A recurring five-hour trip from Arlington to Little Rock, Ark., in 2011 gave Linda Dipert a lot of time to bounce ideas off her travel companion, husband Dan Dipert.
Some ideas came and went. Others stuck – in particular, one observation that Linda made to her husband about what she saw as one of Arlington’s glaring weaknesses: a lack of philanthropy.
It was, as things turned out, a million-dollar observation that grew into an idea that keeps growing.
Though Arlington continues to boom in population and economic development, it doesn’t have a history of big-dollar philanthropy like neighboring Fort Worth or Dallas. Google the names Amon Carter, Kay Kimbell or Sid Bass in Fort Worth. Or Margot and Bill Winspear or Katherine Perot Reeves in Dallas for appropriate comparisons. Though Arlington is a community with many generous people, few — perhaps none — possess the big three requirements: economic capacity, appropriate connections and the altruistic inclination to provide millions of dollars.
Quick stop: Why did the Diperts make continuous trips to Little Rock? He has family and business connections there, and she was a later-in-life master’s student at the University of Arkansas Clinton (yes, that Clinton) School of Public Service. On one of those trips, she came up with a concept that took wing and grew dollars — a women-based philanthropy group.
Linda Dipert
A native of the San Francisco area, Dipert – then Linda Lee – moved to Arlington in 1979 as an executive for a cosmetics company.
She met, then married, local businessman and philanthropist Dan Dipert. Linda says Dan’s zeal for all things Arlington includes UTA, where she soon acquired a bachelor’s degree in business administration, followed by a master’s degree from the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
She’ll soon complete a doctorate in urban planning at UTA.
“Dan’s zeal for civic engagement was catching,” Linda said.
In addition to being the founder of Women Inspiring Philanthropy, she’s also a founder of the International Folk Art Market. She’s also focused on supporting and developing the city’s International Corridor as a thriving center for entrepreneurial achievement and a critical component of Arlington’s identity.
“My initial idea was simple enough,” Linda Dipert recalls. “We might not be a town of super-wealthy people, but there were some who could handle what I was thinking — a group of women with enough means to donate $10,000 a year for philanthropy.”
Back home in Arlington, Dipert called her longtime friend Tricia Maibach to discuss her evolving idea: Collect a group of 10 women with above-average financial resources to give $10,000 a year for philanthropy, enough to provide $100,000 in annual grants.
Dipert and Maibach did not find their 10 women with $10k each, but they did come up with four other women who bought into the concept: Debi Patterson, Diane Cravens, Linda Brookshire, and Pennye Wilemon. What those women discovered, however, was that many women in the community wanted to participate at a lower level, a minimum of $1,000 a year, with some prepared to give more. First, 10 new members stepped forward, then 50, then 100, and eventually, today, more than 200.
They called themselves Women Inspiring Philanthropy, or WIP.
Dipert, with so much potential in hand, wanted to keep the group focused on raising revenue and making grants, not administrative duties, so she enlisted the help of the North Texas Community Foundation and affiliated with it in 2012.
“It was easier to operate under their umbrella, because they were already established and had an operating structure and vetting experience,” Dipert said.
The first grant, $10,000 in 2012, went to the Arlington ISD’s Kooken Educational Center, with the money used for sidewalks and a patio for playground access.
By 2015, the annual grant money was up to $75,000, with a pair of recipients: $50,000 to the Center for Transforming Lives (career training for homeless and low-income clients), and $25,000 to the Friends of Levitt for downtown Arlington events.
Flash-forward to 2023, and WIP in a single year funded three $50,000 grants for a van for Advocates for Special People, a refrigerated liftgate box truck for Arlington Charities and a sustainable restaurant and culinary classroom (work still in progress) for the Taste Project.
In the right hands, a $50,000 grant can achieve remarkable things. Such a grant to Dental Health Arlington, for instance, allowed the organization to expand its SMILES preventive dental services into fourth-grade classrooms in 40 schools, a curriculum that also addresses age-appropriate topics like piercings, vaping and smoking, and their effects on oral health.
“That’s all thanks to Women Inspiring Philanthropy,” said Nancy Blinn, executive director of Dental Health Arlington.
Total grants awarded through May 31 of 2023: $1.15 million; 25 grants in all. WIP also created a growing endowment fund, now with more than $230,000, with the idea being to grow grants and ensure continuity through leadership changes and economic ups and downs. Grant approvals have run the gamut from cultural enhancements and education to wellness to public art. WIP does have limitations. The organization doesn’t fund salaries or sports, and grant recipients can’t apply again for three years.
The grants can be life-changing. Ask Steve Brooks, executive director of Advocates for Special People. The organization’s grant funded the Advocates’ new transit van.
“Mobility really helps provide a critical need for socialization and promoting individual skills for an often-forgotten population,” Brooks said. “I think it’s interesting that many folks around town are unfamiliar with WIP, but when I explain who they are and the sense of community they inspire, everyone knows many of the names. I hope their name on the side of our new van provides as much joy for each of the ladies of WIP when they see it as it does for our special people and staff riding about Arlington in style.”
More information: WIP.
O.K. Carter is a columnist at the Arlington Report. You can contact him at [email protected]
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