Happy new year! We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and that 2012 brings us all good health and happiness.

There will be more excitement at the Women's Fund this year as we approach the time when all 2011 Women's Fund members get to vote on where our grants pool (funds collected during 2011) will be awarded this spring.

Here are some important dates for you to note on your calendars:

On March 19, ballots featuring the candidates for 2011-12 Women's Fund grants will be mailed to 2011 members. You'll have until April 7 to vote for the agencies you would like to see receive our grants in April. (Next month we'll tell you how much we have to award!)

Our annual Presentation of Funds Luncheon will be Monday, April 30 at the Doubletree. This is the exciting event where our 2011 members gather to celebrate our new 2011-12 agency grantees. These nonprofits will join the 39 other agencies who have received more than $3 million in Women's Fund grants since 2004.

Last May, Women's Fund members selected three issues on which to focus our 2011 research efforts. The research issues are (1) Children, Youth and Family Services; (2) Housing, Hunger and Poverty; and (3) Senior and Aging Issues.

Since then, the all-volunteer Research Committee has been working diligently to identify non-profits in south SB County for which a grant of $50,000 or more in these areas could have a transformative impact on the lives of vulnerable women, children and families in our community.

From over 200 potential agencies, researchers are in the final stages of narrowing the list of programs that invited non-profits have presented for consideration on this year's ballot.

In summer and fall, the Committee welcomed a number of experts from community foundations and governmental agencies to provide a local context for the areas of need, in addition to educating researchers about how to evaluate potential grantees and identifying critical gaps that Women's Fund support might fill.

When individual and group members receive their ballots in March, they'll also receive access to on-line supplemental materials the Research Committee has prepared on each of this year's three focus areas that incorporates what was learned.

Questions? info@womensfundsb.org