Connecting Women for a Common Cause: Women’s Philanthropy Network celebrates 20th anniversary in 2025
Twenty years ago, a “new” group debuted in North Louisiana’s philanthropic landscape. The Women’s Philanthropy Network (WPN) was established in 2005 as an endowed fund of the Community Foundation of North Louisiana. The network that emerged two decades ago, however, was rooted in a much longer community tradition of women’s philanthropic initiatives and leadership. As the former Executive Director of the Community Foundation, Paula Hickman explains, “Women have always been at the forefront of philanthropy locally – in fact, it was really Hortense Tucker (wife of Colonel John H. Tucker, jr., the primary architect of CFNLA’s existence) who brought the idea of community foundations to her husband. Historically, women have so often performed the hard work to keep community organizations and institutions alive, even if they were not perceived to be ‘running’ them.”
Armed with this historical knowledge and a belief in women’s collective power to identify needs and work for positive change, Hickman had begun thinking about different models of women-led philanthropy while working with other women on a variety of projects in the community. Around the same time, CFNLA board member Janie Richardson had a fortuitous conversation in the Atlanta airport with a friend who grew up in Shreveport and was now living in Pensacola, Florida, where she was involved in an exciting new project, a women’s giving circle called Impact 100. Richardson returned from that trip energized, excited to share the Impact 100 model with Hickman and other philanthropic women in Shreveport.
The WPN began to take shape throughout the fall of 2004 at a series of meetings and discussions with local women, with Hickman, Richardson, and the late Carolyn Nelson as particularly influential champions. Through a recruitment effort that included friends, family members, neighbors, and colleagues, a widening circle of committed women refined the vision for a women-led group that would pool investments, solicit and study proposals from local nonprofit organizations, and annually award significant grants to support a broad but vital cause: education. As Hickman recalls, “This ‘ownership’ over the money and the process appealed to women. I never had a doubt that people would want to do this. We have a very strong history of women getting things done.”
February 18, 2005, is the official “birthday” of the WPN, when the first $1,000 charter memberships from the community created both the WPN endowment fund and WPN giving circle at CFNLA. Each year, 80% of membership dues are available for the WPN’s competitive grant cycle, and 20% are invested in the endowment fund to ensure future sustainability. The WPN model created in 2005 has stood the test of time, simple yet powerful: members contribute at a variety of levels, but each member has the same opportunity to participate in the WPN’s annual grant process. “The WPN’s structure empowers all of our members to study the grant applications, ask questions, and vote for the project they believe will be best for the community that year,” explains Richardson. “We are connecting women for a common cause.”
Since its founding, the WPN’s common cause has been education. Hickman believes that education was a natural interest for a group of women – many of whom were accustomed to paying close attention to the education of their own children – but notes that WPN members have always understood the enormous importance of education for the larger community beyond their own families. This early clarity of purpose among the WPN founders laid the groundwork for two decades of investment to address gaps and challenges and provide rich opportunities for all local students to achieve their full potential.
The first WPN grant was awarded in 2006 to Bethune Middle School in Shreveport for a program to address school dropout rates, and in the ensuing 20 years the WPN has provided critical financial support for tutoring, STEAM integration, LEAP test preparation, mentoring programs, efforts to address truancy, afterschool enrichment, and many other programs that have produced measurable and meaningful change for students and families in North Louisiana. “The Women’s Philanthropy Network has been a transformative force in Caddo Parish, ensuring that students have access to critical resources and opportunities that shape their future success,” says Caddo Superintendent Keith Burton. “Through strategic investments in education – from tutoring and mentoring to STEAM programs and truancy prevention – the WPN has not only filled gaps but empowered students with the tools to excel. Their commitment over the past two decades has changed countless lives, and their legacy will continue to strengthen our schools and community for years to come.”
Both Hickman and Richardson are justifiably proud of the hard numbers that convey the WPN’s success story – an endowment valued at nearly $600,000; over $1.6 million awarded in grants – but both find their greatest joy in the memories of times when they and other WPN members got to experience programs in action and meet students and families whose lives had been touched by their collective efforts. The WPN has continued this tradition through a series of “Lunch and Learn” events that allow members to learn about specific challenges facing their community and to meet the real people affected by the issues along with the organizations and individuals working to address them. “Once you’ve been educated by data and been educated about the best theory of change to address the challenges and issues, you can go forward and really answer the question of how you can best leverage your funds to effect the change you want to see,” says Hickman.
As the WPN enters its third decade, the group now includes second-generation members such as current WPN Guidance Committee chairwoman Carolyn Murphy Thompson, who grew up watching her mother Peggy and other professional women balance career, family, and community volunteerism. “I have memories of sitting on the floor at LSU Health outside my mother’s office and hearing her dialogue with likeminded women about how to better the community for other women and children who may not have access to resources to advance their own success,” Murphy Thompson shared at the 2024 WPN Annual Meeting. “Joining the Women’s Philanthropy Network has been a unique experience because not only do I get to pour into my community, but I am doing it alongside women who planted the seeds of a mighty tree. The seeds have been planted here in the WPN, and it’s up to those of us who can serve to foster that continued growth and reach those in need.”