Changing the World One Dinner at a Time

Written by Katrina Daniel Friday, July 29 2011

Snapshot: Marsha Wallace
In 2003, Marsha Wallace, a Greenville, S.C., registered nurse, wife, and mom of four children celebrated her 43rd birthday by founding Dining for Women.

It works like this: A group of people, any group – book club, sorority alums, neighbors – that gets together to go to a restaurant or a club, meets instead at someone's house. Members give the money they would have spent at a restaurant to Dining for Women, which, in turn, donates it to deserving women in developing countries. Since that first dinner, the organization has grown to include 300 chapters.

Womenetics: What happenings in your life prompted you to start Dining for Women?
Marsha Wallace: In my early 40s I began to search for something else. I was looking for my passion. I had tried other things but nothing felt like it fit. In the summer of 2002, I read an article in Real Simple magazine about a group of social workers who would get together for a potluck dinner and make a donation instead of paying for a meal. They took their collective donations and gave them to a needy family in their community.

Months later, while I was meditating, I was struck like a bolt of lightning with the idea that women could gather for a potluck dinner and donate their dollars to other women living in the developing world. I had the first dinner in January 2003, for my 43rd birthday. Little did I know what it would become.

Womenetics: What was your next step, how did you grow to the 300 international chapters that you have now?
Wallace: Initially I just thought we would have that one dinner. It soon became apparent that we had a good idea. After my first dinner, everyone wanted to meet again. I filed for nonprofit status, and my neighbor volunteered to research high-impact programs to support.

At some point I realized that we could multiply our impact if we had another group that wanted to do the same thing. I saw that this was an easy model to duplicate, and I began to encourage other people to start their own chapters. We didn't launch any new chapters until Dining for Women was included in a national study on giving circles, in 2004.

When the study came out, we began to get media coverage, The New York Times, Good Morning America. Then the chapters started to multiply.

Today we take in about 1,400 individual donations a month, collectively raising about $45,000. Even more exciting is the fact that we get between 10 and 15 new chapter registrations per month.

Womenetics: Dining for Women doesn't give money to just any group that asks. The organization researches programs requesting funds and chooses those that pass muster and are viable, have credible partners and origins. So in effect, Dining for Women vets the programs to make sure they're legitimate?
Wallace: We study the programs, and together members learn about women living in some of the poorest countries of the world, and we learn of programs designed to lift them out of the poverty that entraps them. Each month chapters collaboratively support a different U.S.-based project with an international focus on women, (researched and vetted according to very stringent criteria). We learn about and donate to a different program each month.

	Marsha Wallace

All the chapters meet in a given month, send their dinner donations to our office in South Carolina, and then we send one check for the total of those collective donations (minus 10 percent for our operations costs) to the featured program.

Each program must submit a budget, so that we know what our money will be spent on. We also require follow-up reports, which are posted on our website for our members. We fund programs that address areas of special challenge for women – literacy, economic development, vocational training, food security, and maternal-child health, just some examples.

Womenetics: What has been most rewarding for you personally?
Wallace: I think the most rewarding for me personally is to hear from the programs about the impact that our donations have had. We learn about issues like sex trafficking of children or the dangers of childbirth for women in developing countries. The stories of women and girls who are suffering tear my heart out, so when we can make a contribution to an organization that takes young girls who have been rescued from brothels and know our money is supporting a safe home and therapy for them, I feel like my efforts are well spent.

Similarly a devastating problem for young girls and women is fistula – a hole that can develop between the vagina and the bladder or rectum. It's caused by obstructed labor, when the baby can't get out of the birth canal. Left untreated, it causes the leakage of urine and feces, causing the woman to be ostracized and rejected by her family and community. Her life is over before it has even begun. We have donated to the Fistula Foundation, providing simple surgeries to repair the fistula, giving a girl a chance at a new life.

Womenetics: You also travel to personally check out the effects your donations are having. Where have you traveled with Dining for Women?
Wallace: Dining for Women launched an international travel program in 2007, when we went to India. Since then I have been to Kenya. We've also had other groups take trips to Uganda and Peru.

This fall, we will be headed to Nepal. During these trips we visit programs that we have supported, and it's wonderful to see and be able to meet the women we've helped. It's a full circle experience, deepening the educational experience of our members, enriching connections that we have with other women and with each one another.

Womenetics: What has been your family's reaction been to the success of your dream?
Wallace: My family is proud of what I have accomplished, but at times they struggle with the fact that it has taken so much of my time and energy. My husband says jokingly that his contribution to the world is his support of me while I work for Dining for Women (I am a full- time volunteer).

Womenetics: Last, but not least, if someone wanted to start a Dining for Women chapter, what should they do?
Wallace: Go to our website, fill out a chapter registration form, and submit it. They will be assigned to a mentor to guide them through the process. It's really very easy.

Katrina Daniel is an award-winning journalist and broadcast reporter/anchor. She has worked in Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and as a national correspondent for several networks. She commutes between Miami and the Carolinas, writing for magazines and news organizations. She lives with one horse, four dogs, and a cat.