How 100 Women Who Care is changing lives in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — In a world filled with needs, it's easy to think the little you can do won't make much difference. But the members of 100 Women Who Care and the nonprofits they help are proof that a little bit of support can have a far-reaching impact. Just band together with others and see what happens.

When they meet in June, the group of Salt Lake City area women will celebrate putting $1 million into local nonprofit organizations by donating $100 each quarter for the past 11 years. And those in the 100 Women Who Care SLC group have had a lot of fun doing it.

Birth of a giving circle

Lisa Evans brought 100 Women Who Care to Salt Lake County in 2015, after a visit to Ohio where a friend showed her the incredible buying power of bite-size philanthropy that has been multiplied.

The original 100 Women Who Care was born in Jackson, Michigan, in 2006. Karen Dunigan had learned that many of the mothers in her community slept with their newborns or put them in boxes or dresser drawers because they couldn't afford cribs.

The risky situation bothered her, but she didn't have $10,000 to solve it. But as Deseret News reported in 2019, "What she did have was a big heart, a little money and lots of women friends." She gathered a group of her friends and each brought a $100 check. Some of those friends also brought friends and within an hour of their meeting, they had collected $12,800. The need was met.

The idea caught fire in a big way and there are chapters not just across the U.S. now, but across the world.

Evans, a singer, musician and songwriter, said 100 Women Who Care practices giving in a way that "mothers and nurtures" communities. What's raised in one community stays there.

Over the years, 570 women have participated and 272 are now active in the Salt Lake County chapter. She said they'd love to hit 300 so grants are even more generous.

The Salt Lake chapter meets the first Wednesday of March, June, September and December in LDS Hospital's auditorium. The meeting starts promptly at 5:30 p.m. and ends exactly at 6:30 p.m. The women nominate nonprofits they'd like the group to support and three of them are drawn randomly from a bag, then featured in 10-minute presentations by their nominators. After the women vote, the two not chosen each get $200 and can be nominated twice more. If still not chosen, they can't be nominated for two years.

One of the group's many strengths, Evans said, is the diversity of the women, who range in age from their early 20s to their late 80s. They also come with a wide range of political views and religious affiliations.

"We may be the most congenial, diverse group of women in Salt Lake County," she said.

Stephanie McCallister agrees. As one of the youngest members of the Salt Lake chapter, she said, "I've met so many women, all different ages, different backgrounds."

McCallister loves being part of a group that does so much good in the community, and said she plans to be a member for a long time. She encouraged others to join, saying, "More membership will only increase the impact we can make."

McCallister works for Make-A-Wish Utah and presented the nonprofit as a donation candidate at one of the meetings. Although Make-A-Wish Utah was not chosen for the donation that quarter, McCallister called it "a great experience." She is amazed, she said, at all the good other nonprofits have done because of the group's grants.

Sheri Burrell is, at 87, the oldest member of the current chapter. A former middle school teacher from Ashland, Oregon, she moved to Utah to be near her children and their families.

Healthy and "super busy," Burrell said she doesn't attend all of the meetings. Instead, she writes four checks, dated appropriately for the different meetings and sends them each year, leaving the pay-to line blank. Some people bring cash to the meeting. There's an online donation option, too. Those who attend virtually even get to vote.

When she does go, Burrell enjoys it immensely. "It's an easy way to make a big difference," she said. "That's what is so feel-good about that program: $100 each quarter but it makes a difference to whomever it goes. It's a significant amount. With $27,000, you can buy a used car if you need that for delivery."

Giving for good

Mountain West Mother's Milk Bank received a donation from the women's giving circle a few years ago and used it to buy two pasteurization devices, which are among the specialized and expensive equipment needed to run a milk bank. On a recent tour of the bank, executive director Amanda Ottley said breast milk gives babies their best start in life.

Many women cannot produce enough milk themselves; donations from new moms who can are immensely helpful. The donated breast milk arrives frozen, then is thawed, pasteurized, refrozen and thoroughly tested to make sure it meets specific health and calorie standards before being sent to hospitals in Utah and southern Idaho.

Ottley called the process "an amazing opportunity for anyone who wants to be involved and to really help the most fragile members of our community and our population."

Another grant recipient, Little Miracles, got its start in a single good deed, according to founding member Lisa Childers. On Halloween 2014, she and a couple of friends were pondering how they could help a woman who was struggling. They wanted to help her clean her house. Their friend was outgunned at the moment by things going on in her life.

Once they convinced her, they had so much fun that the next question was, who do we help next?

They've since been helping widows and single mothers and fathers with all kinds of tasks, from replacing flooring to painting and general spruce-ups. The volunteer force varies from job to job. Some take a handful of helpers, others up to 100. They work with donated supplies and time — no one in Little Miracles is paid and they all work other jobs or are retired. Right now, they help at least one family a quarter and sometimes more, the people nominated by others.

The money from 100 Women Who Care bought an enclosed trailer so they can keep their supplies in good-to-go shape. Before that, they were loading and unloading paint, cleaning supplies and other things into volunteers' cars for each trip. Life's simpler and more efficient now, said Childers, who is a construction manager for a local home builder.

What big hearts can buy

The first donation back in 2015 helped send a group of Boy Scouts who were refugees to the World Scout Jamboree in Japan, with a side trip to visit their relatives in refugee camps in Thailand and a brief stop in their family homeland, Myanmar, which they had never seen. The youths, from very diverse religious backgrounds, had worked hard to raise most of the money needed themselves, with some corporate help, and the donation from 100 Women Who Care made up the rest.

Since then, the Salt Lake women have given grants to 44 nonprofits.

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