By Pepper Parr
June 15, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Like many good ideas – it starts out in a basement or someone’s garage and if it is right it grows from there.
The Burlington Chapter of 100 Women Who Care were meeting in a pretty drab looking community room at Tansley Wood and while the number of people involved was growing the rate of growth was a little disappointing.
Then out of the blue, BDO offered to cover the cost of a location that was certainly higher up the food chain. The June 18, 2014, from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. will be held at the Burlington Golf & Country Club at 422 North Shore Blvd. E., Burlington.
BDO is the fifth largest single national accounting and advisory partnership in Canada with over 100 offices nationwide. It is a member of BDO International Limited, a UK company. The offer to pay for the Golf and Country Club space makes for a much nicer setting.
Marion Goard, one of the Burlington Chapter’s founding members announced that another local business – Dermetics, a firm that offers medical, surgical and cosmetic dermatology services had stepped up and gotten involved.
The Dermetics support is unique and solves a problem that many small local firms have when deciding where and how to support the community. “The office manager at Dermetics” explained Goard, “reached out to me with an offer to support 100 Women. The rationale behind this is that they receive a fair number of requests for support from various sources and have a tough time determining who to support. By being involved with us, they know that their financial contribution is going to great causes, is being spread out across the city and they get their staff involved.
Dermetics registered 10 memberships with Woman Who Care. This allows 10 of their staff to attend the meetings where they participate fully – as if they were funding their donation themselves however Dermetics will write the cheque to the recipient organization.
This is something a number of organizations might find very useful – it allows the company to support the community without tying up staff in the selection process. It also lets staff attend the meeting and be part of that selection process. It will be interesting to see if anyone else picks up on this.
The 100 Women Who Care model has its roots in the United States with several chapters forming across the U.S. and Canada since 2006. The mandate of the group is simple: 100 women or more meet four times a year to choose from three charities nominated for consideration. Members cast their ballot and then each write a $100 cheque for the charity that gets the winning vote. The goal is to raise a minimum of $40,000 annually ($10,000 x 4 meetings) in support of local initiatives.
The Burlington Chapter, founded by Marion Goard, Pat Grant, Megan Teall and Laurel Hubber, held its first meeting at the beginning of this year raising more than $3,000 for the Burlington Humane Society. At their second meeting they raised $4,000 for Halton Women’s Place.
Part of the appeal of 100 Women Who Care is that at each meeting the beneficiary of the last donation has a chance to address the membership to thank the group and to share how the donation will have an immediate impact in our community. “On Wednesday, Kaitlin Gordon, Development Coordinator from Halton Women’s Place will share with us how our $4,000 donation is making a difference to women’s lives in Halton. After Ms Gordon’s presentation, our members will listen to three 5-minute presentations about three new charities, take a vote and make their donations to the chosen beneficiary immediately afterwards,” says Goard.
Heading into the third meeting, support for 100 Women Who Care Burlington continues to grow. “We always welcome individual members as well as businesses who wish to be corporate sponsors to join us at our June meeting,” says Goard. “And whether you are new to the group or are already a member, we’re sure everyone will be excited to see how a small group of women can make a difference in our community – in just one hour.”
You can RSVP your attendance to info@100womenwhocareburlington.com. Nominations for charities/organizations can be filled out online ahead of the meeting at Nominations will also be accepted the night of meeting.
Registration begins at 7:00 p.m., with the meeting starting promptly at 7:30 p.m.
Goard does point out that the Burlington Chapter has some catching up to do. “I learned that the Greater St. Johns March donation exceeded $29,000 and they have over 900 ‘Likes’ on their Facebook page. We definitely have a ways to go to keep up with them. I’m not sure what’s holding things back here.”
Maybe the Golf and Country setting will make the difference.
