BECAUSE OF HER
2026 Annual Celebration Thursday, September 17, 2026 University of Vermont Dudley H. Davis Center Celebrating the women who shape us, and how we carry it forward.
THE VERMONT WOMEN’S FUND WELCOMES Shabana Basij-Rasikh Founder of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) Featuring Emcee Shabnam Nolan & an introduction by Amber Arnold
TONIGHT’S PROGRAM INTRODUCTION FROM AMBER ARNOLD FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SUSU COMMUNITY FARM WELCOME FROM EMCEE SHABNAM NOLAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KING STREET CENTER REMARKS FROM STACIE FAGAN VICE PRESIDENT OF PHILANTHROPY, VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION REMARKS FROM EMILY BUSH DIRECTOR VERMONT WOMEN’S FUND KEYNOTE ADDRESS FROM SHABANA BASIJ-RASIKH CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT SCHOOL OF LEADERSHIP, AFGHANISTAN (SOLA) MODERATED Q&A WITH SHABANA BASIJ-RASIKH
THE CHANGE WE CREATE TOGETHER, BEGINS WITH THE WOMEN WHO INSPIRED US, AND CONTINUES WITH WHAT WE CHOOSE TO MAKE POSSIBLE FOR ONE ANOTHER. TONIGHT WE WILL: LOOK BACK, SHARE YOUR STORY, & CARRY IT FORWARD.
MEET OUR FEATURED GUEST:
SHABANA BASIJ-RASIKH Shabana Basij-Rasikh is the co-founder and president of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA). SOLA is the first and only boarding school for Afghan girls, operating in Kabul from 2016 through 2021 and the Taliban’s return to power. In August 2021, Shabana led the evacuation of her entire school community from Afghanistan to Rwanda, where SOLA reestablished its operations and its students resumed their studies; in 2024, SOLA expanded into the digital realm with the launch of SOLAx, a WhatsAppbased online academy with more than 20,000 learners. Shabana is a 2011 magna cum laude graduate of Middlebury College and holds a Master in Public Policy from Oxford University. In 2023, she received the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year award from the National Geographic Society.
CO-FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE SCHOOL OF LEADERSHIP, AFGHANISTAN (SOLA)
MEET OUR FEATURED GUEST:
SHABNAM NOLAN Shabnam Nolan is the Executive Director of King Street Center, a Burlington nonprofit that works alongside children and families to create opportunity, connection, and a stronger sense of belonging. Since joining King Street in 2021, she has led a period of significant growth and transformation, more than doubling the organization’s budget, expanding its reach from approximately 120 to 400 children and family members, and building a staff that more closely reflects the community it serves. For nearly two decades, Shabnam’s career has spanned public policy, advocacy, strategic communications, and nonprofitleadership. Before joining King Street, she held leadership roles at Voices for Vermont’s Children and the ACLU of Vermont. Throughout her career, she has worked to bring the experiences of people most affected by public decisions into the places where those decisions are made. Shabnam serves on the board of Common Good Vermont and has advised nonprofit, government, healthcare, and community leaders across the state. She lives in Montpelier with her husband and their three children.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF KING STREET CENTER
MEET OUR FEATURED GUEST:
AMBER ARNOLD Amber Arnold is the executive director of SUSU CommUNITY Farm, a 37 acre afroindigenous farm and Black archival sanctuary dedicated to land-based healing and ancestral remembrance. As a Black multiracial liberatory worker, her practice weaves together radical trauma healing, somatic work, and a Black womanist lens that honors the body as a vessel of both memory and liberation. Amber tends SUSU CommUNITY Farm as a living archive, a place where soil, story, and spirit converge to restore what displacement and extraction have tried to erase. Her work is an offering back to community: healing that is communal, embodied, and rooted in the land itself.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SUSU COMMUNITY FARM
VERMONT WOMEN’S FUND (VWF) was founded in 1994 and is a philanthropic resource dedicated to advancing gender equity and justice for women, girls, and Vermont communities. Every year, with guidance from the Women’s Fund Council, the fund makes grants to create positive economic and social change. It also works with partners to support initiatives to identify and close economic gaps and address the intersectionality of race and gender. Our definition of “women and girls” is inclusive of cis and trans women and girls, as well as non- binary people affected by gender oppression. Moreover, we recognize the disproportionate marginalization of the voices of BIPOC individuals in Vermont. Learn more at vermontwomensfund.org. The Women’s Fund is a component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation. We recognize their support of a thriving state as a champion sponsor of the Women’s Fund and this event.
VERMONT WOMEN’S FUND COUNCIL COUNCIL MEMBERS PLAY A HANDS-ON ROLE THROUGH MONTHLY MEETINGS AND COMMITTEE WORK FOCUSED ON GRANTS, OUTREACH, AND GOVERNANCE—HELPING DIRECT FUNDING AND STRENGTHEN COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS. IN THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIES, THEY RAISE AWARENESS, INFORM ALIGNED ORGANIZATIONS OF GRANT OPPORTUNITIES, AND SUPPORT EVENTS AND FUNDRAISING YEAR-ROUND.
THANK YOU:
ANDREA DION ALISON WHRITENOUR AMANDA COCHRANE CORINNE TANEY EMMA SPETT EVA ZARET HEATHER HENYON KATARINA LISAIUS KATHLEEN BURNS KINGSBURY KELLY SCANNELL LAURIE WOOD LUCY BRIGGS BARRETT SARA KERMENSKI SUJATA MOORTI TRACY KING
AND SO MANY OTHER INCREDIBLE WOMEN OVER THE YEARS WHO HAVE DEDICATED THEIR TIME, PASSION, AND EXPERTISE TO VWF.
