Donna Garske Social Transformation Legacy Fund
“Leave a Legacy of Joy and Justice”
In recognition of Donna’s innumerable contributions to C4DP, Marin County and the country, C4DP’s Board of Directors has established the Donna Garske Social Transformation Legacy Fund (Legacy Fund) in honor of her 44 years of service to end domestic violence. At Donna’s request, donor designated gifts toward the Legacy Fund will be restricted to help ensure sustainability of programs that help prevent gender-based violence and to support the cultivation of social transformation strategies in all aspects of the organization’s work and services. The Legacy Fund is a long-term investment in which the principal balance remains untouched and only the interest and dividends generated are used. Knowing that prevention work is often the first to be cut when state and federal funding is tight, Donna’s hope is that the day will come when a percentage of the annual interest earnings will support a full-time staff position to carry out the community change work that is so important to her.
For more details on how you can put your donor giving funds to work toward “catalyzing and contributing to the community effort to end the violence,” contact Marla Hedlund, Development Officer, [email protected] or call 415.526.2543.
Click here to donate to the fund today!
The Spirit of Donna Garske
Donna Garske served as Center for Domestic Peace’s (C4DP) Executive Director for 44 years from 1979 to 2024. Donna was drawn to the organization, known originally as Marin Abused Women’s Services (MAWS), because of its statement of purpose at the time. In Donna’s words, “it only took 11 words to change the direction of my life.” In addition to the organization’s commitment to providing services to those impacted by domestic violence, MAWS had set a bold vision for itself from the very beginning through its commitment to “catalyze and contribute to the community effort to end the violence.”
Donna’s passion to end violence against women and girls set in motion a direction for her career that she could not have imagined. She was one of the first pioneers in the domestic violence and sexual assault fields to develop a prevention framework and implement ground level community prevention strategies. She was at the forefront of defining theory and practice for gender-based prevention, including her groundbreaking advocacy to define domestic violence through the lens of social movement theory and the public health framework. She was selected by the Gimbel Foundation as a national violence prevention scholar and appointed to President Clinton’s Violence Against Women Task Force committee on prevention and social norm change.
