Aspire is hard. Women helping women is not a new idea. The hard part is knowing what is actually helpful. The natural inclination for women is to nurture .. it is part of us. But helping… that is harder to pin down. How do we help women who don’t know what they need or cannot yet communicate it? Or how can we help women whose needs far exceed our ability to help? How can we help women when we don’t know who they are or how to find them.
In late 2017, a friend and I were invited to lunch by a woman who had attended a local fundraising event for Fairy Godmothers. The annual lingerie luncheon was an event whose purpose was to collect pretty but practical lingerie to donate to organizations that provide emergency services to local women in need. Every women loves a new pair of pajamas, socks or undergarments. The speaker at the event was sharing the mission of the group and made a statement about how she wished we could effect real change in the lives of these women who are served by the organization. That statement planted a seed.
The lunch was an invitation to begin a new non-profit whose purpose would be to help these women through connection with other local women. We live in an university town so education and improving skill set was the first topic of conversation. We decided that we needed to survey the services and opportunities that are already available in the community. Women love to serve but duplicating services was not an idea that was supported by us. So my friend and I agreed to co-chair this new baby of ours which did not yet have a name, a mission, or members.
Our founder was generous and hosted ladies to an introductory event. The only information we had at the time was that we wanted to be effective and we needed a specific mission because defining ‘help’ wouldn’t be easy. There were many of the attendees who listened to us try to articulate what the vision might be. We raised some seed money from several generous women at that event.
We decided to open an account with our local community foundation, Greater Manhattan Community Foundation. (GMCF). By establishing a fund with GMCF we would be able to raise funds under their 501c3 umbrella. However we didn’t yet have a name, after lots of discussion and a few more Tuesday lunches we arrived at the name Aspire.
Now that we had some seed money and a name, the next step was to find a date for a strategic planning meeting. Who should we invite to be a part of this team? The goals for this team would be to finalize a mission statement, choose a logo and recruit a board of directors.
We began by inviting ladies who we knew were on the front lines in the community to Tuesday lunch. We spoke with the local technical college, other non-profits, former city commissioners, the ladies who founded Fairy Godmothers… really anyone who would listen to our question of what service is missing locally that would be most ‘helpful’ to the ladies we wanted to help. There is that word again… what does help even mean?
Be Inspired 