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beneficiaries How to become a beneficiary Thank you for your interest in working with mothertongue, DC women's spoken word! Since October of 1998, mothertongue has been bringing women together each month at the Black Cat to provide an empowering forum for women writers, and to raise funds for organizations that support women and girls in DC. Mothertongue's mission is three-fold: 1. Providing opportunities for women in the Washington, DC metro area to write, present and listen to spoken word performers. 2. Building a local community that supports and promotes women's voices. 3. Building relationships with local women and girls organizations in order to provide financial support and visibility for their work. To apply to become a mothertonugue beneficiary: Please download the application, fill it out and submit it to the beneficiary coordinator, Sara Edwards at sara@mothertongue.org. You can also contact the beneficiary coordinator with any questions or with help filling out the application. Make sure your organization falls within our guidelines of who can be a beneficiary: There are a few things that potential organizations or projects should know as they apply to become beneficiary organizations*: 1. mothertongue focuses its funding on organizations that support and empower women and girls in the metropolitan area of Washington, DC 2. each month, mothertongue selects a beneficiary organization or project who receives publicity, the proceeds from donations at the door, and access to a group of committed, energetic women. Mothertongue sees our relationship with beneficiary organizations as a collaborative effort to strengthen the community of support for women and girls in DC, and thus hopes to provide not just funding, but also connections to volunteers and other resources in our community. 3. proceeds from the door each month vary, depending upon the show attendance. Mothertongue cannot guarantee an amount of money that will be raised from any given show. Donations to beneficiary organizations have ranged from $100 to $500 hundred dollars. 4. beneficiary organizations are welcome to have an information table at the show, sign up volunteers, request interns, or share information about the important work you do. 5. if organizations cannot provide someone to be present on the night of the show (usually the third Wednesday of each month), they can provide information that will be made available at the show. 6. as the result of a strategic planning process, mothertongue no longer funds individual artists. 7. The beneficiary must be a community-based nonprofit organization (or project of a nonprofit organization) that improves the lives of women and/or girls in the metro DC area. 8. The beneficiary must work with or support women who are marginalized or historically oppressed. 9. The beneficiary must not actively oppose or denounce transgender people, lesbians, bisexuals or gay men. 10. The beneficiary must be nonpartisan and can never be a political candidate or party. 11. The beneficiary must not actively oppose a woman's right to choose to have an abortion. 12. The beneficiary must not require clients to be of a certain faith or learn about a particular faith in order to receive services. 13. The beneficiary must directly provide services to women in the community. 14. mothertongue prefers that the beneficiary have a small budget, defined as less than $1 million. 15. mothertongue gives preference to organizations that will help advertise mothertongue events and connect mothertongue with groups of women, particularly when reaching those women will help mothertongue to further diversify its audience and readers. 16. mothertongue prefers to work with or support organization that have a staff person who is able to facilitate the relationship with mothertongue. *this information is provided on the second page of the PDF application |
