Becoming a lifetime member of Anne Arundel Women Giving Together (AAWGT) was a natural next-step for Sue Pitchford. After all, she has been an extremely active member of the giving circle for 12 years. Once she became an AAWGT member, Sue was all in—joining committees and eventually becoming president. Now, as AAWGT’s Membership Chair, Sue reflects on why she became a lifetime member.
“The nice part about being a lifetime member is that it's an individually named endowment and it’s specifically associated with the Community Foundation,” Sue said. “The Community Foundation has just been extraordinary and so I like to be associated and involved with it. I like having an endowment there because the money will eventually go into the AAWGT endowment fund managed by CFAAC in perpetuity. So, it will always be with an organization that is important to me.”
Working with AAWGT has given Sue much insight into the community and its needs. She has participated on the grants selection committee for years and her heart always reaches toward the smaller, startup organizations. “We'd like to really help the newer nonprofits, the smaller ones, the ones that are just getting started,” she said. “Because it’s those organizations that are coming up with the creative ideas that are going to make a difference. And that's what we keep trying to do in the giving circle—really make a difference.”
Making an impact is something that Sue has done throughout her years with AAWGT. As Membership Chair, she worked with the committee to strategize and increase the diversity of membership as well as membership numbers. During her tenure as Chair, AAWGT membership grew 37%.
Sue is humble about her achievements: “I believe that the groundwork for the membership growth was laid before I took over and my contribution was execution,” she said. “Growth like this is not due to one person but everyone on the Membership Committee who did so much legwork.”
She also worked with the committee to reduce membership fees, allowing greater diversity among the members. “We needed diversity,” she said. “We absolutely had to reduce the cost from the $575 level because we wanted to involve women who, for example, work in our local nonprofits, and membership levels needed to vary to accommodate a variety of budgets. We recognized that we're not in the middle of directly serving those in need in our community through boots on the ground services so we need women to join the organization who can help us figure out what the best solutions to our community needs are. And that's one of the major reasons why we changed our membership fee structure. It’s made a huge difference in the member’s ages and has expanded the types of women who are joining us; it's just great.”
This year, to celebrate all of Sue’s accomplishments throughout the years, she was awarded the coveted AAWGT’s Founder’s Award. “Getting the Founders Award was extremely meaningful to me,” she said. “All the past recipients are women that I greatly admire and to be recognized as having made such a difference is very gratifying.”
Sue is also a huge fan of the Community Foundation; she contributes every year to CFAAC’s Leadership Circle or Field of Interest Funds. “The Community Foundation does wonderful work,” said Sue. “I just appreciate what they do, and I know that the Community Foundation is a good way to be able to look at multiple causes, rather than just focusing on one.”
She added that community foundations, in general, are usually the only non-profit entities that are able to evaluate all the community’s needs and put a structure in place to address those needs, both with grant programs and recommendations to funders.
“CFAAC is able to help smaller or newer organizations that potentially address community needs not being met by organizations that are already in place,” she said. “They get the money where it needs to go. And they can see the needs in real time and can make funding decisions as the needs arise rather than later.”
In 2024, AAWGT awarded $190,931 in grants to nine nonprofits serving women and families. AAWGT has awarded more than $1.9 in grants to 54 nonprofits since 2006.