WS Chronicle

Michele Ozumba, president and CEO of The Women’s Funding Network, will keynote the Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem Seventh Annual Luncheon later this month.

The San Francisco-based Women’s Funding Network connects and strengthens more than 160 organizations around the world that fund programs that offer solutions for women. Collectively, the Network’s members invest $65 million annually in women and girls worldwide and have more than $535 million in working assets.

Ozumba joined the Network in May 2011 after serving for 10 years as president and CEO of the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP). From 1995-1999, she served as the director of the Office of Adolescent Health at the Georgia Division of Public Health. Her background also includes 12 years as a lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Nigeria. She was a co-investigator in the first national study on child abuse in Nigeria, which led to the creation of regional reporting centers funded by the Ford Foundation.

The Annual Luncheon will be held at the Benton Convention Center from noon – 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 28. WXII Anchorwoman Wanda Starke will serve as the emcee.

Starke

The goal of the Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem is to improve the economic and social well-being of women and girls in Forsyth County by supporting projects that bring about social change—changes in the knowledge, attitudes, thinking and practices of individuals, groups of individuals, the larger community, and the systems and policies of organizations and institutions.

Over the last six years, the Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem has awarded 49 grants totaling nearly $750,000 to local organizations. Grants are funded from the pooled contributions of the Fund’s members, who determine each year which organizations receive grant funding. The Fund’s members, now over 800 strong, include female corporate and nonprofit leaders, educators, community leaders, volunteers, entrepreneurs, college and high school students.

At the luncheon, more than $140,000 in grants will be announced and awarded to the recipients.  In addition, the Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem will be releasing a report entitled “The Impact of Passionate Giving,” which provides an overview of the impact of the organization’s early grant-making.

Tickets are $25 per person.

For tickets and/or more information about The Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem, visit www.womensfundws.org.