The Lloyd Family Legacy Campaign Launches at WILPF US!

By Laura Dewey
Detroit Branch

May 2024

Editor’s note: This article is originally from the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of Peace & Freedom magazine. Read the entire issue here.

These are exciting times for WILPF! Thanks to the generosity of Robin Lloyd, “platinum donor” and long-time loyal WILPF member, WILPF has a tremendous opportunity to gain more strategic leadership, increased momentum and greater identity visibility.

The Lloyd Family Legacy Campaign (LFLC), launched in Robin’s honor, will bring much-needed funds to help move our organization forward — just in time for our 110th anniversary. The main goals of the campaign are to make WILPF more sustainable, and to bring us higher visibility with greater impact in the peace movement.

Robin’s gift will be used to anchor a campaign to solicit additional funds from current and new major donors over the next several years. As Robin explains, “Now, at the end of my life, I wish to create a legacy that will invigorate WILPF for the next generation. That’s why I am making this gift now to WILPF.”

Investing in WILPF

In October 2023, the LFLC Committee* laid out a sustainability plan and presented it to the Board, which approved it in December. Most of Robin’s funds will be used to hire an Executive Director, a position that has remained unfilled since 2008. Volunteer leadership at WILPF remains critical, but in a more competitive nonprofit environment, we need an accomplished professional leader with fundraising experience, gravitas, and solid nonprofit financial expertise, who can inspire cohesive program planning and outreach strategies while helping carry out Board policy, supervising staff, and relieving the Board of some of their day-to-day administrative work.

An Executive Director will also guarantee institutional memory and consistency throughout changes in Board terms. The search for an Executive Director has begun. The goal is to have a talented, organized, and energetic person on board by fall 2024, in plenty of time before our current President’s term ends, for a smooth transition.
In addition to funding this new position, The Lloyd Family Legacy Campaign will enable WILPF to undertake a re-envisioning process, with the goal of appealing to younger generations through a strong activist identity. The membership will be encouraged to participate in this process at several points, with input and advice about how best to invigorate our image, reframe our programming, and retool our communications, including social media.

A third component of the LFLC is the hiring of professional staff to help develop programs, improve communications, and develop fundraising strategies. To grow our capacity, if we can raise additional dollars to enhance Robin’s gift, field organizers will be hired to build new branches and strengthen existing ones. This third phase will be dependent on the success of garnering additional large donations in the name of the LFLC.

The Courage to Act

Robin’s connection to WILPF runs deep. Her grandmother, Lola Maverick Lloyd, was among the more than 1,000 suffragists who attended the 1915 peace meeting at The Hague, going on to co-found WILPF. A very short list of Robin’s activism reads like a history of the peace and justice movement: She co-founded the Burlington, Vermont, Peace and Justice Center in 1979, campaigned for a nuclear weapons freeze in the 1980s, traveled on the peace train from Helsinki, Finland to Beijing, China, to attend the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, was arrested in 2005 at Fort Benning for protesting the School of the Americas, participated in the World Social Forums in the 2000s, and more.

A devoted WILPF member, Robin has served as a board member, chair of the Development Committee, and co-chair of the Disarm Committee, and she continues to lead the Burlington Branch. Of her trip to Beijing, Robin says, “During that journey, I realized that we were crossing borders, for peace, just as our foremothers had done in 1915 to try to bring peace to a warring world. And that WILPF women have been taking such courageous actions time and time again.”

Robin’s courage, and that of so many WILPF activists, has made WILPF a powerful voice for 109 years. What the future brings is unknown, but Robin’s legacy will help keep WILPF strong, sustainable, and effective into the future.

* Marybeth Gardam, Martha Collins, Laura Dewey, and Jane Sloane constituted the initial planning team, which was later expanded to include Chris Morin, Betty Burkes, Nancy Price and Cindy Domingo.