Muther put the National Business Women's Council in touch with the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, an influential network. Muther attributes her own openness to working with different types of people to the team model found in fast-moving technology companies, and to her experience as a graduate of Stanford's MBA program in 1978, when significant numbers of women began enrolling in business school for the first time. We didn't know what we were doing. Muther, who also had a master's degree in anthropology from England's Cambridge University, went on to become a VP of corporate marketing at 3Com and a VP of marketing at Bridge Communications. Her goal is to build a group of interested people in Silicon Valley to align with existing philanthropic entities, with the ultimate purpose of bringing about strategic change in the industry of philanthropy.
Venture philanthropy is really a metaphor.
It's philanthropy with attitude. For Muther, philanthropy begins with finding an issue that you care deeply about. You can see the issues that she's passionate about in the art that hangs on a wall of her home office. Go with your passion. If you have a passion, then you have something to contribute.