158. What Impact Are Women Making in Business Communities with Wendy H. Steele

💭 Have you ever wondered how you can multiply your impact through community transformation?

Wendy H. Steele, the luminary behind Impact 100, joins us to share how a single vision can ignite a global movement. Through personal experiences and the evolution of Impact 100, Wendy encourages us to look beyond our daily grind and consider the legacy we aspire to leave in our communities.

In this episode, Wendy stirs your inner philanthropist and challenges the notion that to make an impact, one must start big.

Download this episode to recognize your potential for impact and to contemplate how, together, we can sculpt a more compassionate and empowered society through communities.

Time Code:
0:00 Introduction
1:10 Impacting Communities Through Empowerment
10:17 Empathy, Compassion, and Acting Courageously
17:06 Gender Differences in Charitable Giving
23:49 Women Empowerment Through Collective Philanthropy
33:43 Impact 100 and Wendy's Organization

🌐 Connect with Wendy:
• Email: wendy@impact100global.org
• Support Impact 100: https://impact100global.org/
• Website: https://wendyhsteele.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendysteele/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/impact100global/

📚 You can purchase Wendy's book at Amazon:
• Invitation to Impact: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1TDM3MF/

Books Mentioned:
• Big Potential book by Shawn Achor
• Leaders Eat Last book by Simon Sinek

Transcript

Mick Spiers: 0:00

Hey everyone and welcome back to The Leadership Project. I'm greatly honoured today to be joined by Wendy H Steele.

Mick Spiers: 0:06

Wendy is the founder of an organisation called Impact 100, which is a really interesting focus around how to empower and inspire women to have an impact and to form communities and impactful communities around them, and I'm really curious to unpack today a little bit more about how that came about and how it all works. She's also the author of a book called Invitation to Impact Lighting the Path to Community Transformation. So there's this element around empowering women, inspiring women to be impactful in their communities, and there's this invitation to impact that's a really interesting phrase there and the pathway towards transforming communities. And there's this invitation to impact that's a really interesting phrase there and the pathway towards transforming communities. So really excited about our discussion today and unpacking these concepts around impact and around community. So, wendy, without any further ado, I'd love it if you would say hello to our audience but tell us a little bit more about your background and what inspired you to be so interested in these words impact and the word community.

Wendy H. Steele: 1:10

Oh my gosh. Well, thank you and hello.

Wendy H. Steele: 1:14

You know, I think when I look back on my life, there wasn't a pivotal moment where I realized that the value of community and the way people can come together.

Wendy H. Steele: 1:25

But my parents, they raised us with this notion that each of us had a responsibility to leave the world a little bit better than we found it, and that manifested in a variety of ways when I was a young person and sort of stayed with me forever after.

Wendy H. Steele: 1:40

And I think with that in mind, I've always wanted to do just that leave the world a little better than I found it, make an impact that might last when I'm no longer in the room, either literally or figuratively. And so, gosh, I went to college, I became a banker. I really was helping people in my banking career and alongside I was volunteering. But I kept meeting women in particular who just really didn't see a viable path for them to help in the community. They didn't see a way for them to be involved, and that was very upsetting to me, not just because I knew that the community needed what they had, but I also knew that these women needed to understand what it felt like to help another, to be a part of the solution, instead of worrying about all the problems facing the world.

Mick Spiers: 2:30

So there's lots there I'd love to unpack and let's get into a little bit the words that are popping into my head as I listen to you, wendy, are purpose, impact and legacy for you personally, and I'd like to explore those as we go along. What I'm interested in as you said, leaving the world a better place. What does that mean to you?

Wendy H. Steele: 2:48

You know, as a kid it was very simple. Things like trick-or-treating for UNICEF, things, understanding that there were people who didn't have some of the things that we take for granted. So that was a piece, but it was in the everyday things Like if I went down the street to babysit the neighborhood kids, my parents would say now listen when they nap or when they're happily playing. This is not your chance to do your homework or watch TV. You need to look around that house and maybe wipe down the kitchen counters or empty the dishwasher or run the vacuum, do something. So when parents come back, they not only come back to kids who are safe and happy and fed and rested the way they're supposed to be, but that their house is a little better than when they left it.

Wendy H. Steele: 3:33

And the notion was that they were paying me and it was my job to earn whatever they were going to pay me and then some to exceed their expectations. I always understood that when they invested in me in this way, they paid me whatever they paid me per hour, which was about $5 back in the day. That was a lot of money to me and I wanted to be sure that at the end of my shift with them. They were happy to give me that $5 an hour and they felt that I had earned $10 worth of service to them.

