One of our goals for this Chapter Leader newsletter is to create a forum for chapter leaders to learn from each other and about each other. We’re calling this feature “A Rising Tide” because when one of our chapters succeeds, we all succeed – and we should share those strategies and successes with each other to lift all our boats, metaphorically speaking. This month, we’re featuring a mother-daughter chapter: the WA, Woodinville-1 chapter led by Fleur Tanner and her daughter, Lauren.

Lauren is a high school senior and has been a chapter leader since she was a freshman. Each year, she leads a fundraiser for Together Women Rise, and this year they raised almost $5,000 by hosting a garden party.  

NOTE: We welcome high school chapters but do require an adult to serve as co-chapter leader. We do not require high school chapters to donate monthly, but we encourage them to hold fundraisers in support of Rise’s mission.  

Kia: Thank you both for speaking with me today! I would love to learn more about your chapter’s background. What was the inspiration for your mother-daughter chapter? 

Lauren; We started it my freshman year of high school. I was 14, so that was almost four years ago.  

Fleur: We used to live in Santa Barbara, and I was in a chapter down there. I was keen to start my own chapter when we moved. I could only get a handful of people to commit, but Lauren was really interested. Lauren had gone to a few meetings in Santa Barbara and liked the work Rise was doing.  

Lauren: I got a few close friends together. It started small, but now it has taken off and we have more people. It mainly started as the idea of exposing the girls to different cultures and ideas. 

Fleur: We were a little worried about setting up a group of teenagers, not putting money in every month, but I approached Rise and they said it was fantastic. Bringing up the next generation and focusing on the education aspect of the Rise mission – that was our main avenue to explore.  

Kia: How are your chapter gatherings structured with busy high school students?  

Lauren: Normally we meet after school on weekdays. I text the group chat and ask who is available on certain days. Not everyone can make it, but we always have a big group. They come to my house and I give the presentation. We have snacks, we are all friends, so we talk for a bit then I hook up my computer to the TV and give the presentation of the grantee of that month. The presentations used to have discussion questions, we used those and that generated a lot of conversation and took their thinking to a deeper level.  

Fleur: When we first started holding the meetings with 14-year-olds, just understanding the question was harder, and now it has been great to see how the girls are evolving and understanding more and more about the topics. And we always watch the video afterwards. The girls really enjoy that because they get to see things and hear firsthand from the women.  

Lauren: It provides a deeper connection to the cause. After that we normally chill for a bit longer, we talk, have fun, eat snacks. We like to incorporate fun into it. We try to keep the meetings short, about an hour, because people often have other commitments.  

Fleur: Lauren is really running the group. Now it is such a well-oiled machine. It’s great to hear what the girls’ conversations are about. Sometimes we try to mix it up. I might make a recipe from the country, that’s cool for the girls.  

Lauren: My mom and I know the Rise website, where to find the information, how to structure things. We host at our house every time. It creates consistency. The members know the environment, and it’s comfortable. When we first started the group there were just a few of my friends who came, but now we include more girls from my grade. People have texted saying they heard about it and wanted to join.  

Kia: How did you come up with this year’s fundraiser theme?  

Lauren: We knew we wanted to do a fundraiser and started talking about it at some of the meetings in late winter and in the spring. I would write a list of ideas, we bounced around a bit. We knew we wanted to put on an event. First, we thought about hosting a dinner, and planned this massive event with lots of people…and then we thought that might be a bit too ambitious. Everyone’s super busy, we needed to scale it down. We took out the dinner part and just did a garden party with drinks and apps. That was more in our realm of what we could accomplish. Last year we hosted a fundraiser as well; we did a bake sale, so we wanted to do something different this time.  

Fleur: It was a great way for the families to be involved as well and see what the girls were doing. We had friends, neighbors, and family come to see what was going on.  

Kia: Who participated and how did you spread the word?  

Lauren: When we were originally thinking about a dinner, I had two friends in the chapter who were going to help me lay out the groundwork. They helped with the invite and the agenda. We met and wrote out a plan. Then we changed it for the garden party. I had each of the girls make two appetizers to bring. Some of them dropped off reusable utensils, plates, and drinks. I made two poster boards that talked about the different grantees that Rise has funded in the past. We had one at the entrance and one outside. We also had a table set up with nametags for the guests. That gave it a more professional atmosphere. We also had brochures and cards about Rise that we requested from the Home Office. I also made a slideshow presentation flipping through past grantees that was displayed on our TV. I also wrote a speech and had a special presentation on One Heart Worldwide. I talked about our chapter, about Rise, and why we wanted to support One Heart Worldwide in particular. Then we asked people to donate to the cause. One thing that helped us raise so much money is having QR codes around the house so people could just scan and donate with a credit card or via Venmo directly on the Rise website. I also mentioned it in my speech. Everyone felt like they were donating to a good cause.  

Fleur: About 35-40 people came, plus the girls who are members. They made this amazing invitation through Canva. On the bottom of the Evite was the QR code to donate as well…we didn’t hold back! There were people who couldn’t come, but still donated. In fact, we raised over $900 before the fundraiser even started.  

Kia: What would be your advice to other chapters who are interested in doing something similar?  

Lauren: Start out simple! We started a little out there, but needed to take smaller steps than huge leaps. As far as chapter meetings go, we always have food, which is fun. We’ve found keeping it simple is better. We were interested to see what buy-in we would get when we started the chapter. It started as once every two months. We told the girls they don’t need to bring anything, just come and be ready to engage. It helped early on, then the girls wanted to meet every month. Consistency is good, having a formula for every meeting, that’s good too. Having a fundraiser every year, a bake sale was easier to achieve and build your way up. We love using the resources on the Rise website as well. It’s super helpful!