Women make up almost half of the Wharton School’s 2013 MBA class, but when Kate Weingarten, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, received her MBA from Wharton in 1971, only 4 percent of the graduates were women. She worked as a financial analyst for a number of years and picked up an MPA at NYU’s Wagner Graduate of School of Public Service along the way.
When Kate had children, she became an active volunteer, putting her financial background to work. “I want to help nonprofits run efficiently and deliver on their missions,” says Kate. A Westchester resident, she invested time with organizations that help children in the county, serving as the first director of the Institute for School Age Child Care, where she started a program to increase and improve after-school programs. She chaired the board of directors of KEEPS, an after-school program in Mamaroneck, for 20 years. Kate also was a director of the Westchester Children’s Association, where she was a member of the finance committee, and even did a stint with our Westchester division, reviewing grant proposals.
With Kate’s children grown, she and her publisher husband, Seymour, who had a pied-àterre in the City, recently made the move to a larger apartment. Their love of theater and music had always drawn them here. They opened a donor-advised fund in The Trust in 2005. “We use it to support the causes we care about, primarily in the City, but also in Westchester,” says Kate. “We are careful also that our money is well spent.”
A recent grant from the Seymour and Kathleen Weingarten Fund supports Futures and Options, a youth development program that prepares disadvantaged juniors and seniors in high school for college and the workforce. Its main program offers after-school and summer paid internships with media, technology, health care, and advertising companies. Students get help applying for college and financial aid. Kate has joined the agency’s board of directors.
