Fundraiser of the Year

Miriam and Katherine mobilized employees, board members, clients, founders, donors and community supporters to leverage their individual relationships and spread the message even further.

One of the first people they spoke to was one of WEAVE's founders, Lydia Watts, who had served as the organization's first director of development until 2005. Lydia mobilized other early WEAVE supporters, including the organization's first director of development, Stacie Mruk, and they launched a new Web site, www.SaveWeave.org, and established WEAVE on Facebook, Twitter and several blogs. They launched an $85,000 "Save WEAVE" campaign that spread the message to every corner of the D.C. community. They had less than two weeks to meet the $85,000 goal to make up for the money that would have come in from government funding and keep WEAVE's doors open — if only temporarily.

Through it all, the messaging never strayed: Help WEAVE so WEAVE can help women.

And it got through: Donors made 700 gifts in 10 days, a total of $85,952, and enough to keep the organization's doors open.

In the midst of her efforts, Miriam was laid off from her staff position at WEAVE as the result of ongoing budget cuts, but she stayed with the organization as a consultant and continued to lead its fundraising efforts … her passion for the organization's mission undiminished.

From Lauren: "Because of this fierce determination, considerable dedication and masterful fundraising despite obstacles that would force most to give up hope … Miriam is an inspiration to all of us to hang in there and to work for causes we believe in, even when the challenges seem overwhelming.

"Like the consummate professional that she is, Miriam applied every tactic and spared no effort in a holistic, broad and deep fundraising campaign that reached strategically into the community and achieved results for WEAVE. Under the pressure of knowing she was engaged in a fight for survival, Miriam seized every opportunity to rally support for her organization. And she did all this with a genuine and unwavering commitment to WEAVE's work and mission. Certainly it was her passion that spread to all the donors and supporters who answered her call with an inspirational demonstration of true generosity 
and hope."