When my family moved back to California, I had professional work clothes that I no longer needed. During my search to donate them, I was introduced to WANDA’s program for single mothers. WANDA didn’t need the clothes, but they invited me to observe a class to learn more about their work. From that first class, I was hooked by the program and its goal to offer single mothers the tools and skills that would help them improve the lives of their families. I was impressed by both the curriculum and the women in the program.
At that time, I was teaching financial literacy at a high school in Redwood City. When I was offered the chance to teach a modified version of that course to the WANDA moms, it was an easy fit for me. WANDA provides our moms the skills they need to manage their money; if they can confidently manage their money, they can confidently go on to manage other things in their lives.
I have now served on WANDA’s Board of Directors for over 10 years. There are two things I’m proud we have done. First, we have been able to measure our results so that we earned the trust and support of foundations who now fund us. It’s easy to say you are successful, but if you don’t have real data to back it up, larger, sophisticated donors and foundations will not support you. We set up a research plan to track our moms, both during the program and for a longer term. We now know that over two-thirds of our moms’ lives have been significantly improved: they have higher credit scores, higher incomes, and they report their family’s lives are better than before the WANDA program.
Second, I’m proud of the recent changes we have made to update our name and logo. Driven by a strategy to broaden our reach, we changed what the WANDA acronym stands for to Women and Allies, reflecting a wider audience we hope to enlist in supporting our WANDA Moms. Our Board recently attracted new members that we are excited to engage as we increase our reach beyond our original San Mateo County focus.
We know we have a program that works. It’s unbelievably inspiring to see what these moms can do. Watching them grow and succeed… It’s why we do the work. Enlisting a broader group of supporters is the next step in our growth plan. This will allow us to reach even more single mothers in the broader Bay Area.
When I’m not working on WANDA projects, I serve on several other non-profit and for-profit boards, and coach entrepreneurs on marketing. I also enjoy hiking and walking in the Bay Area, and reading about current issues.