Membership
Become a part of our giving and amplify your impact.
Learn More
by Courtney Crane Dauer
What happens when more people see themselves as philanthropists? An Impact 100 25th anniversary conversation yielded insights about collective giving, community change, and the future of philanthropy.
“Raise your hand if you consider yourself a philanthropist.”
Hands rose enthusiastically across the room at CityLink Center on May 4.
The moment lasted only seconds, but it revealed something bigger. Around the room sat longtime Impact 100 Cincinnati members, nonprofit leaders, volunteers, fundraisers, young professionals, and civic changemakers — different generations, backgrounds, and paths into philanthropy – all seeing themselves in the question.
That energy carried through Philanthropy: Past, Present & Possibility, a fast-paced luncheon exploring how philanthropy has evolved over the last 25 years — and how collective giving continues to reshape who participates, who leads, and how communities create change.
The setting itself reflected the story being told. CityLink Center received a $100,000 Impact 100 grant in 2024, a part of more than $7.7 million invested in the community since 2001. Today, the collective giving model has expanded to nearly 80 chapters worldwide.
Jenny Berg, president-elect of Impact 100 Cincinnati and a 23-year member, opened the afternoon with a reflection on Cincinnati in 2001.
At the time, philanthropy was largely institutional and top-down, driven by corporations and foundations focused on civic revitalization and systemic poverty during a period marked by local unrest and national uncertainty.
Then came Wendy Steele’s revolutionary idea.
One hundred women.
One thousand dollars each.
One transformational $100,000 grant.
Simple. Collaborative. Radical.
“Philanthropy has been democratized,” Berg said. “Collective giving shifted the balance of power from a small group of decision-makers to communities learning, collaborating, and shaping solutions together.”
What followed became far bigger than fundraising.
Berg pointed to a growing shift across Cincinnati toward collaboration, regional partnerships, and long-term community solutions — including collective efforts like the COVID Rapid Response Fund, which included Impact 100 funds.
As Clare Blankemeyer, principal of blankspace philanthropic consulting, and Tiarra Owens, Senior Director of Philanthropic Partnerships at Trust for Learning, took the stage, the conversation shifted toward today’s increasingly participatory philanthropic landscape.
Giving circles, speakers noted, have grown by more than 7,000% since 2005, with women continuing to lead much of that momentum. Research highlighted during the luncheon also showed collective giving becoming increasingly diverse across race, age, geography, and lived experience.
“We’re redefining what counts as giving,” Blankemeyer said. “People are contributing not just treasure, but time, talent, ties, and testimony.”
Around the room, attendees nodded as conversations turned toward connection, belonging, and civic engagement in an increasingly isolated world.
“When people gather, build trust, and lean into hard conversations together, that creates the ripple effect where real change begins,” Owens said.
Again and again, speakers returned to the idea of the “Big We” — philanthropy rooted not in prestige or hierarchy, but in collective action and shared problem-solving.
Meghan Cummings, President and CEO of Philanthropy Ohio, challenged attendees to think beyond traditional philanthropy and toward what communities might need by 2051.
Central to that conversation was the Great Wealth Transfer — the estimated $124 trillion expected to move between generations nationally over the next 25 years, much of it first flowing to women.
In 2024, the net worth of households in Ohio was estimated at $5.4 trillion.
“Over the next 25 years, Ohio’s wealth transfer is estimated at $1.7 trillion,” Cummings said. “If just 5% of this value were captured into charitable funds, nearly $85.4 billion could be added to Ohio’s philanthropic endowments. With a 5% annual payout on these new endowments, $4.3 billion could be granted every year, forever, prudently managed.”
But the conversation extended well beyond moving money.
Cummings emphasized that the future of philanthropy is also about sharing power, breaking down hierarchies, and building stronger partnerships rooted in trust, listening, and learning together. Trust-based philanthropy, she explained, pushes funders and nonprofits to move beyond transactional relationships and work side by side on long-term community challenges.
“What do we want our society to look like?” she asked. “How do we become architects of our next chapter?”
As the luncheon closed, attendees were invited to write letters imagining Cincinnati in 2051.
And still, the image that lingered was that first one:
A room full of raised hands.
Not asking whether they belonged in philanthropy.
Together, already shaping what comes next together.