Mick Spiers: 4:09

So there's a few things that are jumping into my mind there, Wendy. The first one is the influence of your parents on you, and I've listened to your TEDx talk and I know that your grandparents as well same kind of role modeling around having an impact on you and the way that you see the world. Then, when I'm hearing this babysitting job, I'm hearing about what I'm picking up. Is you stopping and thinking what would be impactful for these people right now, for these parents to come home and find that the dishes were done? The impact that you're having on other human beings? Tell me about that thought process. How does that come together for you?

Wendy H. Steele: 4:37

It's interesting. I often describe that throughout my life I've had the opportunity to really build my empathy muscle or my compassion muscle, and I do see those traits as muscles. If we don't use them then they sort of wither, but when we use them they get stronger and they get easier to use and they get more powerful. And so from a young age I was able to just naturally sort of connect in that way with people and their needs and sort of anticipate. I think that as a young person, because I was surrounded by my parents, my grandparents, they all had a very, very solid work ethic and you know we had chores from a young age, we had expectations, and so I think it was this general sense of this is how we do it. You know this is. It never occurred to me that other people you know this is. It never occurred to me that other people weren't raised that way. It never occurred to me that there was another way to do it. It was just like this is what we do in the world.

Wendy H. Steele: 5:32

And the other thing that happened is my mom died when I was quite young. My dad was left with three girls, adolescent you know, 10, 14 and 17, no easy feat for him. But what happened was women in the community came alongside my family and they just intuitively knew what we needed. Now, sure, when somebody passes, you know you get casseroles and you get nice notes and whatever. But long after that, these moms mostly these women were coming in and they were driving carpool and they were taking me to go buy the first formal dress, to go on the first date I ever had, because my mom wasn't there and this was after. It was convenient. It was never done in a public way.

Wendy H. Steele: 6:14

I don't think moms knew what the other moms were doing. It wasn't formally orchestrated. They would sometimes call my dad and give him a heads up about whether this party or this thing I wanted to do was OK or not OK, and the way they stepped in it really mattered. I mean, it really mattered to me personally and I could see the difference it made in my dad. My grandparents did the same thing and again, you know, when you live in that environment especially if you've ever benefited from people who go out of their way to help you just because you need help, not for anything else it really changes your perspective and like so anything, you sort of think to yourself I want to be like that when I grow up. Like this. This made a difference to me. I want to be able to make a difference for somebody else.

Mick Spiers: 7:01

Yeah, that make a difference is really coming through very loudly. Wendy, the thing that's jumping into my head here is this little element of kind of I'm going to call it micro impact or just kind of that term jumped into my head for whatever reason. But what I'm hearing in the stories that you're sharing your own personal story with the babysitting, the story of the women that gathered around your father when he needed them most I'm going to say that it's little actions that we can do that almost cost us nothing. A little bit of our time, a little bit of our service, et cetera, et cetera. Five minutes of our day. That then has a huge impact on the person that we've just helped.

Mick Spiers: 7:38

So the women that helped your father at that time, they were doing things that probably didn't cost them a lot marginally. Oh yeah, of course I can pick up Wendy, or whatever the case may be, but the impact it would have had on your father, it would have made his day, it would have made his week, it would have de-stressed his existence. So I'm hearing this service to others, absolutely and I'm going to come back to that point in a moment as well but I'm hearing this do little things that cost you nothing but have a huge impact on the person that you're helping. How does that sit with you?

Wendy H. Steele: 8:09

Yeah, it's absolutely right. You know you don't have to do these big, big grand gestures. You just sort of do what you can where you are, and I don't believe that people don't want to do that. But I think sometimes we get so tied up in our own stuff, our own busyness, our own list of errands and chores that what I think was special about those women, and a little bit about the way I was raised, is this notion to pay attention to, because you can't do that one little thing, that carpool ride, take a girl to the mall to buy a new dress. You can't do those things when you're self-focused or when you're just plain distracted. You're busy doing all these other things.

Wendy H. Steele: 8:51

So it took them to know what the need was, because the pivotal point here is my dad didn't ask for the help. My dad didn't know what he needed, so he didn't know how to ask and he wouldn't have known who to ask. But they saw they were paying attention, they were aware they saw and they didn't wonder oh, will he be offended by this or will she want me to help? They just said how about if I take you to the mall? Or how about if I run carpool four days, so that you don't need to worry about it, except for on one day. So those were the things that they stepped in and, as you said, I mean it made the world of difference to me and to my dad, to all of us.

