The Foundation supports sisters through the good times and the bad. One significant area of focus is sisters in need. Today our members face a growing number of unexpected challenges, in addition to personal tragedies and illnesses.

Enhancing the member experience through grants to support the educational, leadership and personal development, and philanthropic initiatives of Sigma Kappa is a priority for the Foundation.

For the second year in a row, Sigma Kappa offered the six-week career development program Careerhouse, to provide personal development and career guidance to juniors, seniors, and alumnae members. Members were able to access the sessions either live or recorded. Eighty percent of participants were between the ages of 23-39. This program was fully funded by the Foundation and was entirely free to members.

Sigma Kappa shifted the regional conference model from officer education to emerging leader education. Nearly 600 members attended the inaugural Emerging Leaders Conferences (ELCs) in early 2022. The ELC experience focused on leadership and personal skill development in an institute model designed exclusively for collegiate members who have never held a leadership position, or who are in their first elected position within the chapter. Through a mix of general sessions and small cohort groups (teams with shared interests and goals who progress through an educational experience together) led by trained facilitators, attendees learned more about leadership skills and how they can be used, both in their chapters and in everyday situations.

A two-part solution to volunteer training was offered in the summer of 2021; a Virtual Volunteer Summit available to any volunteer and a four-week release of eight new eLearning content modules meant to expand on topics introduced during the virtual summit. Topics included in the virtual summit and the eLearning series included Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA), governance, CliftonStrengths, building relationships and working together as teams, establishing mentoring relationships as volunteers, and mental health.

The LC program embodies the organization’s core value of personal growth for all participants. The program consistently provides the staff member the opportunities to grow professionally and personally while simultaneously motivating and inspiring others. Note: Recently leadership consultants have been renamed as traveling leadership specialists.

With the ongoing pandemic still impacting our membership in the Fall 2021, consultants were able to return to in-person support in addition to supporting chapters remotely. Nearly all chapters received an in-person, virtual, or consultant touchpoint during the 2021-2022 academic year. Both models of visits provided tailored and ongoing support to chapters in order to best meet their needs as they transitioned back into hybrid and in-person structures.

One chapter president who worked with the same consultant over a span of nine months noted the impact consultant support and mentoring provided her:

As a part of the Chapter Advancement Program (CAP), chapters set goals and the consultants offer specific guidance and mentorship based on identified outcomes. In one example, a chapter had a goal to align their chapter programming with member interests. Using data collected through a membership benchmarking survey, the consultant coached the sisterhood chair and vice president of programming into coordinating events that aligned with member feedback provided in the survey. She offered subject-matter expertise on trending and relevant event ideas and taught the officers how to make data-informed decisions when it came to chapter programming. The following term, there was measurable growth in this area, as indicated in the membership benchmarking survey.

The Leadership Institute (TLI) was a four-day leadership development program designed for collegiate members, hosted in Indianapolis, June 2021, with thirteen participants. Using a cohort model, TLI allowed participants to build connections amongst attendees while pursuing their individual leadership journeys. Sessions were facilitated by a team of four alumnae who made up the “TLI Work Group”. The in-person program was followed by participation in monthly webinars including regular touchpoints with assigned mentors. Mentors are Sigma Kappa alumnae who have been paired individually with cohort members to provide support as they apply what they learned at TLI in their day-to-day activities as well as their ongoing development.

Online learning provides meaningful access to all members and is important to meet the learning and personal growth needs of our members. The leadership and health and safety awareness courses contain a total of 23 eLearning modules that were professionally developed alongside a field expert who served as a subject matter expert. Top themes include: Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Sexual Violence Prevention, Bystander Behavior, Integrity and Ethics, and Building Credibility. This suite of courses is LIVE and available to all members through Sigma Kappa’s online learning management system, The Learning Center. By participating in self-paced online eLearning modules, members will gain key skills that are transferable to any aspect of their lives.

For nearly 150 years, Sigma Kappa has preserved a wealth of historical materials, including our Founders' personal letters, member photographs, meeting notes, scrapbooks, jewelry, and more. Previously, these artifacts have lived at national headquarters or with individual chapters. Now, through a partnership with HistoryIT, a transformative technology archival company, Sigma Kappa is taking steps to ensure our history remains safe and accessible to all our members for years to come. Launched in June 2022, this dynamic site shares Sigma Kappa history with current and future generations.

Click her to visit Sigma Kappa's Digital Museum!