Appointed to the Global Fund for Women's Board in 2006, Abigail Disney is founder and president of the Daphne Foundation, which supports grassroots organizations serving some of New York City's most disadvantaged communities. She has served on the board of the New York Women's Foundation and supports the White House Project, a woman's leadership organization, and the Ms. Foundation for Women. Daughter of Roy E. Disney, director emeritus of Walt Disney Co., Abigail Disney is vice chair of Shamrock Holdings, founded in 1978 to manage the Disney family investments. She spoke to Global Giving Matters about how and why she chose to become involved in feminist philanthropy at the global level.
Serendipity brought Abigail Disney and the Global Fund for Women together in 2005, when Disney received an unexpected call from GFW's president, Kavita Ramdas. As it turned out, "Kavita had pushed the wrong button on her speed dial," intending to call someone else entirely about an upcoming GFW trip to the Middle East and North Africa, a part of the world where the fund had not previously been active.
"My Daphne Foundation work had really matured, my youngest child had started kindergarten, and the leash was getting longer. I had known about the Global Fund for years, and Kavita was well respected," said Disney.
So when Ramdas told her about the planned field visit, Disney decided that she wanted to join the trip anyway, despite her lack of previous involvement with GFW, or philanthropic engagement in the Middle East.
"What was stunning, in Morocco and Cairo, sitting in meetings with women, was that it might as well have been lifted from my work in New York. The women I encountered on the trip felt familiar to me. It felt extremely affirming of what I like to believe -- that we've developed a similar vocabulary about why grassroots work is so important," recalls Disney.
"I came home thinking not only was this a good investment, but it made sense to be working locally, nationally and internationally. The Global Fund was the third piece of the puzzle. I secretly wanted to join the board; I was hungry for that kind of connection," said Disney.
Disney came to philanthropy as an adult, while a graduate student at Columbia University. During this period, she started volunteering at a foundation and an NGO in New York. "When I built my own foundation, I decided to fill the gaps with general operating support, and stay with grantees for the long term. There is no substitute for building a sense of community by spending time with the organization. It's about relationship building," she said.
In April 2006, Disney was appointed to the Global Fund for Women's board. "I love this board for somewhat selfish reasons," she said. "It's incredibly nurturing to my heart to learn from, listen to, and work with women who run girls' schools in Afghanistan, or cooperative farms in Latin America."
Disney has been drawn to Africa four times in the last two years, most recently on a trip to Liberia with Swanee Hunt, founder and chair of Women Waging Peace, and a member of The Synergos Institute's Global Philanthropists Circle. On a visit to a refugee camp, Disney was impressed by a project run by a Sierra Leonian woman. Thinking that it would be useful to put her in touch with the Global Fund for Women, Disney realized she was already connected-as an advisor-and was handing out GFW brochures to visitors.
Following her trip to the Middle East last year, Disney made a $1 million gift to GFW's $20 million Investing in Women Campaign. "It seemed really important to step up for women with big gifts. It's time -- we have an enormous amount of money in this generation. I fund women because everybody wins. People like me need to set an example and dig deep," Disney said.
Rita Thapa, a Nepalese social activist, former GFW board chair, and Ashoka Fellow, chaired last year's Ripples of Change fundraising campaign, which reached out to more than 2,000 of the grassroots women-led organizations among GFW's international grantees. With support from GFW, Thapa founded Tewa, the Nepal Women's Fund in 1996, and in 2001 established Nagarik Awaz ("Citizen's Voice"), an organization that promotes peacebuilding and reconciliation in Nepal. She spoke to GGM while attending the annual conference of Grantmakers without Borders in California, where she was keynote speaker.
"I was from a traditional, privileged background, and had an education, which wasn't available for every woman in my country. As I grew up, I knew that even despite being born to privilege, I still suffered as woman. That drew me into this world of activism, and I just jumped in whenever I saw a gap," said Thapa.
In 1990, Thapa was working in Nepal with a local NGO on the issue of trafficking of women and girls, but in looking for support for the project, learned that "donors working in Nepal didn't understand our needs." She decided to apply to GFW, which had created a focus on trafficking, for a grant, and quickly received funding. Thapa was invited to become a member of the Global Fund's international advisory council, and to share her experience as an activist on these issues.
The idea for Tewa was born during the historic 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing. Thapa was preparing a presentation for a GFW panel called "Funding Our Future," and had been reflecting on the development needs of Nepal. "It was very dramatic," she recalls. "At the end of my seven-minute presentation, I said something like, given the situation, I think I will quit my job and put together this organization.'"
"That's exactly what I did -- with three kids, and as a widow. But this thing, it was just like being impregnated -- I had to give birth!" Thapa, then employed by UNIFEM, left her job to devote herself full-time, and on a volunteer basis, to Tewa, the Nepal Women's Fund.
When she stepped down as president of Tewa in 2001, Thapa handed over to her successor a vibrant organization with a staff of 12, a team of more than 250 fundraising volunteers, a local donor base of over 1,500 Nepalis and a list of grantees that included more than 150 women's groups throughout Nepal, most of them rural. All this was accomplished in a country where asking local people directly for money to support efforts to strengthen women was completely new.
"What we've been really good at is fundraising in our own local context. Doing Tewa was a way of making sure that women get organized and stay organized. Enhancing the voice and visibility of women is critical," said Thapa.
Thapa says that she planned to take a break after leaving Tewa, but events in Nepal intervened. In 2001, the death of the King and other members of the royal family at the hands of the Crown Prince set off a cascade of violent reprisals and a rapid decline in economic and political security. "I knew I had to teach myself to do peace work. I had no idea how to do it, but without peace, there can be no development," she observed.
The organization that she founded in 2001, Nagarik Awaz, assists some of the thousands of people displaced by the most recent conflict in Nepal, particularly youth. Its work has been replicated in numerous locations in Nepal.
"What's happening in Nepal right now has happened because of neglect, poverty and exclusion -- it really surged up. We are poised at a place where we have to rise on these tides, or else we'll crash," said Thapa, pointing to the global experience with natural disasters in recent years.
The analogy with the world has already been demonstrated with the tsunamis and Hurricane Katrina. Politically or environmentally, we have to be able to see the world as one, and touch on issues of equity and justice, or we'll all be swept away."
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