We are a membership-based giving circle. Our members meet four times a year, in the first week of March, June, September, and December, however this may shift slightly due to venue availability. There is a one-hour reception before each meeting begins.

Nominating a charity is a member benefit and we randomly draw three charities about three weeks before each meeting from the list of nominated charities, and invite them to prepare a five-minute presentation for our upcoming meeting.

The nominated charities each present to the members at the meeting. After all three presentations have been given, the members in attendance (both in-person and virtually) secretly vote for the recipient charity of their choosing.

The recipient charity is announced at the end of the meeting. All members then donate $100 each to the recipient through our Canada Helps fundraising page

Giving circles are philanthropy groups that bring together several individuals to donate their money, time, or resources to a pooled fund. They decide together how they will choose their beneficiaries and distribute the resources and try to raise awareness for the groups they support and related issues.

At 100 + Women Who Care Halifax we are committed to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in all aspects of our organization, from our membership to our partners, charities, and sponsor organizations.

To action this commitment, we have created The Diversity Marketplace.

Diversity:
We acknowledge all the ways in which people differ:
Age, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation or identity, religion, socio-economic status, education, neurodiversity, and/or physical ability.

Equity:
We recognize that advantages and barriers exist, and that people start from different places.

Inclusion:
We make all members, sponsors and guests feel welcome, valued, and seen, creating a space that reflects the diverse communities that we serve.

Belonging:
It is our goal to make our circle members feel safe, accepted, and creating a culture that fosters connection and support.

The Diversity Marketplace provides a place where people can speak with their wallets, and they can shop with intention. The trend in conscious consumerism means shoppers deliberately make purchasing decisions that will have a positive social, economic, and environmental impact.

A free online business directory for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Asexual plus reflects the countless affirmative ways in which people choose to self-identify (2SLGBTQA+), and/or people with a Disability(ies) Entrepreneurs who live in Nova Scotia and are 50 per cent (or more) female-owned.

Visit it Here

100+ Women Who Care Halifax are just one of 650 like-minded chapters throughout the world. The 100 Alliance is the umbrella organization that helps local chapters organize and start raising funds for local causes. The Alliance hosts bi-annual conferences to bring local leaders together to share ideas and best practices.

The 100 Who Care family includes chapters of 100 Women Who Care, 100 Men Who Care, 100 People Who Care, 100 Businesses Who Care, and 100 Kids Who Care groups all over the world.

You can read more about the 100 Alliance and its activities here: https://www.100whocarealliance.org/

In 2006, 100 Who Care founder Karen Dunigan was having lunch with executive leadership from the Center for Family Health in Jackson, Michigan, when the Center’s CEO mentioned a need for portable cribs for new mothers.

Karen learned that new mothers bringing their babies home were using boxes, dresser drawers, or their own beds as makeshift cribs, as they could not afford proper cribs for their infants. Tragically, some of these babies didn’t survive the night.

Wanting to help, Karen was presented with a list of how many cribs were needed, the cost of mattresses, blankets and beds. In all, a total of $10,000 was needed. She knew there had to be a way to quickly and easily meet the financial request that was presented.

With all of her involvement in the community, Karen knew she could call 10 people and ask them to write $1,000 checks, but she also figured she knew 100 women who would each give $100. She began making phone calls and scheduled a meeting. At that first meeting, in one hour, a group of Karen’s friends heard the story and each wrote checks to the Center for Family Health, resulting in a $12,800 donation, more than requested, to supply new mothers with the simplest need: a crib.

Karen then founded the first 100+ Women Who Care and scheduled quarterly meetings. The rules were simple: any member could present a need in the community, the need had to be immediate and the money had to remain local. The idea was that a worthy cause benefits many in the community.

Post COVID, 100+ Women Who Care Halifax continue to host hybrid quarterly member meetings on the regular schedule both in-person and online, via Zoom. it is imperative we work together to support those who need it the most during these challenging times.

Whether it's joining us for the first time at our next hybrid meeting, continuing your membership, or volunteering your time or other resources to charities in the Halifax Regional Municipality, we encourage you to do what you can, while keeping yourself safe.

All donations must be made through our Canada Helps fundraising page for the recipient charities. This is to ensure the health and safety of our volunteers and the staff and volunteers of the recipient charities.

We will provide the link to make donations online shortly after each meeting. Members will receive the link via email.

For those Members attending online they will receive the link, along with information on logging in, viewing the meeting, in an email a couple of weeks before the meeting.

If your charity is in need of volunteers or resources, to help with a project of event, please let us know by tagging us in relevant social media posts or sending us a DM, and we'll share your posts with our followers. Our social channels include: @100WomenHalifax on Twitter, @100+ Women Who Care Halifax on LinkedIn, @100WomenHalifax on Facebook and @100womenhalifax on Instagram.

You can become a member of 100+ Women Who Care anytime by filling out our online registration form.

No, there is no membership or administrative fee to join our giving circle. We do ask that you make a one-year commitment to our group when you sign up. This means you commit to making four donations of $100 each throughout the year, for a total annual commitment of $400.

