1) What is your name, title, organization and accountability?
Kavita Ramdas
President and C.E.O.
Global Fund for Women

I have been the President and C.E.O. of the Global Fund for Women since September of 1996. In that role I am accountable for managing and overseeing every part of the activities, actively raising money, and managing those funds with integrity and purpose.

2) When and why did you attend WLC (Women Leading Change)?
October 1999. I attended on the strong recommendation of Barbara Waugh at Hewlett Packard. After listening to her describe the course and how it was an important and effective way to sharpen leadership skills for women leaders, I wanted to attend. However, as I was working in a non-profit organization, rather than the "normal" corporate world, I could not afford to attend. After speaking with Rayona, I received a scholarship to attend, so I could integrate this work into the Global Fund for Women. That kind of support is amazing; it makes change and growth occur where it looked impossible.

3) What skills have you used the most since the program?
As the President and C.E.O., I regularly use all of the distinctions around the different types of listening. I especially use the practice of "generous listening", because there is a lot of reason to come back to it frequently and translate it into everyday action. This is particularly important given our focus of supporting communities of women throughout the world with small grants. We need to model that kind of context from the top.

As a specific example, during last summer a senior member of our management team resigned. Rather than have that be a disturbing event, we called an all staff meeting to discuss what was happening. It was a good opportunity for the staff to discuss how they were feeling. Turning a potential trauma into an opportunity is helped by being able to listen in a generous and open way.

4) What results are you most proud of having produced?
The one that I'm most proud of is definitely my breakthrough project. During WLC, I took on creating a capital campaign to create an endowment for the Global Fund for Women. At this point all of the groundwork is done; we've completed a feasibility study, everyone is both enrolled and aligned, and we are actually starting the campaign. Seeing it become real feels like a major accomplishment.

In addition, we are beginning to wrap up the process of hiring a V.P. of Finance and Administration. Between that and other changes this organization has been growing quite a bit, and it has been a challenge to maintain the focus and context.

5) What resources do you want from or do you have to offer the rest of the IWL community as you continue your leadership journey?

The leadership resource that I would most like to see is a way to "come back" to this work. My most valuable and strained resource is time and it would be wonderful to have some kind of structured commitment, so that when you sign up you come back to this work every six months. When you do this work you think, "Oh God, this is so amazing, of course I'll be back" - then it gets buried in the middle of everything. I tried setting up a regular coaching relationship with Rayona, but with the emergencies and scheduling issues it was just too hard to make it work.

As far as resources to offer, I'd like the IWL community to know about the Henry Crown Fellows program at the Aspen Institute, I don't know why I haven't shared it with the community before. While it is a co-ed program it is focused on similar values and is very complimentary training.

I'd also urge readers to go to our website (www.globalfundforwomen.org) and read the letter I have posted there about the September 11th attack. I think it is important for leaders to point out that this is our issue, that we are experiencing war and terror. It is especially important in these times of fear, divisiveness, and scapegoating to maintain a context of unity, teamwork, and support.

To contact Kavita, please email her at