Barbara Weyand

NATIONAL PHILANTHROPY DAY: Volunteer of the Year

National Philanthropy Day Volunteer of the Year Barbara Weyand has an extraordinary track record of what many describe as “transformative leadership.” Whether serving on a board of trustees, chairing a committee, leading a special project or capital campaign, recruiting other volunteers or merely doing what needs to be done to fulfill an ambitious goal, she has stepped forward time and time again to embrace the task.

The list of organizations Weyand has served is long, including Cincinnati Art Museum, Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Ballet, CET, Cincinnati Country Day School, Cancer Family Care and many others.

“Barbara has shown us that when one person gives their time with purpose and passion, it can change everything.” – Playhouse in the Park

When Weyand arrived in Cincinnati nearly 30 years ago, she quickly discovered she needed something to do. She had retired early from a very successful career with Jordan Marsh and Filene’s department stores, closed her own gift shop in Boston and her young son was in school.

“I had worked all these years, and I loved that feeling of accomplishment,” she said. Then she met well-known arts patron and advocate Melody Sawyer Richardson, a Cincinnati Ballet board trustee at the time. She recruited Weyand, who stepped into what would be her first volunteer role – one that was a perfect match for her talent and experience.

Weyand partnered with seasoned volunteer Blanche Maier and spent about a year going through boxes and boxes of merchandise the ballet had attempted to sell. 

“We got rid of an amazing amount of stuff by giving it away or discounting items,” Weyand said. She began stocking items she knew ballet patrons would buy, such as the soldier nutcrackers from the annual “Nutcracker” performances.

“Selling merchandise was all about earning income to offset an existing expense it took to run the ballet,” she said.

And that’s how the savvy businesswoman began to build a reputation as the go-to person if an organization needed to raise money. Many did in the years that followed. And quite a few had Weyand on speed dial.

“The list of organizations benefitting from Barbara’s time, talent and treasure was and continues to be amazing.” – CET

Weyand’s knack for thinking creatively about maximizing donations was always on display. As a guiding force behind CET’s former live auction fundraisers, she had a knack for getting items many would be eager to bid on. Example: Dinners at Over-the-Rhine restaurants with a front-row seat to the city’s ultimate light show, BLINK.

Creativity was always paired with kindness, according to many who volunteered alongside Weyand. Sometimes that showed itself in small but meaningful ways, such as hundreds of handwritten thank-you notes she wrote to organizations’ longtime members.

“Barbara sponsored docent-led field trips, complete with lunch and art making activities for Cincinnati Public high school students.” – Cincinnati Art Museum

The Cincinnati Art Museum has been a centerpiece of Weyand’s volunteerism for the nearly three decades she has called the city home. Not surprising when Weyand reveals that as a young woman, she saw a life for herself as an artist.

“I went to Italy and studied painting for seven months my junior year in college and realized I would never be good enough to support myself.” Then, another door opened that changed everything.

“I got very lucky when Jordan Marsh put me in their executive training program.” That led to many trips abroad over the years, buying for both Jordan Marsh and Filene’s, learning how money could be made and how it could be saved, an important skill that would come in handy.

For years, the Cincinnati Antiques Festival produced a big, glossy catalog of items for their annual event benefitting Cincinnati Children’s. “I realized how much they were spending and thought it was a huge waste of money,” Weyand said. So, in typical Barbara style, she contacted a local printer, who gave her a tutorial on layout and design, then created the entire catalog herself for several years, saving the organization around $12,000 each time.

Perhaps nothing Weyand has done in recent years has had more community impact than her involvement in the fundraising and reimagining of the new Playhouse in the Park, as well as playing a key role in its Center Stage initiative to benefit mainstage productions and educational programming.

Although Weyand insists it’s time to step back from leadership activities, she’s not quite ready to retire. She is playing a supporting role in funding a makeover of the Art Museum’s European galleries showcasing the 19th and 20th centuries.

So what’s ahead for Weyand?

“I want to be more involved in helping the homeless and children,” she said, citing Lighthouse and Bethany House as organizations that have asked for her help in the past.

“I know that’s what I should be doing next,” she said. “It’s time to pivot.”

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Association of Fundraising Professionals Cincinnati presents its annual National Philanthropy Day Luncheon, honoring Dianne and David Rosenberg, Barbara Weyand, Scripps Howard Fund, Impact 100, Zach McGinty and Jim Yunker. 

Thursday, Nov. 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Music Hall Ballroom

Movers & Makers is media sponsor.