A recognition society honoring people who include the Women & Girls Fund in their wills and estate plans.

Harriet Richards Lewis was an early 19th century resident of New London and a founding member of the Female Cent Society in 1810. The Female Cent Society was a group of local women who gave a penny a week to form a pool of resources to aid women and children in need.

When Harriet Lewis died, she left the very first bequest to the Female Cent Society, later renamed the Lewis Female Cent Society in her honor. That group is still in existence today, almost 200 years later. Over the years, women continued to contribute to the Cent Society and both women and men followed Harriet’s example and provided for the Society through bequests. In 1999, the Society turned over their nest egg to The Community Foundation to grow and in doing so, set the stage for the foundation’s highly successful Women & Girls Fund. Little did Harriet Lewis know that her legacy would continue to influence positive social change two centuries later.

To honor her and to continue the tradition of reaching out to others embodied in both the Lewis Female Cent Society and the Women & Girls Fund, we have established the Lewis Century Society for people with vision and commitment who want to perpetuate the work of the Women & Girls Fund beyond their lifetimes. By joining the Lewis Century Society, you can ensure that women and girls have ample opportunities to create a bright and productive future for themselves, their families and their communities.

Private charitable gifts such as bequests, trusts, gift annuities, insurance, retirement assets and real estate, are critical to securing the future of the Women & Girls Fund. If you have already planned a gift by will, trust or by making the Fund the beneficiary of your IRA or insurance policy, please let us know. We would be honored to make you a charter member of the Lewis Century Society. If you would like to consider a planned gift that can benefit you or your family as well as the Women & Girls Fund now and in the future, The Community Foundation staff would be happy to talk with you about the many options and welcome you to charter membership in the Lewis Century Society.

For more information, contact Alison Woods.