The new year has begun, and it’s a special one for us! YWCA Walla Walla is celebrating 100 years of empowering our community! You can expect a burst of activities and excitement from YWCA throughout the year.
Reaching this milestone has us thinking about our past—and our future. We look back to a group of inspiring women who, led by Mary Shipman Penrose in 1917, began an organization that has evolved into the work we do today.
Without the investment of our inspiring founders, we might not be here today to advocate 
on a national level for policies that eliminate racism and empower women and families. And we might not be here offering the tools to empower women who have experienced domestic violence and sexual assault, or to offer the high quality early childhood education that empowers every child in our community to reach her or his full potential.
Our charter members couldn’t have guessed that having a safe place to escape from a violent intimate partner would be a critical need for hundreds of women in 2017 or foreseen the percentage of women in the workforce today. But they believed in investing in women.
What will empower the women of 2117? Knowing how to repair jetpacks and grow crops on Mars? Whatever their needs—whatever their hopes and dreams—we believe that investing in tomorrow’s women is still critically important.
But we can’t do it alone. Now is the time to come together as passionate supporters of YWCA Walla Walla’s future.
We can support the women of tomorrow with the Next Century Fund—the YWCA Endowment. It allows us to support YWCA programs from the proceeds of a carefully managed account.
Here’s how it works with a bequest we received in 1967: Ida Rose Stonecipher believed in the YWCA and Whitman College. Both were close to her heart, so she left her farms to both in a shared agreement. That’s how every year, decades after Ida Rose was able to attend an event or drop off donations to the shelter, her legacy gift continues to help run YWCA programs, giving hope and help to women we serve. We are grateful for her generosity and foresight.
How will we build the Next Century Fund during our Centennial year? One way is by acknowledging the Next Century Circle. These are people who, like Ida Rose, look to the future with their charitable gifts and have made a bequest to YWCA Walla Walla. If that list includes you, please let us know (download a form by clicking the orange button below) so we can add you to the Next Century Circle roster and honor you at our Year-in-Review event Feb. 6.
The other way is with our YWCA Centennial publication, Inspired: The Women in Our Lives. Click here to learn more about how this book can help you honor a woman you admire and help create a legacy for the future.
If you have included YWCA Walla Walla in your estate plans, or if you plan to, this form includes everything we’ll need to know. We can keep your gift anonymous, or with your permission, we will use your gift to inspire others.