One of the best things about building my business has been the ability to be a conduit for change by investing in companies I believe in. Turns out I’m not alone. Studies from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University have found that in almost every income bracket, women give more than men. Here are a few missions I believe in.
SheEO
Founded by visionary Vicky Saunders, the women of SheEO are working on the world’s to-do list. The model brings together 500 women (called Activators) in four countries, who contribute to an investment pool that is loaned out at zero percent interest to five women-led Ventures selected by the Activators.
All Ventures are revenue generating with export potential and are creating a better world through their business model or their product and service. The loans are paid back over five years and then loaned out again, creating a perpetual fund which we will pass on to our daughters, nieces and granddaughters.
This disruptive model is a pathway to redistribute capital, identify and scale social innovations and bring women into community together but most importantly, emboldens our collective leadership creating a new economic and social model for sustainable communities.
Photo via ROCUnited.
One Fair Wage
Organized by ROCAction, the One Fair Wage campaign sees to eliminate the separate, lower wage for tipped workers and increase the minimum wages for all restaurant workers.
Why is this important? The restaurant industry is one of the largest growing industries in the nation, and the larger employer of minimum wage workers. It is also the single largest source of sexual harassment claims filed by women with the Equal Opportunity Commission in the US. Female servers earn just 80% of what their male counterparts earn and women’s dependence on tips in states that don’t require the minimum wage for servers makes them vulnerable to experiencing sexual harassment by at work by guest or their employers. Tipped women workers who earn a guaranteed wage report half the rate of sexual harassment as women in states with a $2.13 minimum wage since they don’t have to accept inappropriate behavior from customers to guarantee an income.
Winning One Fair Wage at the federal level in coming years will signal the greatest shift in the history of the US restaurant industry.
