New Grants or Gifts Relating to Women in Higher Education

Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.

With financial support from the American Express Foundation, New York University‘s Research Center for Leadership in Action has established the Ignite Fellowship for Women of Color in the Social Sector. The program will offer nine-month fellowships for 35 women of color in nonprofit organizations across the United States. The women will have the opportunity to learn best practices and develop leaderships skills in addition to networking with a large number of their peers.

Bethany Godsoe, executive director of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU, stated, “Women of color who are heading up nonprofits are doing some of the most groundbreaking, complex and too often, under-recognized, work in the field. We are thrilled to support them at this mid-career stage, giving them space to reflect back on what they have accomplished and equipping them to reach the next level of impact going forward.”

Towson University in Maryland received a $2.3 million appropriation from the state legislature to help the university comply with Title IX provisions calling for gender equity in high education. The money will be used to construct a new stadium for the women’s softball team at the university.

Former Congressional representative Jane Lakes Harman has made a $1 million gift to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. The gift, in honor of her mother, will be used to establish an endowment for a writer-in-residence program at Smith.

Harman is a 1966 graduate of Smith College and served nine terms in Congress from California. She is currently director and CEO of Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.