Kansas City native, philanthropist and home-design expert Lily Kanter will be the featured speaker at Jewish Federation’s Women of Strength event.
Women of Strength will be at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 20, in Vanderslice Hall at the Kansas City Art Institute. Ora Reynolds is serving as the honorary chair.
Kanter is a serial entrepreneur — she founded and served as the CEO of four successful companies, including Serena & Lily and Averylily — with a deep commitment to Jewish philanthropy. Her strong Jewish identity was shaped during her childhood.
“We were incredibly active in the Jewish community,” Kanter said of her family.
She attended Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy (then known as Hebrew Day Academy) from kindergarten through fourth grade. Both her parents served in leadership roles in the community; her mother served as president of ORT and was involved in Hadassah, and her father was president of B’nai B’rith.
Kanter said her parents instilled in her the importance of giving back to the Jewish community.
“[As a global Jewish community] we’re so tiny, and no one else is going to give to our community, so we have to lean in,” she said. “...We have to, because it’s not like we’re going to collect donations from outside of our community. That’s why it’s such a priority for me.”
Kanter views community as “an important element to our overall happiness in life” and is a big believer in passing on the Jewish story to the next generation.
“I feel very strong about it,” she said. “There’s so much wisdom, and we have to continue to tell our story to our children and their children.”
Now residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kanter gives back to her Jewish community by serving on multiple boards, including those of Jewish Federation Bay Area, IsraAid and 13th Tribe.
She also founded Empower Her, an initiative that pools donor-advised funds and invests them into women-led, for-profit companies that are “doing good for the world.” Kanter hopes to use this model to help for-profit companies that want to help the Jewish community.
On the career front, Kanter attributes her success to hard work and having a clear vision of why she does what she does.
“I like to say entrepreneurship is a series of extreme highs and lows, and you can easily give up and throw the towel in if you don’t have a real sole purpose to what you’re working on,” she said.
Her philosophy on philanthropy is similar.
“It’s about finding what speaks to you and having a little portfolio of things that you really care deeply about,” she said. “I tend to invest in people, and I look for those leaders that are really doing the work... with real soul, intention, and I get involved with things where I feel like I can make a difference.”
In addition to Kanter, the Women of Strength event will feature the inaugural class of Women of Strength honorees. They include Judy Jacks Berman, Sandi Fried, Beth Liss, Lara Pabst and Maddie Reiches.
Tickets to Women of Strength can be purchased at jewishkansascity.org/WOS.
