I just got home from the Giving List Women "Doing It Differently" Summit, held at Hill House in Montecito — an exceptionally beautiful, architecturally visionary home that set the tone for everything that happened inside it. I'm still thinking about it all.
For three days, philanthropists, activists, nonprofit leaders and entrepreneurs came together around a single question: what becomes possible when we intentionally direct our capital — our money, our networks, our time — toward women and girls? I went as a panelist. I came home with new friends, a notebook full of ideas, and a plan I didn't have when I arrived.
A thank you to Gwyn Lurie
Gwyn dreamed this up, and what she built is exceptional. I don't use that word lightly. From the moment I walked in I could feel something real was happening — not the usual conference energy, but actual trust, urgency and possibility. She held the space for us, and that's not a small thing to do.
The panel
On Friday afternoon I joined a plenary called "Investing in Women = Investing in Humanity," moderated by Janine Firpo of Invest for Better. I was on stage with Sheila Lirio Marcelo, who founded Care.com and now Ohai.ai, and Jane Wurwand, who co-founded Dermalogica. The framing was great: she who has the dough has the mojo. Philanthropy is part of the conversation, but lasting change requires the full spectrum of capital.
I shared a bit of my own story. I built LA LOOP for 25 years outside the venture-backed model, growing through trust and long-term relationships with small partners around the world. And now, at 55, I'm investing intentionally for the first time, through a fund focused on women. It was the first time I'd said that publicly, and it mattered to say it there.
Voices I'm still carrying with me
Leymah Gbowee, the Liberian Nobel Peace Laureate whose women's peace movement helped end a civil war, asked the room a question that stopped me: "Does the bullet know the difference between a Christian woman and a Muslim woman?" When we sort ourselves into camps — by faith, by party, by class — we lose sight of who we should be standing with. Her challenge: stop building walls between women and start showing up for the communities we're already in.
Teresa C. Younger, President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, talked about the champions already at work in our communities — the organizers, educators, caregivers, small nonprofit leaders — and how rarely our money actually makes it to them. Her point was simple: invest in the people already doing the work.
Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs, author of The Three Mothers and Erased, told the story behind her first book. The Three Mothers is about Alberta King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin — the women who raised Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin. Three Black women, born within years of each other, raising sons during some of the most violent decades in American history. Their intellect, faith and fierce love shaped the men whose names we all know — and yet their own names were almost completely erased. Anna's point landed hard: those sons were who they were because of their mothers. The leaders of tomorrow are being raised right now by women whose names we are once again at risk of forgetting.
María Teresa Kumar, founder and CEO of Voto Latino, spoke to the line between civic power and economic power. You can't separate the right to be counted from the right to be funded.
Katie Marquart, partner and Pro Bono Chair at Gibson Dunn, who launched the firm's Justice for Women and Girls initiative, reminded me what's possible when an institution decides to put its full weight — legal expertise, networks, dollars — behind women and girls. Healthcare access, educational equity, economic empowerment, violence prevention. Built into how the firm operates.
Sophie Grégoire Trudeau spoke about self-esteem and confidence in girls — about how the messages girls absorb in childhood shape every decision they make later, and how much our role as women is to model the worth we want them to grow up believing they have. It was honest and specific in a way that's stayed with me.
And so many more. Conversations I'm still unpacking.
Loop In
There's one part of this Summit that meant the world to me personally.
Loop In is LA LOOP's social good initiative. The idea is simple: a LA LOOP is a small, beautifully made object, and when a community of people wears one, it becomes a quiet thread that connects them. For this Summit, I donated a LA LOOP for every attendee, with each woman's name badge clipped on.
For three days, philanthropists, activists, nonprofit leaders, founders, lawyers, foundation heads and Nobel Laureates all wore the same loop. Watching that thread move through the room — through every conversation and every introduction — I was very proud of what LA LOOP is becoming.
What I'm taking home
The women who hold capital in this country aren't yet sharing what they know with each other the way the men in our networks are. We aren't pooling our knowledge, our deal flow or our courage. That has to change, and it has to change on purpose.
I'm already at work on a plan to bring this conversation into my Henry Crown Fellowship cohort — to connect women investors and leaders, answer questions, break down barriers and help each other intentionally direct capital toward women and girls. The Summit gave me the language and the network to think this big.
Thank you to Gwyn and the entire Giving List Women team. Thank you to every woman I met. And to everyone who wore a LA LOOP for those three days that meant more than you know.
