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On Friday, November 22, Hathaway Brown’s GROW Foundation (Girls Reaching Others Worldwide) invited five members of Cleveland’s nonprofit community with HB ties to a Q&A session about their philanthropic work. Established in 2000, The GROW Foundation is a student-run foundation dedicated to funding service projects and awarding grants to support nonprofit organizations’ missions. GROW raises money, awards grants, and participates in service projects of its own as well. The November panel fielded questions from Upper and Middle school GROW members on topics including their personal definitions of philanthropy, how they decide to allocate funds, and the impact their respective organizations have on the community at large.
Each participant offered unique insights for the more than 50 HB students in attendance. Ruth Swetland Eppig ’69, trustee of The Sears-Swetland Family Foundation, which supports nonprofit programming in urban environmental health and education, livable communities and economic development through sustainable initiatives in Greater Cleveland, discussed how financial decisions are made. She also highlighted the importance of “high impact” spending.
HB parent David Ehlert (Brittany ’14), director of research operations for University Hospitals, was joined by his colleague Sean Chamberlin, executive director of development operations for UH. They told the girls about seeing their investment dollars at work when family members took ill and visited UH.
Taylor Marcus Laurer ’04, director of HB’s annual fund, shared some insights gained through her personal experience working with local charities and she discussed the importance of charitable giving to the school by HB alumnae.
Jonathan and Dr. Patti Berns, parents of Abby ’20, emphasized the role youth leaders play in their own nonprofit organization and encouraged the girls in attendance to embrace leadership roles. Together with their children, the Bernses founded The Race, a family event designed to raise money for awareness efforts and research to eradicate breast cancer. Many thanks to our panelists for joining us for this inspirational and informative forum.
To learn more about the GROW Foundation at HB, please visit www.hb.edu/grow.
