Marcia Morgan, pictured below, and her friends meet monthly to talk, debate and share a few laughs.

In October 2013, when Marcia Morgan turned 60, she decided she didn’t want to receive birthday gifts from her friends. Instead, she gave $60 to seven women and challenged them to put it to good use.

Included in the envelope with the cash, Morgan’s note requested: “As a gift to you, and the greater good for women and girls, I am giving each of you $60. Your job, if you decide to accept it, is to identify where you would like to donate this money. The parameter is that it should be something that benefits women and/or girls in Bend or anywhere around the world. Think big, think small but think impact.”

Morgan also suggested that the women be creative and try to leverage the funds. All of the women matched the gift with cash equaling their ages and donated their money to organizations that work to improve the lives of women and girls.

“Silence and apathy equals consent,” Morgan said. “We need to help women and girls who often do not have a voice or life options. We can’t just sit back on our laurels.”

It all started when the women formed a monthly “salon” several years ago. The Bend gathering is loosely based on the French concept of “salon” where people gather to discuss current matters of the day and have rich, meaningful discussions. Their topics cover religion, politics, relationships, aging, family, jobs, movies, books and doing good works for their community.

Morgan’s challenge is not surprising given her long career in helping women and girls, especially around the issues of sexual violence and criminal justice.

“It’s my passion,” she said. “Plus it is hard to take the fight-for-justice-juices out of a boomer.”

She’s a national expert on women offenders and gender issues in criminal justice and has worked all around the U.S. and overseas. Her publications have been translated into Korean, Japanese and French. She created anatomically correct dolls, and her company Migima has manufactured and sold them to more than 40 countries for use in child abuse cases.

This past October, one year after Morgan’s challenge, the women convened for dinner at her house and shared with the group where they had put their money.

Their donations went to local, national and international organizations — Saving Grace in Central Oregon that deals with domestic violence; Planned Parenthood, which provides a range of health and family planning services; Women for Women International whose mission is to help women facing violence and poverty as a result of war and conflict; Provide, an organization that works to ensure that women, especially those living in rural and southern communities in the U.S., have access to abortion; YWCA of Greater Portland that offers life-changing services for women, children and families helping them attain safety, opportunity and independence; and Population Action International that advocates for women and families to have access to contraception.

Patsy Graves contributed to Girl-Up, a United Nations Foundation program that gives American girls the opportunity to become global leaders and raise awareness and funds for services to the world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls.

Once Graves, whose idea it was to form the salon, and her husband retired from their Portland jobs, they started spending more time in Central Oregon. She wanted to develop friends and a sense of community. She checked out a few groups to join, but none of them seemed to fit the bill.

“I hadn’t found my tribe yet,” Graves said.

It all came together when she offered her Tumalo home for a fundraiser for a local nonprofit organization and met women who she thought she would like to get to know better. She settled on eight as the number to invite to the first dinner because more would not have fit around her dining table.

The ages of the women range from 60-67, and their professional lives are or have been in art, marketing, law, high tech, criminal justice, nonprofit fundraising and education.

The varied experiences of each woman meant that the $60 would achieve what it intended from the beginning: to help women and children locally and beyond. And that’s what Morgan wanted above all else for her birthday.

“It was interesting learning about many great programs, fun doing it with good friends and hopefully helping to make a difference,” said Morgan. “We all decided to share our story in hopes it will inspire others. Could you imagine if every woman’s book club or hiking group, for instance, made an age-related, pay-it-forward donation to help women and girls? We could make an impact!”