No, the 100+ Women Who Care Halifax quarterly receptions and meetings are for Active Members of 100+ Women Who Care Halifax only.

An Active Member is a member of 100+ Women Who Care Halifax who is up to date on their donations. You do not have to regularly attend meetings to be considered an Active Member. If you think you may have missed a donation, please email us at 100womenhalifax@gmail.com and we can confirm if you need to make a missed donation in order to remain an Active Member.

Yes, we ask that all Active Members of 100+ Women Who Care Halifax donate $100 to each recipient charity, regardless of whether they attended the meeting or not. If you miss a meeting, you can quickly and easily make your donation through the Canada Helps website (note the link will be provided around each quarterly meeting).

Yes, only registered not-for-profit and charitable organizations are eligible to receive a 100+ Women Who Care Halifax donation. Donations are made directly to the charitable organization through the secure fundraising site Canada Helps. Canada Helps will send you your tax receipt via email.

All 100+ Women Who Care Halifax Active Members can nominate a charity once each quarter.

Nominations can only be made through a private link on the 100+ Women Who Care Halifax website. As a Member this link is sent via regular emails. If you have not received this link, please contact us at: 100womenhalifax@gmail.com.

Members can nominate the same charity each quarter and that charity’s name goes into Charity Nomination List four times, giving that charity more chances of being randomly drawn.

The criterion for eligible charities is listed below:

Must be located within, and only serve clients within, the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Must be a registered non-profit or charitable organization that can provide tax receipts for donations.

Must be established for at least one year. Organizations that are older than one year but who just received their charitable tax status are eligible.

If the nominated charity is a local branch of a national or international charity, they must spend the entirety of their donation from 100+ Women Who Care Halifax serving clients within the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Yes! We encourage all of our 100+ Women Who Care Halifax Active Members to nominate the charities that are meaningful for them. There is no conflict of interest when you nominate a charity.

No, you cannot send your donation directly to the charity. You must make your donation through the Canada Helps fundraising page, created by 100+ Women Who Care Halifax.

You will receive the correct fundraising page link via email shortly following every meeting.

As a giving circle, our goal is to make a sizeable donation from the whole group – we want to join forces and make a meaningful impact for the recipient charities by donating a minimum of $10,000 per meeting.

We also need to track your donations so that you remain an Active Member who is eligible for nominating charities, attending quarterly meetings, and voting for the recipient charities.

Canada Helps means less administrative work for the recipient charities – when you donate through Canada Helps, the charities don’t need to spend precious time and resources receiving and recording individual donations, depositing cheques, and issuing tax receipts.

If you are unable to make your payment using Canada Helps, you can write a cheque to the recipient charity and leave it with us at the end of each quarterly meeting. If you are unable to attend a meeting, you can send your cheque to the 100+ Women Who Care Halifax mailing address below:

5860 Livingstone Street
Halifax, NS
B3K 2C3

Absolutely not! 100+ Women Who Care Halifax is organized and operated entirely by volunteers. 100 per cent of the money raised at our meetings goes directly to the selected organizations!

100+ Women Who Care Halifax relies heavily on the generosity of our sponsors to cover administration and meeting costs. We send our unending gratitude to the sponsors who have helped facilitate donations to deserving charities throughout Halifax Regional Municipality. See our sponsors here.

From time to time, such as on our Birthday in March, we will “pass the hat” and ask members to make small cash donations to help with administration and meeting costs. It is totally up to you if you’d like to make a small donation, and all donations made by individual members are anonymous.

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor of 100+ Women Who Care Halifax, either by providing us with a one-time donation for administration or event costs, or by providing an in-kind donation, such as a venue, bar, or food services/products, please contact us at 100womenhalifax@gmail.com.

Please email us at 100womenhalifax@gmail.com to end or pause your membership with 100+ WWCH.

No, the 100+ Women Who Care Halifax quarterly receptions and meetings are for Active Members of 100+ Women Who Care Halifax only. Periodically, we do allow members to invite a friend to a meeting. We will let you know by email and our social media profiles when members are able to invite a friend.

Charities do not apply to present at our quarterly meetings. The presenting charities are nominated by our membership. If you know one of our current members, you can ask them to nominate your organization, or you can join as a member and nominate your organization.

We do not provide grants, loans, or other types of funding. We facilitate mass donations on behalf of our membership to charities they have nominated.

No, charities cannot defer their opportunity to present at a 100+ Women Who Care Halifax meeting. This is to ensure fairness for all charities. Charities are typically notified three weeks before the meeting, and allowing some organizations a longer time to prepare their presentation could give them an undue advantage. If a representative from your organization is not able to attend the meeting, the name of your charity goes back in the draw for all future meetings.

Please note, there are no restrictions on who presents on behalf of your organization. Many organizations who have presented in the past have sent volunteers or clients to speak to our members instead of executives or administrators.

No, once a charitable organization has received a donation, they are not eligible to present again.

Yes, charitable organizations that are not chosen to receive a donation are eligible to present again.

Since 2013, 100+ Women Who Care Halifax member donations have totalled over $620,000. A list of past recipients can be found here.