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Our History
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W4W Founder,
Elaine "Cissy" Musselman
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In 1993, Elaine "Cissy" Musselman gathered a group of women to celebrate her 50th birthday and shared with them a dream she had nurtured for years: to raise awareness of and money for the issues and needs affecting women and girls in our community.
This group of women professionals, community activists, and philanthropists committed themselves and their corporations to an all-women’s golf tournament in Louisville in order to raise money for women's causes. Before lunch was over, $17,000 was raised and Women 4 Women was born.
That year, more than $40,000 was raised to benefit organizations serving women victims of violence.
Each year since, Women 4 Women has raised money in a variety of ways to further the goal of improving the health and economic well-being of women and girls in this community.
- In 1995, we created the Women’s Festival for Women’s Services effort to raise money benefiting women with cancer through a run/walk and community picnic.
- In 1998, we honored and roasted Judge Ellen Ewing at a fundraiser, where we raised and donated $83,000 to organizations that dealt with the challenges of aging women.
- In 2000, we held our Coalition Congress to share draft reports of our groundbreaking Benchmark 2000 detailing the status of women and girls in our area. The results of the two-year study helped determine action priorities to change the landscape for women and girls in our community. Those priorities were called “Bold Goals.”
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Cover photography from our groundbreaking report, Benchmark 2000, on the status of women and girls in our area |
- The Benchmark 2000 process paved the way for our annual luncheon in 2001, which featured author and educator Cecile Forte. Tickets sold for $55 each.
- In our 10th anniversary year, $400,000 was raised through a one-time "Founders Challenge," enabling Women 4 Women to establish an endowment fund, hire a full-time executive director, and begin programs that would help us achieve our Bold Goals.
- Ann L. Coffey was hired as executive director in 2003 and Cissy Musselman celebrated her 60th birthday at our annual golf scramble.
- In the 2005 annual report, supporters of Women 4 Women saw our new logo and heard about our Bold Goals, Bold Solutions, which included Fit 4 Me, our fitness program involving at-risk middle-school girls, our financial literacy program, our “women’s summit,” co-hosted by the Mayor’s Office for Women, and our renewed commitment to the $10 million fund that will secure these efforts in the future.
- In 2006, in partnership with the National Center for Family Literacy, Women 4 Women began Finance 4 Her, which instructs women how to get financial control of their lives and pairs them with coaches who mentor them and help them weather changes over time. And we secured a grant from the Gheens Foundation to improve connections between women and community resources.
- The Champions 4 Her $1000 Annual giving club was created in 2006 to raise money and build a network of women and men who share the same vision and passion to make our community one of the best places for girls, women and their families to live and work.
- In July of 2007, the Women 4 Women Executive Committee changed Ann L. Coffey’s title of Executive Director to President and CEO.
- In 2007, we received a $300,000 grant from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation to support Fit 4 Me.
- In the fall of 2007, Women 4 Women announced a new initiative called Champions 4 Her Walk, Run & Festival bringing together 10 local organizations with missions to improve the lives of women and girl to create a community-wide, signature event to raise money, awareness and solutions.
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Women 4 Women
323 W. Broadway, Suite 502
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
502.561.8060
w4w@w4w.org |
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