Dear White House Project Supporter,

We are sorry to inform you that due to the challenging economic climate The White House Project has had to close its doors. But, our work will continue as it transitions to other organizations. For 14 years, The White House Project was a leading advocate and voice on women's leadership. The timeline below illuminates the various initiatives and programs you've supported to bring the issue of women's leadership to the American public. Thanks to each of YOU for your hard work, advocacy, volunteerism, donations and recruitment efforts since 1998. YOU are The White House Project.

Our mission to ignite the leadership of women in business and politics will continue through two organizations. Levo League will provide the skills, advice, and community that early career women need to get to the top, and Vote Run Lead is being launched as a new organization to continue the political leadership training. You will hear from these organizations in the coming weeks. To make an investment in the next generation of women leaders, we also encourage you to give to the following organzations: Running Start, Girls Who Code, and The Forte Foundation.

In our recent talk at TEDxWomen, our founder, Marie Wilson, and I reflected on leadership and transitions. Lesson #1: Know your role in the race. All of us at The White House Project are thankful for the leg you've helped us run in this race to increase the number of women in leadership. And we've now completed the task that all good leaders should - a successful passing of the baton. Go Levo League and Vote Run Lead!

In Sisterhood,

Tiffany Dufu
President

ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY

1998: A NEW MOVEMENT TO GET MORE WOMEN IN CHARGE
The White House Project is founded by Marie C. Wilson, former President of the Ms. Foundation for Women and co-creator of “Take Our Daughters to Work Day,” to enhance the public perception of women as leaders and to fill our nation's leadership pipeline with a richly diverse, critical mass of women.


1999: NATION VOTES FOR A WOMAN PRESIDENT FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH THE WHITE HOUSE PROJECT'S “20 WOMEN WHO COULD LEAD AMERICA”
In partnership with PARADE magazine and six other media outlets, The White House Project polled over 100,000 Americans to vote for the first woman president. “20 Women Who Could Lead” changed the public perception of women's capacity to serve as Commander-in-Chief. Voting for women like Hillary Clinton and Astronaut Mae Jemison, the country began to normalize women as our nation's foremost power players.


1999: CREATING A CULTURE OF WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP
Publishing research such as Framing Gender on the Campaign Trail: Women's Executive Leadership and the Press and the widely referenced Who's Talking?, The White House Project revealed previously unidentified gender biases. With Pipeline to the Future: Young Women and Political Leadership, The White House Project conducted the largest study on young women's political ambition, creating breakthrough strategies for reaching the nation's most untapped resource: women leaders.


2000: GIRLS ACROSS AMERICA CALL A JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS
The White House Project and Mattel launched “I Can Be” President Barbie in 2000 representing four ethnicities President Barbie was put into the hands of children everywhere to serve as a model of a female President. It simultaneously placed ideals that girls can be world leaders, too. President Barbie now runs every four years on a positive platform.


2002: “MS. PRESIDENT PATCH”
Girl Scouts USA and The White House Project created the “Ms. President Patch”, allowing tens of thousands of Girl Scouts to declare their political ambition.


2002: EPIC AWARDS CELEBRATE POSITIVE IMAGES OF FEMALE LEADERSHIP
The White House Project held the very first annual EPIC Awards Ceremony, with the goal of Enhancing Perceptions in Culture. Each year, EPIC honors the most relevant, timely and bold work in media and the women who serve as role models in pop culture. EPIC attracts icons in the industry such as singer Melissa Etheridge, Academy Award-winning actresses Meryl Streep and Geena Davis, publishing pioneer Susan Taylor and media mogul Gerry Laybourne. Honorees have included writer Sheryl WuDunn, activist and human rights pioneer Kiran Bedi, filmmaker Abby Disney, singer Jill Scott and many more.


