Cross Sector Collaboration - #CelebrateHER on #IWD2021

My colleagues and friends often ask me for personal suggestions to contribute their time, talent or treasure. While there are different ways to collaborate with nonprofit organizations, many of them have experienced financial challenges due to the COVID pandemic.

In honor of Women's History Month, I started writing daily posts to celebrate the many incredible women I am grateful to have in my life. In addition, I have made donations to support community organizations in honor of these amazing women. International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. The IWD 2021 campaign theme is #ChooseToChallenge.

Today, I choose to challenge the perception that a philanthropist must be wealthy or famous. According to Philanthropy New York, the word philanthropy derives from the Ancient Greek phrase philanthropia, meaning "to love people". While I admire the commitment of many well-known philanthropists, I am also inspired by meaningful acts of generosity and compassion around me.

To me, a philanthropist is someone who donates time, money, experience, skills or talent to help create a better world. Through their love of people and acts of humanity, many women have shown me that anyone can be a philanthropist, regardless of status or net worth. I am humbled to join them by sharing their examples and organizations I have personally donated to thus far.

I have updated this list throughout March 2021. Please share your #CelebrateHER story to help celebrate the accomplishments of inspiring women and elevate the impactful work of different community organizations.

March 1 - Eva Ng - Empowering Venerable Achievement Fund with the Brooklyn Community Foundation

March 2 - Alysia Steinmann - WhyHunger - COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund

March 3 - Kedisha Ebanks - Higher Achievement

March 4 - Hoang-Mei Phung - Welcome to Chinatown

March 5 - Karyn Twaronite - United Way of New York City

March 6 - Maya Gutierrez - Coro New York Leadership Center

March 7 - Kristy Sundjaja - Exceptional Artists Foundation

March 8 - Janet Truncale and Rupal Patil - Women's World Banking

March 9 - Cindy Feng and Marna Ricker - Junior Achievement

March 10 - Sandra Zarraga and Thear Suzuki - 50/50 Women on Boards

March 11 - Stephanie Van Damm and Anita Bafna - iMentor

March 12 - Cynithea (Nit) Reeder and Judy To - digitalundivided

March 13 - Bernell Grier - IMPACCT Brooklyn

March 14 - Melanie Mortimer - SIFMA Foundation

March 15 - Jamila Abston - National Association of Black Accountants

March 16 - Kerrie MacPherson and Nadine Mirchandani - City Harvest

March 17 - Angela Milano - NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship)

March 18 - Chris Crespo and Maowei Tian - Out for Undergrad

March 19 - Jenny Chan - Collective Success Network

March 20 - Katherine Valvoda Smith - Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

March 21 - The phenomenal women of Ascend Leadership - Ascend Foundation

March 22 - Leisha John, Ritu Malhotra and Laura Brown - Earthwatch Institute

March 23 - Ashley Becker - AFCEA Educational Foundation

March 24 - Kerri Freedman and Susan Raffel - Trees New York and Streets Project

March 25 - Sophia Yen - Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation - Children’s Relief Fund

March 26 - Abby Jo Sigal, Barbara Chang, Melinda Chang - HERE to HERE & CareerWise

March 27 - The extraordinary women of Sterling Network NYC - New York Cares

March 28 - The incredible women among Presidio Institute Fellows - American Red Cross

March 29 - Kelly Grier and Leslie Patterson - United Way Digital Divide Fund and Ascend Impact Fund

March 30 - The remarkable women of FSO Talent Development team - Girl Scouts of USA

March 30 - Melinda Chu, Camilla Chen, Priya Dasani and Caroline Ng - Asian American Federation

March 31 - Deborah K. Holmes and the inspiring women of the EY Corporate Responsibility Network - College MAP Scholarship Fund

March 31 - Kim Ng - Miami Marlins Foundation 

The views expressed by the author are personal and not necessarily those of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.