Legacy Foundation hosted a special Paint and Sip event to honor its Women in Philanthropy group on Thursday, September 19.
Legacy Foundation Vice President Erica Fizer Katsepas believes this event was a great way to create awareness and dive into the impact of grants that the Women in Philanthropy group has made over the past year.
“Legacy Foundation is hosting this event to celebrate our Women in Philanthropy group,” Fizer Katsepas said. “Our Women in Philanthropy group is a giving circle of Legacy Foundation. The members pool their donations, which support grants to nonprofit organizations serving women and children. We're also sharing that we have a matching opportunity to both our Women's Philanthropy fund and to Legacy Foundation’s community grant making fund.”
The Women in Philanthropy group started in 2016. Every year, Legacy Foundation puts on a series of events to focus on nonprofit organizations in the communities.
“We do site visits where people will go out to the nonprofit organizations and talk to the staff there to learn about the direct impact of their grants,” Fizer Katsepas said. “Last year, we went to the Challenger Learning Center and did a planetarium show. Sometimes we do luncheons so that the women can just get together and network with each other.”
Members in attendance were invited to bring a friend who might want to learn more about the Women in Philanthropy group. After a presentation about the group and Legacy Foundation as a whole, everyone was invited to paint. With the fall season just around the corner, everyone painted elements such as pumpkins, leaves, and trees.
Gloria Morris, owner of Great Lakes Sports Hub, is also a board member of the Legacy Foundation and Women in Philanthropy. She’s grateful to be affiliated with an organization that’s all about helping out others.
“The Women in Philanthropy group is actually how I got started with Legacy Foundation,” Morris said. “I’ve been volunteering in the community for years. I love Legacy Foundation because it scales your work and supports many nonprofits or other initiatives in the community. I've been a board member for two years and this is the first event that I’ve hosted.”
Bringing these women into the Great Lakes Sports Hub for an evening of increasing connections and learning more about the efforts to support local charitable causes was an awesome feeling for Morris.
“I could not be more excited about this event,” Morris said. “You're bringing women together who have a common set of values to give back to the community. It feels great to give back to them in the form of this little gathering. We're obviously very proud of our space here. My vision is to bring more events to the space and this is a great way to kind of kick it off.”
Events like this are what not only create unity for women in the Region, but help motivate them to make a difference together. Morris emphasizes the importance of coming together, whether it’s to support one’s family or an organization they align with.
“I hope people are inspired by hearing about how other people give back to the community and think about creating their own funds that honor their families,” Morris said. “I did that for my mom, who passed away in March, when we created a memorial fund in her name to honor her, but it gives back to this Lake County initiative. I'm hoping that women can come out here and invest in a fund that is always existing because it's endowed. That is a really different mindset so I'm hoping people walk out of here inspired to do something like that.”
For more information on Legacy Foundation, visit legacyfdn.org.
