We "dine in" together once a month, each bringing a dish to share, and send our "dining out" dollars to international programs empowering women. Through our members’ combined dinner donations, we support grass-roots programs for women fostering good health, education, vocational training, micro-credit loans and economic development. By educating our members about the circumstances of women living
in some of the poorest countries in the world, our members become agents of change, inspired to make a difference through the power of collective giving. Dining for Women was founded by a nurse from South Carolina named Martha Wallace. She had read about a small group of friends who got together for a potluck dinner and then donated the money they would have spent eating out to families in need. Martha had been looking for some way to reach out that would have more of an impact than she could have alone. This idea seemed just the thing. So, in January of 2003, she hosted a potluck dinner for her birthday and asked her friends to make a donation equal to what they would have spent if they were eating out. They raised about $700 and donated the money to Women for Women International. The group decided to meet again in a month and Martha’s friend Barb Collins volunteered to research other organizations to donate to and so began the first Dining for Women chapter! Fast forward to 2015, there are now about 400 chapters across the United States and Internationally, with 8,000 (and growing!) women and men participating. The vision of Dining for Women is to create a new paradigm for giving–collective giving on a large scale–while maintaining the intimacy of small groups with a focus on education and involved giving. We envision dinner chapters throughout the world combining their energies to improve the quality of life for women in the developing world. Dining for Women chapters meet for a potluck gathering where members learn about the most urgent issues affecting women and girls living in extreme poverty worldwide, including illiteracy, health care, s*x trafficking, water and food security, education, human rights, economic self-sufficiency, and many other challenges. Chapter members then donate to the Dining for Women designated monthly organizations that address these urgent issues, knowing our collaborative gifts make more of an impact than our individual gifts. Ninety percent of all contributions go directly to our selected international programs, with 10 percent allocated to DFW. You can see where chapters are located on the online site map. Dining for Women has raised more than $1.5 million since our creation in 2003. For more information, visit www.diningforwomen.org. If you visit our site, you also can see some of our success stories, impacts and some of the women and girls we've helped over the years.
