Women4Good: Our Year in Review 2020
By: Zanoon Nissar
Tags: Diversity, San Francisco, Social Impact, Community Engagement, Women

As this year comes to a close, we at Women4Good are reflecting on our year. It’s been much different than the year that many of us expected. While we wish we could have hosted happy hours, expanded our awareness of prominent issues during in-person panel discussions, and celebrated a year of progress at our annual gala, we are grateful to have had the opportunity to have many rich conversations on timely topics over Zoom (our new favorite technology!)We still found community. We still found hope. In some ways, we dived deeper into issues, spoke more honestly about our biases and explored inner experiences more than we ever had before.

Despite the challenges this year brought, it became clear to us what mattered to our community and the topics we wanted to amplify this year. These three areas were COVID, Racial Justice,Women’s Issues, and the intersections of these areas.

COVID — as the pandemic raged on, we wanted to help underserved communities who were facing COVID the hardest. We had questions: was it safe to volunteer, and what were the best organizations to partner with? We hosted Fighting Injustice through Service, highlighting the incredible work of local organizations like TogetherSF and Wise Health. We learned that there were lots of ways to help our neighbors, through packing food using safe social distancing practices, drive-through drop offs and collecting food items. We also wanted to learn more about women-owned businesses and to support them during the pandemic. In Small Business Sheroes we were introduced to Accion Opportunity Fund, who funds entrepreneurs with financial relief to help offset the impacts of COVID on their businesses. The inspiring owner of a tamales business, Alicia Villaneueva,made us feel in awe of her resilience and determination to keep her business alive.

— as the pandemic raged on, we wanted to help underserved communities who were facing COVID the hardest. We had questions: was it safe to volunteer, and what were the best organizations to partner with? We hosted Fighting Injustice through Service, highlighting the incredible work of local organizations like TogetherSF and Wise Health. We learned that there were lots of ways to help our neighbors, through packing food using safe social distancing practices, drive-through drop offs and collecting food items. We also wanted to learn more about women-owned businesses and to support them during the pandemic. In Small Business Sheroes we were introduced to Accion Opportunity Fund, who funds entrepreneurs with financial relief to help offset the impacts of COVID on their businesses. The inspiring owner of a tamales business, Alicia Villaneueva,made us feel in awe of her resilience and determination to keep her business alive. Racial Justice — diving into this topic required more than just solutions, but introspection and uncomfortable conversations. We gathered in solidarity after the murder of George Floyd for a community conversation on Standing with the Black Community. We continued with our inner journeys with race by exploring the topics of Building Allyship, and Confronting Bias.

— diving into this topic required more than just solutions, but introspection and uncomfortable conversations. We gathered in solidarity after the murder of George Floyd for a community conversation on Standing with the Black Community. We continued with our inner journeys with race by exploring the topics of Building Allyship, and Confronting Bias. Women’s Issues — Leading up to the 2020 elections, we came together to IGNITE the Vote with Anne Moses and the IGNITE team. We learned about how we can support women in politics, created our own voting plans, and also discussed ways to encourage others to vote in this important election.

2020 — its been tough, challenging and memorable. We had to quickly pivot from our normal events and activities but we found our way. Thank you to our nonprofit partners, our guest speakers, and our wonderful community members who made this a year to remember.

-Zanoon, on behalf of the Women4Good team