The regular quarterly meeting of 100 + People Who Care – Grinnell will be Tuesday, July 25 at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held in the parish center at St. Mary Church, 1002 Broad Street, in Grinnell, and is scheduled to last no more than an hour. In addition to hearing nominating presentations for three charities and then moving through the voting and funding procedures, members of 100 + People Who Care – Grinnell will hear a stewardship report regarding the last quarter’s funding of Local Foods Connection to enable more food access in the Grinnell community.
There are now 136 memberships in 100 + People Who Care – Grinnell. These people have discovered the effectiveness of pooled philanthropy, where, by joining with their neighbors and friends, a membership donation of $100 can be boosted to an impact of $14,000 to a beneficiary organization. Each member pledges to contribute $100 to the organization receiving the plurality of votes at the membership meeting, after presentations of need are made by the members. At the conclusion of the one-hour meeting, each member writes a check for $100 to the selected organization, with 100 % of the funds thus being made available to meet the presented need. This will be the 24th funding meeting of 100 + People Who Care – Grinnell, with $313,255 being awarded to non-profits.
The concept of giving for 100 + People Who Care – Grinnell grows from the experience of Karen Dunigan, of Jackson, Michigan, who, in 2006, was seeking to purchase pediatric hospital beds for her local hospital. Rather than inviting 10 of her friends to give $ 1,000 each to the cause, she determined that she knew 100 people who might each give $100, resulting in the same amount of money raised, but with a broader base of understanding and support for the worthy project. The success of the idea quickly caught others’ attention and the funding concept has expanded to more than 700 “chapters” of 100 + People Who Care throughout the upper Midwest, Canada, and to several other countries. The Grinnell area unit formed in January, 2017.
Membership remains open to all. For further information regarding 100 + People Who Care – Grinnell, please contact any of the current board members: Ashley and Chris Grundler (641-236-7227), Marta Miller (mjo_miller@yahoo.com), John McCleery (mccleery_john@yahoo.com), Lance and Megan Veldboom (veldboom@iowatelecom.net).
