When Lauren McGoodwin, founder and CEO of the career site Career Contessa, got an offer to speak at a conference without being paid a speaking fee, she texted her five-person “whisper network” — a group of professionals who help each other with industry information and learning to grow their respective businesses.

“I was told there was no budget for speakers, but remembered that one of the women had spoken at the same conference the year prior, and it turned out that my friend had received her full speaking rate,” says McGoodwin, who then used that information (without outing her source) to successfully negotiate her fee.

Within the corporate walls of a regulated company, however, Cate Luzio had to form her whisper network a bit differently.

On the surface, it was a women’s club for relationship building, but outside the confines of the company walls, it broke off into smaller private dinners where women shared compensation details and discussed other work-related issues.

Now, as the CEO and founder of Luminary, a collaboration hub for women to develop, connect and network, Luzio hosts free monthly whisper network dinners for members at the Nomad space.

The three topics that come up consistently: Being passed over for a promotion, compensation and toxic work culture.

Luzio has hosted 15 dinners to date, and they’re booked in a matter of minutes.

TheLi.st is an online private network for professional women founded by Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol.

Its membership is under 500 women, where every member is vetted, either by being invited or through nomination.

The group communicates in a private Google group and includes major celebrities and lesser-known, yet very connected women in group discussion.

If you are an employee, your authenticated work e-mail can get you into Amazon’s 53,000 member channel, Microsoft’s 64,700 member channel or Facebook’s 18,700 member channel, to name a few.

(That said, if you’re in human resources, you are probably also a member of the channel watching from the shadows to see what transpires.) Topics range from compensation, maternity leave, sexual harassment and corporate culture.

Peter Rahbar, the founder and CEO of the Rahbar Group, is an attorney specializing in employment law.

As one grassroots example, employees are creating shared Google documents with salary, title and even private information about culture and company practices

Information gathering is happening, and everyone has a voice and the ability to use it

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