About Us
Our Mission
- CWGC is committed to organizing women to grow and enhance philanthropy in our area.
- The CWGC is a grant-making organization that supports charitable programs/organizations selected by our membership.
- We seek to educate ourselves and others about the needs of our community and philanthropic best practices.
- We are non-partisan and non-religious.
What We Do
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Our HistoryIn 2010, a group of local women joined together to pool their philanthropic resources to benefit the community. The Catonsville Women's Giving Circle awarded its first grants to several local nonprofits in October 2011. Initially, the CWGC found a "home" under the umbrella of the Catonsville Community Foundation (then called the Catonsville Heritage Foundation). This allowed us to operate with tax-exempt status. As our membership expanded and the focus of the Catonsville Community Foundation shifted to its responsibility for the building that once belonged to the Women's Club of Catonsville, we began developing our own grant-making protocols and forms while networking with other Women's Giving Circles. Eventually, with friendly support from the Community Foundation, we became our own 501c3 corporation in 2018, independent and separate from the Foundation. With this new nonprofit status, we began to raise funds independently to support our community and cover our small business administrative expenses. But our core values and commitment to Catonsville remained as strong as ever. Now, in operation for over 13 years, we have given almost $360,000 in grants to organizations serving the Catonsville community. We are proud to say that our grant recipients include a variety of service categories such as emergency housing, education, greenspaces, arts, and food insecurity. In addition to our grant support, we have provided community education on topics ranging from combating media bias to human trafficking warning signs. Our ladies have always had a heart for Catonsville. And we will continue to pool our monetary, intellectual, and networking resources to see our community continues to thrive well into the future. |