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All over the world, women are coming together to address complicated and difficult issues that affect their own lives and the fabric of their communities. They are empowering themselves to speak out about issues that in the past were invisible or unspeakable-issues such as genital mutilation, reproductive rights, trafficking in women, and women's right to accessible and safe health care. Women have exciting ideas and programs, but time and time again they complain that they cannot raise the money for their programs. Empowered as some women are about raising difficult issues in their societies, we find that when it comes to raising money women feel disempowered.
Money is a difficult subject, apparently. On the one hand, we hear people say that "Money makes the world go round!" or "Money is power!" On the other hand, we hear that "Money is the root of all evil" or "Money cannot buy happiness." Perhaps all of these thoughts are true, in some sense. But our conflicting views about money may hold us back from going out and getting it-in order to implement the programs that we think are important, as we try to improve the situation of women in our societies.
In these few pages, we hope to share with you some thoughts about raising money and giving it away, including why we developed The Global Fund for Women and how we implemented our program. For those of you who seriously want to raise money and other resources for your programs, we would like to share some lessons learned, on the chance that they may be helpful to you. We also share lists of ideas and organizations that are possible sources of financial and other resources.
This booklet was made possible through the support of the Shaler Adams Foundation. Bird Publishing donated time for the layout. Jes Morse assisted with research and coordination, and Anne Firth Murray wrote the narrative. On behalf of The Global Fund for Women, thank you all very much!
As we begin, let me state clearly, in the words of Gandhi: "If the cause is right, the means will come." There are resources out there-in every community, however small and however poor. We must empower ourselves to gain access to those resources for our noble causes.
Anne Firth Murray
The Global Fund for Women
August 1995
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Introduction
Women, Money, Empowerment
Lessons Learned
Where is the Money?
Raising Money for a Small or Beginning Project
Organizations that Give to Women's Groups
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