At Annual Gala, Elluminate Announces Global Women’s Leadership Network, to Launch in the Fall

FEMINISTS WHO LUNCH

Expanding on the group’s existing leadership advancement program, the new network will create opportunities for nonprofit leaders, philanthropists and advocates to connect

A ladies’ room conversation 30 years ago between UJA-Federation of New York members about the importance of investing in women’s empowerment led to the founding of Elluminate (then the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York). From the outset, the group has always preferred midday luncheons over nighttime affairs, Melanie Roth Gorelick, Elluminate’s CEO, told eJewishPhilanthropy. Through the establishment of its giving circle in 2012, the rebrand as Elluminate in 2022 and the other ways the organization has morphed and grown since 1995, that tradition has lasted.

“We get more people in our daytime programs than in our evening,“ said Gorelick. “I would say ‘ladies who lunch,’ but you could kind of say ‘feminists who lunch.’”

At this year’s annual luncheon, which took place on Tuesday at Cipriani in Manhattan, Elluminate announced the upcoming launch of its Global Women’s Leadership Network, following a donation from feminist philanthropist Barbara Zuckerberg — one of the annual luncheon’s honorees. Kicking off with a two-day summit in November, the Global Women’s Leadership Network will create opportunities for connection between Jewish women leaders, advocates, activists and philanthropists interested in funding its work.

The network will also include the 60 members of Elluminate’s existing leadership advancement program, “The Collective,” which was founded nearly seven years ago to provide annual cohorts of ten women with support and the opportunity to develop their leadership skills.

“At the top, many of these leaders feel lonely. They feel that there is not a place for them to turn to gain support and knowledge and advice when it comes to leading these not-for-profits. So Elluminate is incredibly honored to be that for them as they move forward in their careers,” Stephanie Garry, Elluminate’s president, told eJP.

Caught between federal funding cuts to international relief organizations and projects in the gender equity space, and the exclusion of many Israeli and Jewish organizations from conferences and coalitions focused on feminism and other forms of social justice, nonprofit work is becoming increasingly difficult for Jewish women, said Gorelick. While that pressure has drawn Jewish funders who want to support women’s empowerment and social justice to Elluminate, it also made creating a platform for Jewish women especially important.

“Women philanthropists are looking for a space where they feel they can contribute to this incredible work,” said Garry. “It’s necessary for the times we live in. Everyone is feeling the need to be able to make a difference in these very, very complicated times.”

According to Gorelick, the Global Women’s Leadership Network is the culmination of Elluminate’s original vision for The Collective — creating an ecosystem in which Jewish women can support, learn from and fund each other.

“When we started The Collective, we almost front-loaded it,” she said. “We focused very much on the leadership advancement program, but there was always a vision to have a network where we would bring together women in each cohort to cross-pollinate, to support each other, to mobilize, to elevate the voices of Jewish women leaders within the Jewish community and to provide them with a platform to mobilize around common areas of interest.”