News Orleans Giving Circle Awards Grant to School Children

Several students in New Orleans have a better opportunity at being successful academically and economically thanks to grants provided by the Zawadi of New Orleans giving circle.

Zawadi, which means “gift” in Swahili, held its first grant-making celebration last December. The circle presented two grants totaling $10,000. A $5,000 grant was given to the UNO-Medard Nelson Charter School for four students to have a year of intensive math tutoring. The other grant, also for $5,000, was awarded to Agenda for Children to start a prosperity club (savings program for low-income individuals). The event was free and open to the public and featured a cake auction, which raised more than $300.

According to Christine Jordan, the circle leader, the company for which she works, Entergy Corporation, gave $6,000 to provide scholarships for six more students. The Kumon Learning Center also donated a scholarship so that a total of 11 students will benefit from grants, she said.

Zawadi of New Orleans was created in 2005. The circle’s mission is to cultivate and leverage resources to affect long-term positive change in the quality of life for people of African descent in the New Orleans area. Most of the 13 members were forced to relocate after Hurricane Katrina, but they were all committed enough to stay in touch with one another and stay the course of building the circle.

Jordan, along with her friend and colleague Ivette Smythe-Macaulay started the circle because both felt they should be doing more for the community. When they heard the story about Osceola McCarthy, the African American washwoman who donated $150,000 to the University of Mississippi for scholarships for black students, it turned up the fire on their enthusiasm. “I’d had so many conversations with friends about all the things wrong with New Orleans that I wanted to take a more active role in becoming part of the solution,” Jordan said. “Ivette and I first heard about giving circles in 2004 at a regional conference on black philanthropy in Baton Rogue and we became excited about the concept.

“Ivette and I began brainstorming about how we could convince other people to join a giving circle. We thought we were going to face a lot of apathy and possibly even opposition. As it turned out, I was at the home of another friend with about seven other women, and in just the course of the conversation I mentioned that Ivette and I were trying to figure out how to start a circle. They asked what we were waiting for and said,’Let’s do it!’ So, within a week or two, we had our first meeting.”

Members of Zawadi are very talented, Jordan added, and consist of writers, visual artists, musicians, etc. She is interested in building all of that creativity into the way the circle operates. “We’re beginning to do that now in some of the fund-raising ideas we’re developing. People are coming up with some innovative ways to build a better New Orleans, and I really hope that Zawadi can find its niche and become one of those innovative forces that will help the black community thrive.”

As of yet, Zawadi has not received much feedback from the community and it’s primarily because the circle has encountered a roadblock in getting the grant funds distributed to its awardees. Jordan said the Mississippi Secretary of State decided post-Katrina that all non-profits receiving grants from the Foundation for the Mid-South must first register with the Secretary of State’s office. “This is especially problematic for New Orleans organizations, since many of them are still dealing with numerous recovery-related issues; it is yet another time-consuming hurdle. We’re trying to help our grant recipients cross this hurdle and there’s a good chance that in the near future we may solve the problem by moving our fund to a host in Louisiana.”

Jordan said she is excited about the future of Zawadi and all of the possibilities open to the circle. “I’d like to see our members who want to return to New Orleans be able to come home. Also, I hope that as more of our members get re-settled, we’ll not only give grants but increase our support to the community by offering our time, expertise and contacts. We’re having a strategic planning session this fall and I anticipate the circle making some decisions about the direction we will take.”

Linda Powell-Jones is a freelance writer, photographer and proofreader in Raleigh, NC.