A Fundraising Update from our co-founder, Susan Swan
Fundraising, like housework, is never done, although this year we’ve had a very successful campaign and raised over $950,000. (This figure doesn’t include a large corporate donation, which can’t be announced yet.)
The campaign started with a dynamite donation from Melinda French Gates for 250,000 USD through her investment and incubation company, Pivotal Ventures. (That’s over 300,000 CAD). Melinda had just published her first book, The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. Published in the US by Flatiron Books, the book demonstrates the importance of investing in women and girls and the power of listening to their stories.
Photo credit Bryan Bedder
“Through all my travels around the world, whether in a Northern Indian village or a remote part of Tanzania, women tell me, ‘Nobody’s ever asked me my story before, they’ve never asked me about my life.’ By listening to their stories, and saying their names we were telling them: your lives are important. That’s why what the Carol Shields Prize will be doing is essential,” she said when announcing Pivotal’s donation.
At a Zoom meeting earlier this year, Melinda proudly showed us her new book. The meeting was attended by Margaret Atwood, who needs no introduction; bestselling American novelist Jane Smiley; Natasha Trethewey, a former US poet laureate and author of her compelling new memoir, Memorial Drive, about her mother’s murder; and myself.
Melinda told us at the meeting that the stories we’ve shared about women writers earning lower advances and receiving a third of the book coverage and literary prizes are not unique. She has heard similar stories from women she has spoken to in other professions. But we believe that her donation and advocacy will help change that.
Her munificent donation automatically made her our first honorary patron. That’s a prize designation for someone who donates $50,000 or more or who has done extraordinary advocacy work on behalf of the Shields prize. Since Melinda gave money to the Shields Prize foundation, we’ve added 11 more honorary patrons and their generous contributions are helping our prize have its own moment of lift.
Here are the names of those honorary patrons: Gail Asper, Margaret Atwood, Cindy Blakely, Julia Foster, Anne Giardini, Taanta Gupta, Linda Haynes, Connie Steenman Marcusse, Nada Ristich, Shelley Peterson and Phyllis Yaffe. Two men have also generously contributed this year to the prize: Jim Polk and Tony Comper.
Smaller donations made by individuals in the US and Canada contributed to our tally of almost $1 million this year.
The Carol Shields Prize foundation is a social change organization so in addition to its large literary purse it has set up 11 mentoring programs in Canada and the US, including two at the renowned Iowa Writers Workshop; one at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in the Rockies and one at the extraordinary Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland. The 11 mentoring programs emphasize financial support for emerging female BIPOC writers as well as for trans women and non-binary writers.
In order to support the prize and our extensive mentoring programs, we’re going to be in the fundraising business for a while. But stay tuned. There are some new and exciting potential donations about to spill into our coffers although I can’t tell you about them – yet.
If you’d like to join us in supporting the voices of women writers, you can do so here. The Carol Shields Prize appreciates your contribution!