Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times will headline the Vermont Women’s Fund’s annual benefit on Wednesday, October 16 to help celebrate 25 years of empowering women and girls in Vermont. Jane Lindholm, host of Vermont Public Radio’s award-winning weekday program “Vermont Edition,” will serve as emcee for the 5:30-7:30 p.m. event to be held at the Davis Center on the campus of the University of Vermont in Burlington.
The 2017 New York Times investigation led by Kantor and Twohey into sexual harassment and misconduct by movie producer Harvey Weinstein spurred a worldwide reckoning about sexual abuse of women in the workplace. Their just-released book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story that Helped Ignite a Movement, has been hailed as “All the President’s Men for the #MeToo era” in The Washington Post.
In particular, the Vermont Women’s Fund is delighted to welcome Jodi Kantor back to Burlington. She gave the keynote address for the Women’s Fund annual event in 2016, and returned in early 2018 to host a capacity-crowd event for more than 700 people.
“We all owe a debt of gratitude to Jodi and Megan for asking—and helping us form the responses to—the questions that dominate our culture,” said Meg Smith, director of the Vermont Women’s Fund. “More than a year ago, in Burlington, Jodi asked those attending the Women’s Fund event: ‘What are we going to be able to tell our children? That the #MeToo moment passed? Or where were you when the wall came down? And what did you do?’ Our answers to her questions have and will continue to shift the moral impetus of how we lead our lives.”
Tickets are still available to the general public but seating is limited. All proceeds from the event support the mission of the Vermont Women’s Fund, and Phoenix Books will have copies of She Said available and will donate a portion of each sale to the Vermont Women’s Fund. The event is made possible by many generous businesses including the following lead sponsors: Gravel & Shea, Green Mountain Power, Dealer.com, M. Kraus & Company, and Burton. Visit vermontcf.org/Oct16 for more information.
About the Vermont Women’s Fund
The Vermont Women’s Fund was established in 1994 to champion gender equity and economic equality. A component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, its dual mission promotes philanthropy as a tool to catalyze change in support of women and girls. The Vermont Women’s Fund offers an annual grant competition to nonprofit programs across the state. It also provides financial support for Change The Story, a statewide initiative to align policy, program, and philanthropy to improve women’s economic status in Vermont. In 2019, the Women’s Fund awarded more than $225,000 to support both of these efforts. The Women’s Fund has granted more than $2 million to Vermont-based nonprofit organizations since its inception. Visit vermontwomensfund.org for more information.
About the Vermont Community Foundation
The Vermont Community Foundation inspires giving and brings people and resources together to make a difference in Vermont. A family of hundreds of funds and foundations, we provide the advice, investment vehicles, and back-office expertise that make it easy for the people who care about Vermont to find and fund the causes they love. The heart of the Community Foundation’s work is closing the opportunity gap—the divide that leaves too many Vermonters struggling to get ahead, no matter how hard they work. We are aligning our time, energy, and discretionary resources on efforts that provide access to early care and learning, pathways to college and career training, support for youth and families, and community and economic vitality. We envision Vermont at its best—where everyone has the opportunity to build a bright, secure future. Visit vermontcf.org or call 802-388-3355 for more information.
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