PBN BUSINESS WOMEN AWARDS 2020 INDUSTRY LEADER, SOCIAL SERVICES/NONPROFIT: Kelly Nevins | Women’s Fund of Rhode Island
KELLY NEVINS COLORFULLY summarizes Women’s Fund of Rhode Island’s focus: “If we’re not at the table, we’re likely on the menu.”
The Providence-based organization’s mission is to invest in women and girls through research, advocacy, grant-making and strategic partnerships designed to achieve gender equity through systemic change.
“It’s really important to ensure women’s voices … are being consulted,” said Nevins, Women’s Fund executive director. Although new to advocacy when she joined the organization in 2016, Nevins became a key player in focusing on reproductive rights and economic issues.
Those efforts bore fruit. The organization pushed for the Healthy and Safe Families and Workplace Act, which excludes government and other public-entity employees and per diem nurses, mandates paid sick time off for employees in workplaces of 18 employees or more and unpaid sick time for those in smaller workplaces.
The act covers full-time, part-time, temporary and seasonal workers, which is particularly vital as the state mires in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“It gave over 67,000 Rhode Islanders access to earn paid sick time off per year who previously didn’t have that,” Nevins said.
Getting the Reproductive Privacy Act, which codified the legal right to abortion in Rhode Island, through the R.I. General Assembly “was a high point … such a challenge and uphill battle to achieve,” Nevins said. According to Nevins and based on R.I. Department of Health data, there were 497,626 Rhode Island women of childbearing age in 2019. The Reproductive Privacy Act guarantees women the freedom to make their own reproductive decisions.
Nevins’ fundraising finesse has allowed Women’s Fund to relaunch the Women’s Policy Institute, a free nine-month program that trains a diverse cohort of women to make positive legislative changes.
“We put real effort into fundraising to hire a facilitator and get the program revamped. It creates a pipeline of advocates in Rhode Island,” said Ellie Brown, Women’s Fund development director. Recruitment is currently underway for the next cohort, which begins in September.
‘I still feel very challenged by the work that we need to do on behalf of women in Rhode Island.’
Kelly Nevins, Women’s Fund of Rhode Island executive director
Not only has Nevins raised the organization’s statewide visibility through quarterly networking events such as “Cocktails and Conversations,” she increased Women’s Fund’s funding by 61% from 2017 to 2019 – bringing the annual budget to over $360,000. Dozens of fundraising and development professionals share their COVID-19-related concerns and ideas in the weekly “peer-support calls” that Nevins spearheads.
Nevins believes the pandemic offers the community an opportunity to reimagine the economic community.
“Avoiding a return to business as usual will be a challenge; we should rethink things. … We, as a society, need to step up and say: ‘We need to pay people a living wage and make sure they are safe, providing them with health benefits, sick days.’ Society should make these issues a priority now and in the future,” Nevins said.
With 60% of women in the state workforce occupying the 40 lowest-paying jobs, there’s a huge population of women working jobs that pay neither a living wage nor offer benefits.
“These are people on the front lines. We’ve been saying: ‘You’re not worth it.’ This is what we want to change,” said Nevins, who loves collaborating with Women’s Fund allies and bringing new financial resources to bear to improve women’s lives. “It’s all about moving the ball forward.”
Under Nevins’ leadership, Women’s Fund will receive the 2020 National Association of Secretaries of State Medallion Award, thanks to a nomination from R.I. Secretary of State Nellie M. Gorbea.
Not only does Nevins serve as a New Leaders’ Council mentor, she also values her “personal board of directors” for guidance. As chair of the Chapter Inclusion, Diversity & Access Committee at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Rhode Island chapter, vice chair for the Rhode Island Coalition for Reproductive Freedom and a member of Providence’s Equal Pay Task Force, among other affiliations, Nevins has opportunities to demonstrate her leadership style.
“It’s collaborative … I believe I am a connector in the community, often looking to put people and ideas together. I still feel very challenged by the work that we need to do on behalf of women in Rhode Island,” Nevins said. “We have a long way to go to achieve equality and I am confident that I will be actively engaged in that work for a long time.”
