By most measures, P.J. Mitchell is a woman of excellence. Born in Baltimore, she went to Maryvale School and the College of Notre Dame on scholarships. After two years as a first-grade teacher in Baltimore County, she leveraged mathematical skills into a job with IBM. Twenty-five years later, she heads global sales for IBM's biggest business unit.
Later today, when Madeleine Albright takes the podium at the 10th annual "Women of Excellence" luncheon in Baltimore - an event Mitchell helped organize - the former U.S. secretary of state will challenge listeners to rethink their notions of women's excellence.
Network 2000, an area group promoting women in leadership roles, the United Way's Women's Initiative and the Baltimore Giving Project sponsor the luncheon.
"It's always a wonderful event," says Yolanda Bruno, co-chair of the Women's Giving Circle of Howard County. "The talks are so inspiring."
So is Mitchell, a Baltimore County resident who personifies excellence partly by redefining it. Business success, she feels, is not an end in itself but a first step, one that offers women an unprecedented opportunity to shape the future. "In their roles as mothers, professionals, volunteers," she says, stirring a steaming latte on a recent Saturday morning, "women have always effected social change. Now that they have more economic clout, they can really push the causes that are important to them.
"What's that old saying? 'From whom much is given, much is required?' I believe that. So do lots of women now. They're finding better, more focused ways of giving. More and more women are finding their way to philanthropy."
The term is hard to define - or to put it more germanely, its traditional definitions are limiting. "When I thought of philanthropists," says Bruno, "I used to think of men - men like, say, the Rockefellers, who could write checks for millions and get buildings put up. I didn't see how that related to me." Many women philanthropists agree.
Most concur, though, that philanthropists of all stripes blend altruism and self-interest: Aiming one's resources is a good way to bring dreams to life. Mitchell tells of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, which few realize came into being when two women donors - Mary Elizabeth Garrett, heiress to the B&O; Railroad fortune, and M. Carey Thomas - offered $100,000 in seed money. Their caveat: The school had to admit men and women equally, a radical notion for the 1890s. "How many times have you heard the expression, 'Money talks; nobody walks?'" says Mitchell with a laugh. "Ta-daa: We have Hopkins med school."
The instance was rare, though, for while U.S. women have always offered time and talent to various causes, few thought to call it philanthropy; and if money was part of the equation, too few women had it. To this day, women donate more frequently as part of a married couple ("Gift of Mr. and Mrs. ... ") than they do outright, and married couples give more often to a husband's favorite causes than the wife's.
One goal of modern philanthropists like Mitchell - who chairs the Women's Initiative organization within the United Way of Central Maryland - is to democratize the field. "You don't have to be rich to be a philanthropist," she says, noting that even as a schoolgirl she gave $25 a year to the annual fund. As a young exec, she had less time but more "treasure": She worked 15-hour days and mostly wrote checks.
Bruno knows the balancing act. A longtime activist for Howard County women's causes, she was, nonetheless, stunned at a banquet one night when a colleague introduced her as a "philanthropist." "I didn't know who she was talking about," says Bruno. "But it was good for me to get used to the term. Once I saw that it fit, I could be even more proactive." Her "giving circle" has grown exponentially over the past two years.
Even kids, rightly prompted, get into the act today. Jordan Schwartz, a fifth-grader in Ellicott City, divides her $2.50-a-week allowance into three accounts: one for savings, one for personal expenses, one for charitable causes. She has given to victims of the 9/11 disaster, a school in Ukraine and a pig sanctuary in West Virginia, and she even gave all the proceeds from a day of lemonade sales to the American Red Cross. "I like to give to things I'm interested in," she says. "It makes me feel good. It helps people who need help."
Still, she didn't know she was a philanthropist till her mom clued her in. "I am?" she said. "Cool!"
Mitchell's careful definition is broad enough to embrace men, women and children. "Philanthropy starts with a zeal and a passion for a cause and matures into an investment of resources for that cause," she says. "We talk about the 'three T's'. Women used to give greatly of their time and talent. Now they can give their treasure, too."
A new approach
In Maryland and elsewhere, a new strategy for encouraging women philanthropists has taken shape over the past decade. That's because women's financial clout has grown radically, and studies show that women give differently from men. "Men like to write a check and watch a building go up," says Mitchell. "Women like to touch [a project], feel it, be immersed in it, have a say in it. It's a different way of giving."
For that difference to matter, women had to gain economic power. "We have matured," says Mitchell. "We're beyond feminism now. We've ... broken the glass ceiling. [Women's] pay is still not equal, but it's close, and it's getting closer all the time. Women are in the boardroom and the executive suite."
Women also control 51 percent of private wealth today, she says, not to mention more than half the stock on the New York Stock Exchange. Because women normally outlive men, they'll end up in charge of at least $41 trillion that will transfer from generation to generation in the next 50 years.
"They'll have earned wealth and inherited wealth to manage," she says, "and to use to promote their causes."
For Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz, director of the Baltimore Giving Project - an initiative promoting philanthropy in the region and the third sponsor of today's event - it has been crucial to spot and isolate women's giving patterns in order to help them make the most of their gifts. The group just took the lead, in fact, in developing a national publication devoted to the subject of women's giving: "A Plan of One's Own: A Woman's Guide to Philanthropy." Sponsored locally by Allfirst, it spotlights the "six C's" - including "collaboration," "commitment" and "connection" - that speak to qualities women seek in their giving opportunities. Women, says Mitchell, enjoy the networking inherent in philanthropy, pledging time as volunteers and getting to know the people to whom they donate. The publication will make the rounds of today's luncheon and be distributed throughout the country.
Developing skills
If anyone can mobilize women's giving in the area, it's Mitchell, 55. Naturally shy, she developed poise and leadership skills in the single-sex schools she attended. Those skills, and the critical-thinking ability they sharpened, propelled her ascent at IBM.
As chair of the Women's Initiative, she targets agencies that speak to the needs of girls and women at risk. She uses "collaborative" management skills to court donors as though they were customers. And Mitchell, like many women, enjoys one aspect of philanthropy men might miss: personal closeness. "I've met so many others who share my interests," she says. "That's a big part of it for me. They've become some of my best friends."
Mitchell's life, in fact, has paralleled, if not anticipated, major stages of the women's movement. As a grade-school teacher, she entered a traditional helping profession - only to sense that she needed a broader platform. Vitality, humor and skill helped her flourish at predominantly male IBM. She made more money than she once dreamed possible. Now she finds herself in an excellent place to affect her native mid-Maryland.
Scores have joined her. When Women's Initiative started four years ago, only four members donated at the $10,000-a-year level. Today, 76 do, and the target number for 2003 is 100. A board member at her alma mater, Mitchell set forth three years ago to help the College of Notre Dame raise $20 million in five years. They got it in three.
"This is a phenomenon," says Mitchell with a smile. "Women are getting used to this role. I think it feels good to them. I know it does to me."
Proceeds from the sold-out "Women of Excellence" luncheon will go to the Marian House for women, the Girl Scouts and the YWCA of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County.