100 women can make a difference

A couple of months ago I first heard the concept of organizing a group of women who care about their community and, 4 times a year, are willing to give 1 hour of their time and $100 to help local nonprofit activities.

The concept is not new. Our neighbors in Montgomery County have “100+ Women Who Care” and there are many more such groups around the country. We didn’t have one in Greene County – at least we didn’t have one until Sandy McHugh (Village resident) and Rebecca Morgann decided it was time to get one started.

The concept is simple. Once a quarter the group sets up an hour long meeting, no tea and crumpets or wine and cheese, this is strictly a business meeting. Three members, those who previously expressed an interest in giving a 5 minute overview for a nonprofit they’d like to support, are randomly selected to speak during the meeting. Some Q & A time is allowed and the women are asked to vote on which of the 3 nonprofits they want to support.

The votes are counted, the winner is announced and each member of the group writes a personal check for $100 to the selected organization. The checks are collected and delivered to the nonprofit organization with instructions not to add the donors to their mailing database or to use the names for other promotional material. No overhead expenses and no treasury duties are required for the “100 Women Making a Difference in Greene County”.

If you do the math on this one it turns out the group, when at full strength, will donate $10,000 to a local Greene County nonprofit four times a year. I think you could comfortably call that “making a difference”.

The Greene County group, including 10 from Yellow Springs, had their first meeting last week. Forty five women attended and at that one hour meeting they decided to donate $4500 to the Family Violence Prevention Center in Xenia. Their next meeting is October 26th. If you’re interested in being a part of this group, call Sandy McHugh at 767-1636 or email at smchugh45@woh.rr.com.

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