Full Circle News

Happy New Year!

We hope your 2024 is filled with health and happiness — along with AAWGT giving circle impact! We are honored to be your newly elected leadership team to further our founders’ vision and travel in the wake of seventeen years of phenomenal presidents and vice presidents. We view this as a leadership partnership, working together with the Steering Committee (our Board), more than 300 members (and growing!), and the entire Anne Arundel County community to:

Invest - in the future of our county
Inform - ourselves and our neighbors on what women and families tell us is needed in Anne Arundel County, and
Inspire - each other to get involved, be leaders, and be givers

This month is Grants Application month! Please see the information below and don’t forget the deadline is February 1, 2024.

The coming year will feature some incredible AAWGT programs and opportunities to be together in-person or virtually. Please make a note of the dates listed below.

As we commemorate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this month, let’s reflect on working collaboratively both within AAWGT and in our communities. We hope this quote from Dr. King inspires you as it does us: “Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.”

This year, we will continue to embrace diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging to guide our work together and foster a stronger community. We welcome all to engage with us as members, partners, sponsors, and program attendees!

In service,

Margaret Davis, President
Michelle Hellstern, Vice President

Harvest Resources works every day to alleviate food insecurity in Anne Arundel County. Harvest Resources’ mission is to partner with Anne Arundel County families and individuals who are working towards self-sufficiency and addiction recovery by providing needed food and resources. By following this mission together, we believe we will see our community strengthened by connecting everyone in need to resources that enable self-sufficiency. Each week at food pick up, our neighbors ask us, “Do you have any shampoo, laundry detergent, toilet paper?” Unfortunately, our answer is usually, “No, sorry, we don’t have any of these items this week.” Without extra support, it is just impossible for Harvest Resources to afford all those items for our neighbors.

Since receiving the award from AAWGT, we don’t have to say “No.” We are able to help our neighbors with these essentials. We now add toilet paper, laundry and dish detergent, shampoo, and body soap to their food pick-ups on a monthly basis. Now we feel like we are really helping them not just with food but essential household and hygiene products.

Nonprofits bring a firsthand understanding of how best to address the needs of women and families in our county. This application is your opportunity to tell us how your organization can improve the quality of their lives. We look forward to hearing from you!

• The 2024 Grant Application and Guidelines (available for the second year in Spanish) can be found on the AAWGT website HERE.
• Official application period began January 2
• Applications must be submitted by February 1
• This year, for the first time, only organizations with gross annual revenues of less than $1,000,000 (excluding in-kind revenue) are eligible to apply
• Two identical Zoom information sessions for prospective applicants will be held January 9 at 9:30am and 1:30pm. To register for the morning session, click HERE. To register for the afternoon session, click HERE.
• All AAWGT members will vote in May to select 2024 grantees

Help us spread the word and inform the county about collective philanthropy and AAWGT.

• AAWGT will provide speakers for local organizational meetings to describe our collective philanthropy mission.
• With our new membership options, many more women can now participate in AAWGT
• The more members, the more grant dollars we can award!
• Please provide contact information for groups you know or participate in that might be interested in hearing from us by emailing our Membership Committee HERE

Wednesday, February 21, 7:30pm via Zoom - “Jumping in at AAWGT: Attend. Learn. Lead.” Celebrate 2023 accomplishments, learn what’s new for 2024 and personalize your experience

Monday, March 25  - “Civil Rights and Women and Families in Anne Arundel County.” Early evening; exact time and location TBA. Marking Women’s History Month and the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act. A not-to-be-missed event with award-winning historian, college professor, author, and director of the Institute of Common Power, Dr. Terry Anne Scott; Maryland State archivist and commissioner, Maryland Arts Council, Elaine Rice Bachman; facilitated by Chanel Johnson, executive director, Banneker-Douglass Museum and the Maryland Commission for African American History and Culture.  Free and open to the public.

Wednesday, April 10, 5:30pm - Membership Open House, Blue Heron Room at Quiet Waters Park; prospective members encouraged to attend.  Free and open to the public.

May - Grants Voting/Announcement of 2024 Grantees

June - Education Program  - TBA  Free and open to the public.

Tuesday, September 17, 5:30pm  - Grants Showcase, Temple Beth Shalom  Free and open to the public.

November - Education Program - TBA  Free and open to the public.

Katherine Barnett joined AAWGT in April of 2022, after moving to Annapolis in September 2021 from McLean, VA. Jodee Hechler invited her to learn about the Giving Circle at the Spring Open House that month.

“I had served for eight years on the McLean Community Foundation board, so I was familiar with foundation functioning, governance, and grant authorizing. What struck me first about AAWGT was the age diversity of the women and how committed, passionate, curious, and articulate they were. It’s also clear that AAWGT members have a thorough presence in bringing solutions to the community. I thought: ‘This is a group I want to be in, and the people I want to know.”

“To be able to vote in 2022, I had to join right away. As we expect to be living in this area for the next 25-30 years, I chose a Lifetime Membership. Additionally, I joined the Governance Committee because Sue Russell told me that the Governance/Leadership group is the place to start if you want to learn everything about AAWGT.”