Smart Money

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Founded in 1953 for recent female U-M grads--now open to all, and grayer--the group started building its investment fund ten years ago. Return on the $372,000 kitty funded more than half of the eight $4,000 scholarships the group gave out this year. "We raise the rest in the Town Halls," says Kennedy. Waterman's $150-a-year dues include four lunches with celebrity speakers. The series kicks off on October 9 with journalist and film expert Nick Clooney--who, the Observer's Events editors note, "also happens to be George Clooney's father."

"I've had many people say, 'I can't come to all of the lectures,'" says Kennedy, "'but that's the one I'm definitely coming to.'"   

[Originally published in October, 2012.]