For more than nine years, I’ve had the privilege to write about organizations, companies and individuals making a positive impact in the south suburbs. I’ve shared stories on challenges and the dedicated individuals working diligently to address them. I will step away from writing the column this month to spend more time with family. I also became a member of 100+ Women Who Care South Suburbs of Chicago in January.
Carrie Bonanotte was looking for a way to help nonprofits doing good work in the south suburbs. She discovered there’s power in 100. Roughly 10 months ago she launched 100+ Women Who Care South Suburbs of Chicago, a giving circle that has since contributed more than $40,000 to four south suburban nonprofits.
The group gather at one-hour meetings four times a year with checkbooks in hand where they each contribute $100. They hear presentations from local nonprofits and vote on which to support. The nonprofit that gets the most votes typically walks away with about $10,000 to help fund its work.
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“The original goal was to be able to donate $40,000,” Bonanotte said of what had been the hopes of the giving circle for its first year. “We ended up with $41,200. That’s just incredible. It’s inspiring.”
Bonanotte, who resides in Homewood, is founder and executive director of her own nonprofit, The Spotlight Performance Academy, a Homewood-based organization that provides performing arts education to children and adults.
She was inspired to launch 100+ Women Who Care South Suburbs after having conversations with her aunt and uncle. The couple run an Elmhurst nonprofit that provides coats for children in need. The three would talk about their successes and struggles, and Bonanotte learned from them about a similar giving circle in Elmhurst that had provided funding to support their nonprofit.
“It sounded like a very simple and efficient idea,” she said.
She did some research and found the 100 Who Care Alliance website. The site provides resources on best practices to help build, grow and sustain giving circles. It notes there are more than 700 100 Who Care giving circles around the world including 100 Men Who Care, 100 People Who Care, 100 Businesses Who Care and 100 Kids Who Care.
The requirements for the south suburbs giving circle are that members commit to attend the meetings and contribute $100 each quarter to whichever charity wins the vote. Members must be present at the meetings and have a record of giving in order to nominate a charity. Charities are required to have nonprofit status, and they can’t be religious or politically affiliated groups. Giving circle members nominate prospective nonprofits to be considered, and the charities are drawn at random for consideration at the meeting.
To get the giving circle off the ground, Bonanotte got the word out in part through word of mouth.
“I looked at my email list and contacted all the women I knew and all of the other nonprofit directors that I knew,” she said. “It took me about two months of communicating with people about the idea. I started a Facebook group and started sharing it like crazy, and I asked everybody else to share it. Everyone really wanted to jump on board.”
So often people want to help, “but they’re too pressed for time, so they loved the fact that they could make a big difference in one hour,” she said.
Meanwhile, the charities who present also see it as a great opportunity. Often nonprofits have experienced the time-consuming process of applying for grants that they didn’t receive or received grants that came with time-consuming requirements, Bonanotte said. The giving circle’s approach is “We know you’re doing good work. Here’s a lump sum with no strings attached except to continue doing the good work that you’re doing,” she said.
The meetings take place at the Flossmoor Community Church Community House. Sponsors pay $260 to underwrite the cost of the meeting space and are able to make a presentation to the group.
At the first meeting, 106 women turned out, and $10,600 was raised, Bonanotte said. The funds were awarded to the Center for Food Equity in Medicine, a Flossmoor-based nonprofit that makes food available at no cost to cancer patients and others battling life-altering illnesses.
Shani Douglas, a physical therapist, learned about the giving circle through her volunteer work with the Center for Food Equity in Medicine. She attended her first meeting in January and has been hooked ever since.
“I was really just blown away,” Douglas said. “It’s always really interesting to hear the stories of the different organizations and their causes and then to make that impact in so little time.
“Not that I’m a wealthy woman, nowhere near it,” she added. “But I just feel this is a planned contribution that I can make throughout the year to organizations in the community. “It makes me feel more connected to the community.”
Katrina Crawford has been part of the circle since last fall. She is executive director of Angels Athletics, a girls youth leadership development program that supports students through physical activity and academics.
“I thought it was ingenious,” Crawford said.
“I’ve always had a passion for the power that women have when we come together,” she said. “As females, we’re doing everything. We’re working. We’re raising families. There’s not a huge time commitment with this, and we have an opportunity to do something super impactful.”
In July, Suburban Access Outreach received $9,300, from the giving circle. Homewood-based Suburban Access Outreach provides free clothing, hygiene products, new shoes and supplemental food support to individuals and families in need, including helping students avoid hunger on the weekends when they don’t have access to school meals.
It has four clothing closets in the south suburbs, said Dodi Wians, director of development and community relations. Among residents it has helped is Debra Glenn, a senior on a fixed income, who needed clothing and visited one of the closets.
“The clothing closet looks like a boutique,” Glenn said. “I was able to get the things I needed. It felt wonderful and I was no longer stressed out. What they do is important. There’s people out here struggling to make it, and they need these things to make them feel more like a human being and that things are going to get better.”
The award Suburban Access Outreach received was timely given that heavy rains in early July caused flooding in the basement of the nonprofit’s Homewood headquarters ruining many donated items that were stored there and damaging an elevator.
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“This is amazing,” Wians said of the award. “It was great to get the support of all of the ladies.”
She’d had the opportunity at prior meetings to present, and even though she wasn’t chosen at those times, she was OK with the outcome then “because every group that’s talking is great,” she said.
Whether they are voted on to receive an award, participating nonprofits have received benefits, Bonanotte said.
“Every organization that’s presented has reported that they’ve had an increase in donations, an increase in volunteers,” she said. “A big part of this is learning about what other nonprofit organizations are doing in our area and all of the wonderful work that’s going on.”