What’s so important about our name? Our name is a snapshot of the heart of our community. Our name has the power to inspire.

Over the last two decades, we’ve worked side by side to open doors of equal opportunities for women and girls to determine their futures. Our global community of women, girls, and allies makes life-changing differences for each other and the world. The magic of our model merges our hearts and minds into compassionate action. It’s time for our name and external messaging to mirror the depth of our work. We have become much more than “dining for women”.

Last fall, we announced a new strategic plan, which included clarifying our vision and mission statements so they more accurately reflect the powerful organization we’ve become. We celebrated a new vision of the world, where every person has the same opportunities to thrive regardless of their gender or where they live. Our mission statement is now focused on cultivating the collective power of community to achieve global gender equality. To accomplish this, we identified three core focus areas:  learning, giving, and community building.

The next step was to launch an initiative to gather our best ideas for a name, tagline, and logo that better reflected our values. While our name was appropriate at the beginning and for many years, the consensus from many sources is that it is now outdated and standing in the way of our being seen as a cutting edge, high-impact organization. Qualities that have always defined us.

To make sure we got this right, we engaged our members, and we partnered with an expert in branding and rebranding nonprofits. The best ideas bubbled up from members, volunteers, grantees, and staff.

We heard that we need a fresh, modern look that we can all follow. One that is inviting and inclusive to all and clearly communicates who we are and what we value and stand for. We want to do away with the false narrative of “us” and “them” that the Dining for Women name indicates. We are equal partners, working and learning alongside our grantees, and we want our look and name to highlight that. We heard that “Dining for Women” is more about how we raise funds, rather than why we exist or what we aim to accomplish.

Our new identity is designed to match who we are on the inside, not to change it. Our chapters are and always will be the foundation of our organization. Building community and connection is our magic. Our model gives an individual the power to know they can change the world, because we do it together. This is true for all of us working side by side. And, this will never change.

Some of you may be feeling the way I did at first. Hesitant to let our name go and proud of transforming millions of lives as “Dining for Women.” And we should be proud!

Courage is necessary for change to happen. Courage has fueled our decisions since the very first chapter meeting 18 years ago when we dared to believe that we could harness the power of collective action and literally change the world. We did this together. Thanks for believing!

I can’t think of a more appropriate way to unveil our new name and look than at our virtual event for International Women’s Day. I hope you will join in our celebration on Saturday, March 6th at 1:00 pm ET.

To register for our March 6th event, please click here.