By Anna Hughes
Women supporting women: that’s the core of the Western Suburbs Giving Circle (WSGC).
The WSGC is a subset of the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW), an organization focused on bringing health, safety, and economic prosperity to women, girls, transgender, and nonbinary individuals across the Chicagoland area. Since 1985, they’ve invested over $50 million in programming that concentrates on economic security and freedom from violence.
These issues that plague millions of women, trans, and nonbinary people across the country—poverty, domestic violence, discrimination, and more—are happening closer than many people know. These issues impact thousands of people in DuPage and Cook Counties.
“You just don’t see [these issues] as clearly in the suburbs often,” WSGC co-chair Kendra Hyett said.
Hyett grew up in the west suburbs and has been doing nonprofit and funding work in the women/girls and gender space for over a decade. Her devotion to this work inspired her to seek ways to get involved after moving back to the Chicagoland area from San Francisco. She found community and camaraderie in the WSGC, where she made new friends with a similar passion.
“We all have a common mission of really helping women and girls, particularly lower income. So all of us are very invested in that,” co-chair Julie Olafson said. “And a beautiful side benefit is all these wonderful relationships and friendships that we have formed.”
Olafson and Hyett lead the group of 25-30 women, all of whom commit to pledging $1,000 annually to be distributed among area nonprofits through grants (a new junior membership requiring only $500 each year is available for women under 35). After conducting site visits and interviews, the group then votes on where to award the grants.
“The site visit is where you really learn about the organization, their overall process, and what they actually do and what they will be doing with the grant that they receive,” said former co-chair and current member Dena Byrd. “Also, this is an opportunity to find out exactly where their needs are. So if they need to utilize some of our expertise, we do offer that.”
Site visits are often eye-opening to the WSGC, who, despite their personal and professional work with women, girls, and queer communities, are still constantly learning. One visit in particular was shocking to Olafson.
“We went on a site visit for a human trafficking nonprofit, and we ended up giving them a grant,” she said. “I personally was completely unaware that this was happening in DuPage County. I was stunned, and I shouldn’t have been, but I was.”
Seeing these groups first-hand, along with the people they’re helping, is powerful for WSGC members, who can feel confident in how their grant money is being spent.
“Since I have been involved with the Western Suburbs Giving Circle, it has just been gratifying work, and to know that you know exactly where the money that you are providing is going to, and who it’s going to, and how it is assisting those organizations,” Byrd said. “It’s organizations that are primarily women or minority-owned… [and] we are able to assist smaller organizations that have an operating budget of $3 million and below.”
By discovering these smaller organizations and awarding them a grant, they’re also giving them exposure to enhanced resources from the CFW. In addition, WSGC members advocate for these nonprofits in their own lives, either through personal donations and involvement or by spreading the word about the work they’re doing.
“I think it just really gives us an opportunity to promote these organizations just kind of naturally within our circles as well,” Hyett said. “I have a friend who’s a high school counselor, and I’ll tell her about various organizations that I know are supporting kids [in] the kind of age group she would counsel.”
The WSGC is always looking for new members to join the circle, regardless of age, experience, or level of knowledge on these issues. They’re dedicated to education, friendship, and working to create a world where women and genderqueer individuals are empowered and lifted out of negative circumstances.
“This is our way to try to make some difference in the world, right where we live, right in our backyard,” Olafson said.
For more information on the CFW or WSGC, visit CFW.org/Western-Suburbs-Giving-Circle.
