Mount Saint Vincent University has become the first university to introduce the Women's Future Fund as an optional payroll deduction for faculty and staff.

Founded in 1996, the WFF is a partnership of autonomous, national, equality-seeking, charitable women's organizations dedicated to raising and sharing funds to improve the lives of all girls and women in Canada. Workplace giving is one technique for collaborative fund raising for the fund.

WFF president Darlene Jamieson and Nancy Ruth, feminist philanthropist, were at Mount Saint Vincent University last month to participate in a pilot presentation for faculty and staff that touched on the work of five WFF member organizations - the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, MediaWatch, the National Association of Women and the Law, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund and the National Congress of Black Women Foundation.

Patricia Baker, president of Mount Saint Vincent University Faculty Association, said her organization was pleased at how the presentation went, and delighted the university is providing employees with access through payroll deduction to the Women's Future Fund.

"As Canada's only university dedicated to the education of women, I see the Mount as having a particularly important role to play in ensuring that the member organizations of the Women's Future Fund - organizations that address issues critical to women and girls - receive the prominence and support they deserve," Baker said. "I know that many of our members join me in enthusiastically welcoming this endeavour on campus."

Mount Saint Vincent joins CAUT, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, Cavalluzzo, Hayes, Shilton, McIntyre & Cornish, the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, Green Dragon Press, Jamieson Sterns, KidsCan Press, Koskie Minsky, the Maytree Foundation, OXFAM Canada, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell and TD Canada Trust in supporting WFF in the workplace.

The Women's Future Fund goal is to increase the self-sufficiency of national women's organizations that are working for equality and an increased quality of life for women and girls across Canada. The sole purpose of the WFF is to raise resources that are disbursed to member organizations. For information contact Women's Future Fund, c/o Canadian Women's Foundation, 504-133 Richmond Street, Toronto ON M5H 2L3; email: wffinfo@web.ca; 416-516-5500; www.womensfuturefund.com.