It started off as a small idea – a donation drive to support a local organization – and quickly expanded into multiple drives across the country.   

The AIS Women’s Network began in October 2018 as a small group of 10 individuals and quickly grew to 54 members strong.  To support part of our mission, we set out to lead an effort to help a local charitable organization. But it quickly became apparent that the logistics of multiple offices across the country supporting one organization wasn’t an easy task. But through these challenges grew an even better idea: Why not support multiple organizations? 

This month, the AIS Women’s Network launched the AIS Community Drives. Thanks to the hard work and creativity of each local office lead, AIS was able to support five worthy organizations across Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas. Each organization received non-perishable foods, household, paper, baby and personal hygiene products, plus gift cards, monetary donations, and many more items! 

[pullquote]“Everyone got extremely creative in finding ways to gain participation in their offices – from Pi Day in Dayton [Ohio], to an ice cream social in Reston [Virginia] to soliciting User Group members in Raleigh [North Carolina]!  It is this kind of out-of-the-box thinking that made this event a great success!” 

 -AIS Women’s Network Member [/pullquote]

The donations collected went to five worthy organizations, each one local to an AIS office, including:

• Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center, a multi-service crisis intervention center in Columbia, Maryland that provides 24-hour crisis intervention services, emergency, and transitional shelter, and community education. (You can read more about our work with Grassroots here and here.)
• LINK, Inc., a nonprofit charity that provides emergency food to people in need in the Herndon, Sterling, and Ashburn communities in Virginia.
• Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, a nonprofit organization that has provided food for people at risk of hunger in a 34-county service area for over 35 years.
• Feed the Creek, an organization that provides food for children in the Beavercreek, Ohio area in order to reduce childhood hunger and promote healthier bodies, minds, relationships, and grades.
• Austin SAFE Alliance, a human service agency in Austin, Texas serving the survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and exploitation, and domestic violence.

[pullquote]“Thanks for your support! You are now classified as a ‘go-to donor’.” 

  -Monteith Mitchell, Grassroots 

 “It’s just what we needed…thank you, thank you, thank you!” 

 – Joe Kruse, Grassroots [/pullquote]

Please visit the links above to learn more about the incredible work these organizations do across our AIS communities! 

The mission of the AIS Women’s Network is to unify and organize those who are interested in empowering the women of AIS, by way of creating a nurturing community in which they can develop and foster their leadership, technical, and professional skills.