“We’re a Real, Tangible Part of the Giving”
Stacy Gendelman has gained profound, personal insights about Impact 100’s philosophy and process during her nearly seven years as a Board member.
During her first three years, she was in charge of Recruiting, and she’s now in her fourth year as a Grant Review Team lead.
The powerful feeling of belonging developed instantaneously in 2016 when she learned about Impact 100 at an awards ceremony for her just-completed Cincinnati Regional Chamber’s C-Change program, she explains. Stacy began chatting with an Impact 100 member at the event, and the rest, as they say, is ongoing history.
“It just felt so welcoming and so different that any other philanthropy I had done before,” says Stacy, 42, a licensed realtor since 2013 and Sales Vice President for Robinson Sotheby’s International Realty.
“Impact 100 felt like I could really make a difference, and in the process, I was learning way more about my city than I ever knew when I was growing up here. It was a far better approach than doing client-facing philanthropy that sometimes felt like manual labor.”
The full reach of the Impact 100 approach, she says, is rooted in members’ varied-but-unique experiences, passions, perspectives, backgrounds, expertise and knowledge across a range of local needs, challenges and opportunities.
The Power of “Group Dynamics”
Members understand that every application review involves a very thought-out process brimming with inspiring ideas and possibilities for everyday realities. But each one is equally difficult because of the very real and different needs for which applicants seek funding.
“You want all of them to receive funding, because they all have real needs,” she says from the heart, “but we can’t give to all of them. As a Grant Team leader, it is wonderful to interact with so many women I never would have met, women who have deeply meaningful discussions about nonprofits and our community’s needs. Together, the knowledge and expertise each woman brings to the discussion is just so cool.
“Each team member experiences the impact of the entire group, and the group dynamic can lead to more, much-enriched conversations, points of view and informed decisions about what to fund.”
Stacy’s own professional path is defined by similarly enriching experiences and multiple interests.
A native of Montgomery and graduate of Sycamore High School, she attended Ohio University for two years on a fine arts scholarship and then transferred to the University of Colorado (Boulder) to study environmental design, because of her interest in architecture.
But when she graduated in 2006, she faced a flailing economy and a lack of architecture jobs. And she wasn’t willing to follow her fellow graduates who took jobs at the newly founded, Boulder-based Google Maps. Instead of driving camera-equipped cars around the country and then wrapping the resulting images into Google’s digital maps, she took advantage of a Colorado policy that allows individuals with college degrees to become teachers. So, she taught math for six years in nearby Aurora and Longmont.
From Education to Real Estate to Philanthropy
In 2012, spurred by the challenges of Boulder’s cost of living on a teacher’s salary, she moved back to Cincinnati and obtained a master’s degree in education. But at a friend’s suggestion, she also obtained her realtor’s license, and she has been working in real estate ever since.
Stacy credits her family and upbringing for her enduring commitment to philanthropy, including her Jewish upbringing as a child with a commitment to volunteer work, and the examples of her Christian grandparents who traveled the world as missionaries.
Today, housing, education and early childhood development are her passions, partly because of her experience as a real estate specialist and teacher, and also because of her nephew who has epilepsy – a diagnosis for which occupational therapy has opened doors.
In her spare time, she also enjoys biking, walking, pickleball and spending as much time as possible with her niece and nephew, and entire family.
But for now, there are more grant applications to review, more questions to ask, more opportunities to explore and more decisions to make.
“I learn so much on the Grant Review Team,” she emphasizes, “and it’s not just about the nonprofits that turn to us for funding. It’s about the women around you and different aspects of life that you never would have considered. That’s the true impact of what we do — we each feel we’re a real, tangible part of the giving.”
