Donations

Appeal from the Executive Director

Fundraising has been excruciatingly difficult—not to say impossible. (Requesting money to teach math to low-income and/or minority women is rather like requesting money to teach Attic Greek to goldfish so that they can read Thucydides in the original!) We used to think that grant makers and potential donors didn’t want to waste their money on a problem that wasn’t really a problem: after all, aren’t females supposed to be bad at math.
Now, after a number of our students has debunked that myth with a variety of academic and professional achievements, we’re beginning to believe that the obstacle might not so much be a belief that females can’t do math as a fear of what would happen if females were able to add math to our panoply of abilities.

We’ve received some support over the years, but the preponderance of Helicon, Inc.’s operating expenses (for such activities as: testing, teaching, developing curricula and instructional materials, providing technical assistance to various organizations, recruiting students, networking, development, public relations, etc.) has been underwritten by the Executive Director working a succession of part-time jobs.
(Some of the more interesting jobs were: census worker, clinical trials participant, data entry clerk, database designer, election day poll worker, focus group member, lifeguard tournament official, mass-mailing consultant, math tutor, office temporary worker, pet sitter, and substitute teacher.)
Last year (July 1, 2004 – June 30, 2005), 445 women and 123 men attended 232 Female Math, Female Physics, and Mothers as Math Mentors (M3) classes and workshops at 10 locations around New York City. That’s a lot for one person to do all by herself. (Actually, she can’t do it all. The summer 2005 Female Math Course, for which a number of women had registered with the idea of preparing themselves for participation in some academic or occupational program in the fall, had to be cancelled due to lack of money.)

We really need your support—in any amount you can spare!

SUPPORTERS

We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals and organizations:

Carl Martínez
Gene T. Gunn Company
John F. Gunn
Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund
M. L. Thomas
Michael T.
Open Meadows Foundation
Patricia E. O’Connell
Sanford North America
Valerie Thomas Marshall

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We are currently accepting donations. Please follow the link below. Thank you in advance!

A copy of our IRS 501(c)(3) is available upon request.

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