2026 VWF GRANTEES THIS YEAR, VWF AWARDED $411,650 TO 46 NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS VERMONT IN RESPONSE TO $1.3 MILLION IN FUNDING REQUESTS. THIS MARKS THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF RECORD DEMAND FOR THE FUND. OUR 2026 GRANTEES INCLUDE: Alliance for Community Transformation, The Take Care Project: Advancing Menstrual Equity in Bennington County, Bennington - $11,250 AWARE, General Operating Support, Hardwick - $7,500 Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, Expanding the BEEC Early Career Environmental Educator Training Program, Brattleboro - $11,250 Capstone Community Action, General Operating Support, Barre - $15,000 Champlain College, Champlain College Single Parents Program Scholarships, Burlington - $7,500 Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO), General Operating Support, Burlington - $11,250 Champlain Valley Stars, Leveling the Playing Field: Expanding Access & Leadership for Cheerleaders in Addison County, Monkton - $7,500 Community Asylum Seekers Project, General Operating Support, Brattleboro - $7,500 Dismas of Vermont, General Operating Support for Women’s Dismas House, Hyde Park $15,000 Education Justice Coalition of Vermont, Youth Organizing: Building Justice and Equity Minded Youth Leaders, Burlington - $11,250 Ethiopian Community Development Council, General Operating Support, Bennington and Brattleboro - $7,500 Families Flourish Northeast, Families Flourish Northeast, Statewide; Windsor County $11,250
Girls Empowered, Motivated, Strengthened (GEMS), General Operating Support, Randolph - $4,000 Governor's Institutes of Vermont, Supporting Tuition Assistance for ~325 Women and General Operating Support, Winooski - $5,000 Green Mountain Birth Center, General Operating Support, Johnson - $15,000 Green Mountain Camp, General Operating Support, Dummerston - $7,500 Green Mountain United Way, Working Bridges Program Delivery, Barre - $11,250 Habitat for Aviation, General Operating Support, Swanton - $7,500 Hannah's House, Expand Capacity of Mental Health Services in Central Vermont, Waitsfield - $7,500 HatchSpace, Teaching Trades Skills to Southern Vermont Women Through HatchSpace Rosie’s Girls Camps and Woodworking for Women Courses, Brattleboro $11,250 Jenna's Promise, Jenna's Promise Workforce Development Support, Johnson - $11,250 Kidpower Vermont, General Operating Support, North Ferrisburgh - $7,500 King Street Center, Academic & Career Exploration (ACE): Year-Round Economic Pathways for Young Women, Burlington - $11,250 NewStory Center, General Operating Support, Rutland - $7,500 Northeast Kingdom Community Action, First Steps Forward NEK Pilot Program, Newport - $11,250 Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, General Operating Support, Burlington - $7,500 Prevent Child Abuse Vermont, General Operating Support, Montpelier - $7,500 Project Against Violent Encounters, General Operating Support, Bennington - $7,500 Public Assets Institute, Women and Girls First Policy Prescription, Montpelier - $11,250
Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire, Upper Valley Reproductive Access Support, Statewide; Orange County; Windsor County - $11,250 River Gallery School, Empowering Futures: Advancing Creative Career Pathways: Year Two, Brattleboro - $9,400 Rowley Wrench, General Operating Support, Milton - $7,500 Safeline, Launching Phoebe’s Place, Chelsea - $11,250 Sage Mountain Botanical Sanctuary, Afterschool in Nature, East Barre - $11,250 Springfield Area Parent Child Center, General Operating Support, North Springfield $7,500 Steps to End Domestic Violence, General Operating Support, Burlington - $7,500 The PhotoBridge Project, Voices from the Land: A Vermont Photo Storytelling Portfolio Advancing Economic Security for Women Farmworkers, Colchester - $11,250 The Safety Team, A Sustainable Violence Prevention Initiative: Empowerment SelfDefense and Teacher Training at Burlington High School, South Burlington - $7,000 Turning Point Center of Central Vermont, Women-Centered, Peer-Based Recovery Programming, Barre - $11,250 Umbrella, General Operating Support, St. Johnsbury - $7,500 Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance, VOW(W): Vermont Outdoors Women at Work, Middlebury - $11,250 Vermont Professionals of Color Network, General Operating Support, South Burlington - $7,500 Vermont Works for Women, General Operating Support, Winooski - $15,000
THANK YOU TO OUR 2026 CONNECTOR SPONSORS
JOIN US IN SUPPORTING VERMONT’S WOMEN AND GIRLS! 1. Send a text to: +1 (325) 603-3395 2. In the message field, type: vwf26 3. Click on the link in the reply text to go to our secure giving page. 4. Make your donation. Note: You may choose to donate anonymously or have your name displayed on screen.
THANK YOU TO OUR 2026 PARTNER SPONSORS
THANK YOU TO OUR 2026 EVENT LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE:
DANA DONALDSON LAUREN GEIGER SUSAN MCCASLIN SUSAN RITZ NANCY ANDERSON CINDY CHAR ALI HARTMAN MEG SMITH
OUR FOUNDERS THANK YOU TO THE HUNDRES OF INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS THAT BELIEVED IN EMPOWERING VERMONT’S WOMEN AND GIRLS.
WE’RE HERE TODAY BECAUSE OF THEM. AND BECAUSE OF YOU.
WHAT COULD WE CHANGE IF WE INVESTED IN WOMEN AND GIRLS TOGETHER? Follow us: @VTWOMENSFUND Subscribe to our Newsletter Donate: Text vwf26 to +1 (325) 603-3395