Mission

The Women’s Initiative brings women together to truly understand the power of their donation and mobilizes them to have a real impact on social issues in the community.

Vision

We will encourage women, through innovative ways, to build a stronger more caring Calgary with the sharing of their time, talent and treasures.

Objectives

• Bring women philanthropists together to share their time, talents, and treasures
• Offer women opportunities to become meaningfully engaged in the community
• Apprise women of trends regarding women and philanthropy
• Educate women about critical issues in Calgary and United Ways’ community impact work  
• Increase the number of women contributing to United Way

Why? - United Way addresses issues at the root cause level  

Women can build a stronger more caring Calgary. The Women’s Initiative provides a venue for:

• Increasing  participation of talented women as volunteers, policy makers and change agents
• Increasing the contributions of women in the form of time, talent and treasures
• Building awareness about critical issues within our community
• Women to network with other women who also want to make difference by sharing their innovation, creativity, skills, and passion
  

What can you do?

The Women’s Initiative has decided to undertake a fundraising project to support The Women’s Centre of Calgary. We are reviving a previous fundraising program run by the Women’s Centre called Coffee Connections. It is simple: host a party at your home, your workplace or at a monthly meeting you attend such as a book club and ask your guests to make a donation to support programs at the Women’s Centre.

Hosting a coffee party is easy: it’s a one time commitment, you get together with people you like, and everyone can contribute at their own level. If you wish, the Women’s Centre will provide a speaker at your meeting to talk about some of the programs and projects they run and how your dollars will help other women in our community. Please click here for more information.

Events

2nd Annual Chip-In for United Way Golf Tournament - August 30th, 2010.
Black Tie Event - TBD

History

Calgary is a vibrant and energetic city with a philanthropic spirit.  United Way of Calgary and Area believes that women play a large role in shaping much of the city’s generosity.  

In response to this belief - in 2001 - United Way created a think tank of women to examine the most effective ways of engaging women more deeply in community issues and philanthropy.

This group researched what was most important to community minded women and how United Way could engage more women, more often, in meaningful ways.  A small group of female volunteers helped form the Women’s Initiative and this important work began.  

Today, the work of the Women’s Initiative committee is a strategic priority area for United Way. The Women’s Initiative committee is made up of volunteers from diverse backgrounds with United Way female staff support.  

The Women’s Initiative meets monthly and is currently looking for likeminded women to join our committee.  If you are interested, please complete the application form and send to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) at United Way of Calgary and Area.