Anderson ’79, chair of the Elon Board of Trustees, Trustee Cindy Citrone P’17, Trustee Kebbler McGhee Williams ’98 and Professor Jean Rattigan-Rohr, executive director of the Center for Access and Success at Elon. The women, who have been steadfast supporters of Elon and its mission as well as a breadth of philanthropic causes, discussed their individual approaches to giving of their time, talents and “treasures” as well as offered advice about how to make giving decisions strategically.
Citrone, who with her family has offered support for the School of Communications expansion, Elon’s design thinking initiative and the university’s Odyssey Scholars program, said she seeks “goosebump” moments as she decides which causes to support. Noting that today there are more than 1.6 million registered nonprofit foundations in the country, Citrone emphasized that a strategic approach ensures that your contributions can be leveraged.
“First, invest in people and in ideas,” Citrone said. “That’s what really important to us. We want to get to know the organization we’re backing. We want to be active philanthropists, not just thankful philanthropists.”
Anderson, who grew up near Elon and had not initially planned to pursue a four-year degree, called the education she received at the university “my Cinderella shoe.” It provided a career pathway that led her to become the head of Wendy’s International, and has made offering educational opportunity for women a guiding principle in her giving. She said sometimes you give your money, and sometimes your time.
“That education empowered me,” Anderson said. “I could never imagine then being a CEO at 50 and today to be chair of the Elon Board of Trustees. My journey has been a special one.”
Rattigan-Rohr, who along with her work with the Center for Access and Success is a professor of education, similarly pointed to the power of philanthropy to support the educational opportunities that are available to children, particularly those from low-income households. “Philanthropy is tremendously important to us in the Center for Access and Success,” said Rattigan-Rohr, noting the impact giving of time and resources has on projects including the Elon Academy and the It Takes a Village project, both of which help prepare students for success in school.
Asked by moderator Gabie Smith, dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, about what she would do if she had unlimited funding for her projects, Rattigan-Rohr said she would “cast a wider net so that we are able to reach more students in poverty to help to give them access to an empowering education.”
Kebbler McGhee Williams is deeply involved in education, previously as a teacher and principal and now a consultant for the Office of Charter Schools in the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. While still in college, Williams said she began giving to Elon as well as a variety of causes she believes in, starting with a $35 senior gift to her university not too long before she graduated.
“The important thing about that $35 was not the amount of the gift, but that I had the opportunity to participate in something bigger than me,” Williams said, “something that was going to have a long-lasting effect on this great university we all love.”
Following the panel discussion, Lauren took the stage to describe her own path to philanthropy, which also began in college. As a sophomore, she became involved with the World Food Programme, a United Nations initiative launched in 1962 to help provide the resources to combat hunger globally. That involvement prompted Lauren to launch what would become FEED, a company that sells “feed” bags and hand bags, with a large portion of the purchase price then used to fund global hunger efforts such as those by the World Food Programme.
“Consumers, especially young people, are demanding the companies they buy products from, that they buy services from, are giving back in some way,” Lauren said. “It’s been so heartening over the last 10 years to see this movement grow and grow and grow.”
A number of Elon students are following Lauren’s model by investing in their own philanthropic efforts while still in school. Thursday’s event offered the opportunity to turn the spotlight on four of them — Lindsey Bauer ’17, Lauren Brown ’17, Ella Fies ’19 and Josephine Gardner ’17.
Each spoke about their experiences either pursuing their own philanthropic ventures or the impact that participating in broader efforts have had on their lives. Bauer shared her experiences with “Cookies for Kindness,” a grant-funded effort that encourages elementary age students to use kind words and focus on daily acts of kindness. Gardner talked about her own nonprofit that is focusing on providing the leadership and entrepreneurial skills to women in her native Ethiopia to help them rise from poverty.
Brown has participated in the It Takes a Village project throughout her time at Elon, and offered examples of the impact that has had on her and the children she has worked with. Fies has been deeply involved in the I Am That Girl organization that has helped give her more confidence and prompted her to begin to work with first-time juvenile female offenders to help reduce recidivism.
“I want to make an impact in this world, and I want to have meaning for my existence,” Gardner said about her motivation.