FAQs

We are a membership-based giving circle. Our members meet four times a year, on the first Tuesday of each March, June, September, and December. There is a one-hour reception before each meeting begins.

Members nominate charities before each meeting. We randomly draw three charities about a week and a half before each meeting from the nominated charities, and invite them to prepare a 5-minute presentation for our upcoming meeting.

The nominated charities each present to the members in attendance at the meeting. After all three presentations have been given, the members in attendance vote for the recipient charity.

The recipient charity is announced at the end of the meeting. All members then donate $100 each to the recipient.

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

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.

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

Yes, we ask that all Active Members of 100+ WWCH 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.

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, 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 Active Members are able to nominate a charity. Nominations can only be made through your 100+ Women Who Care Halifax online Member Profile. If you have not set up your profile or are having difficulty logging in, please contact us at 100womenhalifax@gmail.com.

Yes! We encourage all of our members to nominate the charities that are meaningful for them. There is no conflict of interest when you nominate a charity. To see if your organization is eligible, see the “Charities” section of the FAQs for criteria.

Currently, you are not able to end your membership through your online Member Profile. Please email us at 100womenhalifax@gmail.com in order to end or pause your membership with 100+ WWCH.

No, the 100+ WWCH 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.

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 text message and/or email shortly following every meeting. To give us permission to text you meeting reminders and the donation link after each meeting, please ensure your cell phone number is entered in the “Mobile Phone” field of your online Member Profile, and that you have given consent to receive text messages via the drop-down menu at the bottom of your profile page.

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.

We highly encourage our members to use Canada Helps to make their donation. Donating through 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 the meeting. If you are unable to attend a meeting, you can send your cheque to the 100+ Women Who Care Halifax mailing address:

5545 Stanley Place

Halifax, NS

B3K 2E8

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

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.

Charities do not apply to present at our 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.

• 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+ WWCH serving clients within HRM.

No, charities cannot defer their opportunity to present at a 100+ WWCH meeting. This is to ensure fairness for all charities. Charities are typically notified a week and a half 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.

Yes, all charitable organizations that present at a 100+ WWCH meeting but are not chosen by the membership to receive the donation go back in the draw for future consideration.

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

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.

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 ten 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.