Philanthropist and activist Barbara Dobkin of New York will receive the LEAD Award, one of the highest honors in philanthropy, in late April when two of the world’s leading philanthropy organizations, the Women’s Funding Network and the Council on Foundations, gather for their annual conferences in Denver, Colorado.

The Leadership, Equity And Diversity Award is presented annually to a philanthropist recognized as an outstanding risk-taker and innovator in the philanthropic community who, through determination and leadership, has increased funding for programs that promote gender equity and diversity. Barbara Dobkin has been a funder, activist and leader in the social justice arena for more than 25 years. She served as founding chair of the Jewish Women’s Archive and Ma’yan, the Jewish Women’s Project of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. Currently she serves as chair of American Jewish World Service, an organization she has long supported.

A longtime supporter of women’s foundations, including the Ms. Foundation and the Women’s Sports Foundation, Dobkin led in the creation of Women Moving Millions, a campaign originated by philanthropists Swanee and Helen LaKelly Hunt in partnership with the Women’s Funding Network, which has raised more than $180 million in gifts of $1 million or more for women’s foundations and women’s funds around the world.

about: The Women’s Funding Network is a social change philanthropic network of more than 155 organizations that invest in women and girls to create greater opportunity, security and sustainability for all. The network grants $60 million annually to support this mission, holds assets approaching a half-billion dollars and has, in its history, granted approximately $500m. for women-led solutions around the world.

Endowed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in 1997, the LEAD Award was created by Women and Philanthropy (an organization no longer active) and entrusted to the Women’s Funding Network in 2009.