OUR BEGINNING
Charlene Fekeshazy (aka Char), a former member of the Halifax chapter, moved to Vancouver in the summer of 2014. She immediately saw a need for the 100 Women Who Care philosophy and decided to start a new chapter here. In the five and a half years Char was at the helm, the group grew to more than 100 members and over $250,000 in donations was made to 25 local charities. In the fall of 2020, Char returned to Halifax and four members formed an Executive Committee to continue the Vancouver group.
WHAT IS 100 WOMEN VANCOUVER?
100 Women Vancouver is part of a network of diverse, supportive, engaged, and caring women from coast-to-coast. With more than 650 chapters across the world, we are part of a global giving movement. With 100 Women, you can meet like-minded women and make an immediate, direct and positive impact to the community.
Every region customizes the 100 Women Who Care model to suit their needs. In Vancouver, we meet four times per year. Members can nominate a local charity once every quarter. Three charities are randomly selected to present at each meeting and try to get the most votes. While guests can attend meetings, only members can vote and the charity with the most votes wins all the donations from that event.
MORE WOMEN, IMPACT
Meet new people and make an immediate, direct and positive impact to the community. 100 Women is 100% volunteer-run so 100% of all donations go directly to the winning charity.
All members commit to donating $100 for each of the four meetings per year or $400 for the full year. Members can also opt to do monthly donations of $35 via our partner, Charitable Impact.
To become a member in good standing, you must commit to donating for each of the meetings...If you cannot attend a meeting, you won’t be able to vote; however, there are different ways to honour your donation commitment. You can send a cheque, donate to the charity's website directly or donate via Charitable Impact.
Only members in good standing can nominate charities to to be entered into the presentation pool. To maintain good standing, you must attend meetings and/or donate on time.
HOW IT WORKS
In order for a charity to be eligible for nomination, it has to meet the following criteria:
- be located or have programs in Metro Vancouver
- be a registered charity in good standing with the Canada Revenue Agency
- be in operation for at least two years
Three nominated charities are randomly selected before each meeting. The chosen charities have the opportunity to give a 5-minute pitch to our members. Every member in good standing votes by ballot for their favourite charity and the one with the most votes gets the collective $10,000 donation! Even if a member is unable to come to the meeting to vote for the winning charity, we ask that they honour their donation commitment. If there’s a tie, we’ll do a second round of voting.
If feeling great for giving back to your community isn’t enough to get you involved, you’ll get a charitable donation tax receipt. If you donate directly to the winning charity, they have promised to keep your information private, away from third parties and solicitations for more donations. They should only contact you for tax purposes, if needed.
Thank you for visiting our website!
New Venue for March 2023: White Spot at 405 Dunsmuir Street