2025 Annual Meeting Recap
Thank you to all who attended our 2025 GIVING WoMN Annual Meeting and Anniversary Celebration!
On Tuesday evening, May 6, we welcomed 135 GIVING WoMN members, guests and the 2025 Grant Recipients at Surly Brewing Company to celebrate 20 years of GIVING WoMN. It was a special celebration of our organization’s history and legacy of the positive impact we have collectively made in our communities.
It was a special atmosphere at Surly as we filled Scheid Hall along with a great spread of food and beverages (including a signature cocktail for GW for the night – Generous Spirit). As conversation and fellowship happened during the social hour, attendees were also able to watch a repeating slide loop of each of the 93 organizations that have received $2,378,182 in grants over our 20 years.
Kaari Miller from the Engage and Educate Committee (E&E) was our emcee for the night and kicked off the program with short video produced to commemorate and mark our 20th anniversary milestone. If you weren’t able to attend, the video can be watched here. Next time we’ll have tissue on the tables. Maria Rosengren, one of our founding members, spearheaded the vision and video creation! Fred Veinfurt, at FG4 Creative, produced it for GIVING WoMN for a very nominal fee. Thank you to both!
We heard from outgoing Co-President, Mary Weber and incoming Co-President, Susan Seiler, leading a toast in recognition of our 20 years! They introduced new GIVING WoMN members, new Board members and our 2025 grant recipient Fellows. And they thanked our outgoing Board members and 2024 grantee Fellows. A special thank you to Mary Weber, who has served as our President for six years! As we did last year, the Annual President’s address and Treasurer’s reports were recorded ahead of the meeting. You can see the message from our other current Co-President, Jody O’Neil, and Beth Beck’s Treasurer’s report at www.GIVINGWoMN.org on the member portal.
The celebration continued with a look back to how it all began. PK Kriha from the E&E committee led a conversation with Mary Frey, one of the small group of original founders who brought the idea of GIVING WoMN to life “around their kitchen table.” As part of the discussion, we paid tribute to two others in that group who are no longer with us, Teresa Pfister and Lynn Giovannelli, and welcomed members of their family who were at the event. Thank you, Mary, for sharing your stories and thoughts about the legacy of GIVING WoMN!
The cornerstone of our organization’s work and this annual event was brought to life as Grant Committee Co-Chairs Beth Kipling and Rebecca Duvick introduced our 2025 class of grant recipients: Assistance League of Minneapolis/St. Paul, Black Men Teach, CornerHouse, Open Cupboard, St. David’s Center for Child & Family Development, The Grief Club of Minnesota and The Reel Hope Project. A representative from each organization spoke on their behalf, thanking GIVING WoMN for the grant and telling us about their organization and for what specific program they were going to use their grant. The services these organizations bring to our community are amazing and life changing for so many. Their inspirational stories touched us all!
No anniversary party is complete without cake! The meeting ended with cake and continued fellowship. And the balloon arch selfie and photo station was busy! If you took pictures under the balloons, please text them to 651-398-3788, as we would like to pull them all together.
Several attendees offered personal donations to GW at the event through the QR code we provided at the tables. Thank you! Susan Throndrud, our resident member photographer, took so many wonderful pictures at the event (a few pictures are shown below and more can be found on the website).
And one last thank you to all who helped bring this anniversary celebration to life. Cheers to 20 more years!