Florida philanthropist mobilizes women
Bags of the essentials – dried fruits, socks, toothbrushes and other supplies – are always stocked in the back of Wendy H. Steele’s car.
The 61-year-old Florida woman keeps the kits in constant supply in case she sees someone in need while she’s driving. It’s a simple gesture, Steele said, but one that helps ease the sting of sadness she feels when she sees injustice or inequity around her.
“What I’m giving them is small, but it now connects that heart connection into action,” Steele said. “When I drive away, I feel better.”
Actions like these are the differences between empathy and compassion, Steele said. And they come in all sizes: the care packages she delivers, the community of women that rallied to help raise her after she lost her mother at 14 or her multimillion-dollar philanthropy initiative that’s mobilized women all across the country to donate to causes they care about.
Steele is the founder and CEO of Impact100, a nonprofit dedicated to mobilizing women in philanthropy, and Florida’s USA TODAY Woman of the Year.
When Steele moved to Cincinnati in 2001, she said, she noticed the women of the community were disconnected from charity. Even if these women did donate, they often didn’t know how their contributions were spent, she said.
Steele’s familiar desire to turn empathy into compassion inspired Impact100 and its unique approach to philanthropy, she said. Each chapter – more than 60 across the country, per the company’s 2020 annual report – involves 100 women who each donate $1,000, and the donation affords them a vote in where the chapter allocates its collective grant of $100,000. Some chapters have more than 100 women, increasing the number of its collective grants.
“Women needed to know what it felt like to be part of the solution instead of wringing their hands and watching the news and worrying about how terrible things are,” she said. “That, to me, was vital.”
The founding chapter in Cincinnati donated its first grant of $123,000 to the McMicken Dental Clinic in September 2002. Since then, Impact100 has donated more than $140 million in grants across its chapters. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Question: Who paved the way for you?
Answer: My mom passed away unexpectedly when she was 42, and obviously the world changed in every conceivable way. But one thing that changed was in the midst of this chaos, these women came out of the woodwork, women who didn’t even know our mother. And they started to help. It started the way you would expect, casseroles and extra carpool shifts, but it continued on. My dad was a single father at 44 with three kids, and they would coach him on parenting. They made a difference in all of our lives, and it sort of connected the dots between the things I did as a kid to help others that feel really small and the things that this community of women did for our family that felt really big.
What’s your proudest moment? Your lowest?
The proudest moment in my personal life would be the kids that I’ve been lucky enough to raise. They have all grown up to be generous and kind and thoughtful and aware adults. That for me is the best thing that I could ever accomplish.
The low point is right now when I see struggle and can’t do anything about it. That inability to move the needle is really hard.
What’s your guiding principle or mantra?
There are probably two. One of them is, “We all should leave the world a little better than we found it.” And the other is my high school’s motto: “Not I, but we.” What’s your definition of courage? Courage is doing the things you know must be done even when it terrifies you.