Wealthy Women Blurring the Line Between Donors and Activists

[boston bean]

LONDON — On a balmy morning in May 2007, Annie Lennox was in her west London garden, drinking tea with her right-hand woman Tara Goldsmid and Claire Lewis, who runs celebrity ambassadors for the charity Oxfam.

They were brainstorming about a new female forum the former Eurythmics star wanted to create. Something global. Something long-term. Something connecting women who have it all with women who have barely anything.

What would such a group be called? They joked: A flock of women? A school of women? A pride? A mob? “I know,” Ms. Lennox cried. “A circle! No sharp edges, no hierarchy, just a circle of women.”

Less than a year later, The Circle was launched as an intimate web of 16 influential women that has grown into a network of 150-plus, raising more than £1.1 million, or $1.72 billion, for women’s projects around the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/world/europe/annie-lennox-blurring-the-line-between-donor-and-activist.html?pagewanted=all

[sufrommich]

1. I love Annie Lennox . I guess I don't really care where

the money comes from for raising awareness about the sorry state of women in this world as long as the money comes.