United WE Donor Feature: Ebony Reed
When United WE CEO Wendy Doyle met Ebony Reed on an airplane flying back to Kansas City in early 2020, she quickly knew she wanted to recruit her to serve on United WE’s board of directors. As New Audiences Chief of The Wall Street Journal, Ebony led many projects at the intersection of gender, which included writing and editing the Journal’s Women In newsletter. Ebony joined United WE’s board in January 2021 and hit the ground running by supporting the We Work for Change event and co-leading board recruitment efforts.
“I’m proud to be a board member to strategically support United WE’s inclusive mission of advocating for women’s economic and civic leadership and opportunity,” said Ebony. “This urgent work is nonpartisan and is at the heart of some of the most significant change and calls for change that we are seeing in society right now.”
As a journalist and co-author of the forthcoming book, “The Black Dollar”, some of the top policy areas of concern for Ebony are pay equity, workplace opportunity and entrepreneurship. “All of these areas have a significant impact on women’s financial equity and are linked to legislative changes and challenges, so that underscores the importance of United WE’s growing work with the Appointments Project.”
Ebony has held other board positions in Boston, New England and journalism industry nonprofit boards, but right now she is focusing all of her nonprofit time on United WE. Ebony is currently on book leave from The Wall Street Journal to write “The Black Dollar'' with fellow journalist Louise Story, which is focused on the economic systems and intersections of race with Black Americans over time in this country. The book is a mix of history, statistics and multi-generational personal stories.
She also recently decided to make an impact on future generations of women by making a gift to United WE in her estate plan and joining United WE’s Legacy Society.
“I’ve had a lot of time lately to think about the impact I want to make with my life and how I want to help future generations. When we think about the fact that we all only have a finite amount of time in this life on this earth, it makes it really clear that making a contribution to a mission-focused organization that will use those funds for the betterment of the community is the right thing to do. Better outcomes for women mean better outcomes for our broader society.”
Thank you, Ebony, for your incredible leadership and support to empower women! We invite you to join Ebony as a founding member of our Legacy Society by including United WE in your estate plan. An estate gift is an easy way to make an impact and can be as simple as designating United WE as beneficiary of a life insurance policy or retirement plan. Estate gifts can be any amount that is meaningful to you! If you have already included United WE in your estate plan and have not yet notified us of your intention, please let us know so we can recognize your legacy as a founding member. Contact Angie Heer, Chief Development Officer at cdo@united-we.org or 816.988.2007 for further information.
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Ebony Reed accepts a Legacy Society Founding Member recognition piece from former Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri and United WE Change Campaign Honorary Chair, Sly James. Founding Members received a framed photo of the Fearless Girl statue from Wall Street engraved with their name and the title “Fearless.”