The Impact 100 Story
In September of 2001, an idea to promote philanthropy among women formed in the mind of Wendy Steele… and it all started in Cincinnati, Ohio.
With the help of Wendy’s close friends and business associates, that idea became the nonprofit organization operating as IMPACT 100 Cincinnati. The original notion: Impact 100 would consist of at least 100 women members, each contributing $1,000. These funds would be pooled and fully donated as transformation grants of no less than $100,000 to nonprofit organizations serving Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Eastern Indiana.
In 2019 we will be awarding four grants of $109,000 and after doing so, we will have awarded more than $5.12 million dollars to local nonprofit organizations, funding 47 breakthrough nonprofit initiatives!
Our membership, avid volunteers, and supporters consist of 10,000+ tri-state women who care deeply about the needs of our community in Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Eastern Indiana.
Impact 100 members report a 99% satisfaction rate with their Impact 100 experience, and 100% recommend membership to their friends or colleagues.
Our members range in age from their late teens to their 80’s, have widely diverse personal and professional career choices (employed full-time or part-time, retired, working at home), and come from 80 zip codes in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and beyond. We continue to actively seek members to expand the diversity of our members reflecting our communities and nonprofits who support any of our five Focus Areas below:
Culture
Education
Environment, Preservation, & Recreation
Family
Health & Wellness
Impact 100 members benefit from supporting our organization as they learn more about our community nonprofit organizations. They gain satisfaction from participating on various committees, including the grant finalist selection teams.
The direct beneficiaries of our annual Impact 100 transformational grants are nonprofit organizations and the people these organizations serve every day. Indirect beneficiaries also include hundreds of various nonprofit agencies whose good works have been reviewed, discussed, and seen first-hand by Impact 100 members. Members lead the annual grant review process. Many of these worthy organizations have received other grants or funding as a direct result of the exposure and experience gained through their grant application to Impact 100.
Of course, the beneficiary of Impact 100 is the community as a whole. What began in 2001 as an idea in the mind of its founder, Wendy Steele, has become a viable, sustainable, valuable and effective organization that continues to carry on the mission that women began long ago –promoting human welfare through the caring actions of people working together toward a common goal.