The Little Black Dress Initiative A Fundraising Superstar Arrives in Washington

Julia Rosenthal

This year, the Junior League of Washington (JLW) piloted a popular fundraising campaign called the Little Black Dress Initiative (LBDI).

The Junior League of London launched the first LBDI in 2014 as a week-long awareness and online fundraising campaign focused on promoting conversation about the experience of poverty. LBDI volunteers are called advocates, and they participate by wearing the same black outfit for five consecutive days to illustrate the limitations poverty forces on women’s access to resources, their confidence, and advancement opportunities. Each advocate is able to internalize the experience to gain a personal understanding of this aspect of poverty and share her realizations, along with statistics about poverty in the region, to raise awareness on social media.

In addition to spreading the message, advocates also leverage their networks to raise funds for a designated cause. JLW’s cause for support this year during LBDI was the Community Assistance Fund (CAF). The CAF was formed in May 2020 as part of JLW’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and had already distributed over $80,000 in grants. Any 501(c)(3) registered organization serving the DMV region and providing community support was eligible to receive funding through CAF.

Christina Tunison, Committee Chair for Innovation & Incubation, took charge of LBDI’s inaugural year in Washington, DC, and tapped Michele Webster to be the LBDI Project Lead. Webster had transferred JLW President Jessica Taylor White sports her little black mask.

from San Diego, a Junior League that previously implemented LBDI to great success, and had friends who participated as advocates. Prior to accepting the Project Lead position, Webster did her due diligence by meeting with the LBDI Committee Chair from San Diego to gain a deeper understanding of how the initiative is designed to work in a non-pandemic year, in order to better adapt it to COVID-19 times. Once fully on board, she continued coordinating with LBDI Committee Chairs from other Leagues, utilizing the Junior League Exchange for LBDI on Facebook.

Last summer, the team held a Zoom meeting with other Junior Leagues across the country who were also planning to host LDBI this year. After acknowledging this year’s participation would need to be entirely virtual, the cohort discussed how to translate the visual impact of the black dress, essential to the LBDI concept, to a socially distanced pandemic environment. The cohort decided that advocates would be provided with LBDI little black facemasks, to assist their effort in inviting dialogue about the initiative’s message.

The Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) supports LBDI implementation by providing interested Leagues with a range of training materials and tools, such as templates and other resources, that can be modified according to the needs of the particular league. Throughout the planning process, Webster collaborated heavily with the Junior League of Atlanta, which started LBDI in the U.S. and was instrumental in forming what LBDI looks like now, as well as the Junior League of Philadelphia, which made its own tool kit available on the Facebook Exchange.

Starting in late November 2020 through January 2021, Tunison and Webster went to work promoting LBDI around JLW with the purpose of recruiting advocates. They attended JLW committee events to bring attention to the initiative, and on January 19, 2021, organized a Zoom training for 80 members, who were curious enough to register, indicating early on the broad appeal of this event format. Tunison and the team led the attendees in a detailed review of the toolkit, including communication templates and instructions for setting up their fundraising pages on Givebutter, an online fundraising platform.

LBDI was held between Monday, February 1 and Friday, February 5. Both JLW and member advocates posted on their social media accounts facts and images, as well as a selfie of themselves in their outfit or mask under the hashtag #LDBI to raise awareness.

JLW’s LBDI efforts were launched with the goal to expand and encourage a culture of philanthropy among JLW members by raising money for the CAF. According to Tunison, “CAF was integral to how well the event did this year. Our community and its people are in need. The generous support for nonprofits who are working directly with the people in need spoke to the giving hearts of Junior League members.”

The JLW LBDI organizers worked hard to ensure participating as an advocate would be easy and not impose on members’ busy schedules. It is their hope that even more JLW members will join the effort next year.

Junior Leagues are always interested in new and innovative approaches to fundraising, and programs that prove effective are embraced and become popular. In LBDI’s first year in DC, 55 advocates raised 615 donations from 495 unique donors, which amounted to $29,251.19 in total. The LBDI event has been a resounding, unequivocal success for JLW that significantly surpassed its fundraising goals. Everyone involved did a wonderful job and truly exceeded all expectations. We all hope this year’s event is the beginning of a wonderful tradition for JLW that fundraises for community organizations and fosters critical dialogue about poverty.

Michele’s Webster’s smile is infectious, even behind her mask! Laisha Dougherty shows off her little black dress!