2004: TWHP EMBARKS ON A 40-CITY TOUR LAUNCHING AWARD-WINNING VOTE, RUN, LEAD
In 2004, Marie C. Wilson toured the country with her seminal book Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World, simultaneously launching The White House Project's leadership development training, Vote, Run, Lead (VRL). Since its inception, VRL trained more than 14,000 women to be dynamic, ambitious, and authentic leaders, most of who have been historically underrepresented in our country's leadership. With offices in five cities, reaching in 15 states, VRL was the largest non-partisan political training program for women. Over 600 women have won office, and thousands more are transforming our leadership landscape.


2005: SHESOURCE PUTS FEMALE EXPERTS FRONT AND CENTER
Working with The Women's Funding Network and Fenton Communications, The White House Project once again altered the landscape of leaders in the U.S., launching SheSource.org, an online database of women experts who could be easily reached by journalists, producers and bookers. In just two years, the number of women on Sunday morning talk shows doubled from 9:1 to a 4:1 male-female ratio, far from parity, yet considerable progress since the release of Who's Talking? research four years earlier.


2006: TOP COMPANIES COME TOGETHER TO FORM TWHP’S CORPORATE COUNCIL
Comprised of 20 Fortune 500 companies and co-chaired by Susan Sobbott, head of OPEN at American Express, and Karyn Twaronite, partner at Ernst & Young, each member company identifies as an active agent of change in the corporate sector. With a commitment to refining and expanding women's leadership and management capacities, the Corporate Council lends its intellectual and social capital to the work of The White House Project.


2007: INTERNATIONAL SECURITY SUMMIT
The White House Project co-convened the International Women Leaders Global Security Summit in 2007, bringing 70 of the highest-level women leaders in from around the world, including Her Excellency Mary Robinson, heads of state and government, and 60 Ministers, Cabinet Members and foremost security experts to engage in a new discourse about global security. In partnership with The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, Women Leaders Intercultural Forum, and the Council of Women World Leaders, the Summit resulted in a global joint task force of women leaders.


2008: OPRAH MAGAZINE, AMERICAN EXPRESS AND TWHP TEAM UP FOR “O’S LIFE-CHANGING WEEKEND”
Over 3,000 women applied for 80 positions at The White House Project's innovative three-day training, Women Rule!. O, The Oprah Magazine featured a six-page spread of The White House Project and winners. The White House Project also announces “8 for 2008”, a media and online voting campaign that helps ready the country for female Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates. As a result, there was a surge in applicants for Vote, Run, Lead trainings and 135 alumnae ran for office.


2010: REVEALING RESEARCH-WOMEN HOLD ONLY 18% OF LEADERSHIP ACROSS TOP TEN SECTORS
The White House Project Report: Benchmarking Women's Leadership made headlines for The White House Project again as a wake-up call for the paucity of, and necessity for, women's voices in all industries. Receiving hundreds of press hits and utilized by corporations, universities, and organizations, Benchmarking Women's Leadership is the foremost comparative research on women's leadership. The research demonstrates the deep paradox between American's comfort level—over 90% of Americans welcome women as leaders—and the slow rate of our advancement.


2010: FEMALE LEADERS AND GRASSROOTS ACITIVISTS LEAD A NEW START
From Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the female-led U.S. nuclear negotiations team, to the 125 The White House Project expert-trained female leaders, our nation's security was leading with a female face in 2010. Together with Participant Media, The White House Project created the START Now Summit to harness the power of women's leadership in assuring our nation's safety for years to come by securing ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.


2011: TIFFANY DUFU BECOMES SECOND PRESIDENT OF THE WHITE HOUSE PROJECT
The White House Project ushers in a bold agenda for women's leadership, focused on igniting the leadership of early career women in business and politics. After training 14,000 women, The White House Project identifies the superstars and hones in on the leadership assets they consistently demonstrate, launching a new brand to ensure an entire new generation of women fulfill their potential.


2012: 15,000 WOMEN AND COUNTING...
The White House Project innovates a new leadership development experience, GO LEAD(training) and GO CONNECT(community), GO CONNECT launches nationally in partnership with Lifetime Television's Political Animals. Both the training and the community are assumed by Levo League, a growing community of professional women seeking advice, inspiration, and the tools needed to succeed. Through Levo League, the work of advancing women's leadership continues.