Mick Spiers: 9:34

Yeah, some really interesting things coming out of that, wendy. And absolutely, people don't always know how to ask for help or they might even feel like it's a sign of weakness if they do ask for help. So the paying attention, the empathy, I think that's really key. And being able to work out what can I do, what's the one little thing that I could do that would make that person's day today. You touched on something interesting. I'd love to ask you this question. I've been thinking about this a lot for, I'm going to say, the last few years. Do you feel like society is changing in that regard? You said about people not wanting the help. I'm starting to pick up something where people are scared to help others because it might blow up in their face. Any thoughts on that?

Wendy H. Steele: 10:17

Yeah, I think I definitely am seeing a little bit more of that, where there's more caution, because you're afraid you're going to do it wrong and, in helping, you're somehow going to hurt someone's feelings or offend them or they'll be too sensitive, and I think that happens in pockets of community and pockets of time. You know, I don't think that what we've all experienced as a global collective over the last few years, you know, it's just unprecedented times between, certainly, the pandemic and everything that happened, but let's also not forget political polarization, and I mean all the other things that divide us. The flip side, though, is when we can really have empathy and compassion. So, to me, empathy is having a heart for someone else, being able to put myself in their shoes and say what would I want if I were in that position, but compassion is putting that empathy in action, so it's actually doing something, and if we have too much empathy and we don't act on it, if we don't act with compassion, it can be a little bit unbalancing inside of us, you know, because you're worrying about everyone else but you're not doing anything. And instead, when you shift that and you say, well, if I were in her shoes, I know I would want this or I would need this, and then you start walking in that direction.

Wendy H. Steele: 11:32

Now, those moms that I shared, they really didn't ask permission. I mean, they just sort of said, how about if I do this? And they were doing it as they were asking and it was perfect, we accepted it gladly. I think today, perhaps a little bit more of a caution that says I'm going to go to the mall anyway, I would love, it would give me such joy to help you pick out your prom dress. Would you mind? Would you like to come with me and I'll clear it all with your dad? They might've been more cautious if that circumstance is happening today, but I do think through that communication and through actually walking it out, we need to have this sort of courage, you know, to stand up.

Wendy H. Steele: 12:12

And they often talk about being a bystander and you can be a bystander, but if you see something that needs you, you act. And a really small, simple example I was just with a dear friend of mine, visiting her in Boston, and we were taking a walk and talking, just the two of us, and I really I can't walk past garbage on the street and I started to pick it up and that sort of that. It's when you see a problem that you know you can fix, all you have to do is pick it up. Then you keep moving. Now it's not all that pleasant. She was sort of surprised that I had all these things in my hand at the end of our walk, but yet she certainly understood what I was doing and why I was doing it.

Wendy H. Steele: 12:51

I could have waited and said I'll get them on the way back, but we all know that you get distracted. You might walk back. The same way. I could have said when we come out for our walk tomorrow, let's bring a bag so we can pick this up. But there's too much left to chance None of those things might happen. I was there right now today and that garbage was right in front of me and I picked it up. And I think that when we do what we believe is the right thing in the moment, with as much care as we can for the people around us, I think that it will be well received. And if it isn't, then that's okay. That's okay. We learn, we move on. There was a piece of garbage full disclosure that was too far into someone's yard and I thought I might be crossing a line here. I'm just going to let that go. But the rest that was in sort of the public domain. I picked it up.

Mick Spiers: 13:41

So the things I'm taking away there are the difference there between empathy and compassion and having the courage to stand up and the courage to act. And it's in the act of service that we actually make a difference, not just in the empathy. I think that's a really important message, and courage is the ability to act despite any fear. So if you are worried about whether your actions are not going to land correctly, well, if you don't do it, you won't know. You don't do it, you won't know. Okay, so that's really powerful. What I want to come back to is this in the service of others, how does that make you feel, wendy? So, whether it's back to the examples that you were given around babysitting and going that extra mile, how does it make you feel when you go out of your way to serve others?

Wendy H. Steele: 14:22

It's amazing. I mean there is a sense of pride, of accomplishment. You know I did these things, so I think that's good. But I think, like every other skill or habit, when you start to do it, you really do want to do more, you really do. You get positive reinforcement. So that's a part of it.

Wendy H. Steele: 14:42

You know, I think that from a psychological standpoint and to oversimplify with the garbage on the road analogy, when you see it, you can focus on the garbage and say why are people so careless? Why don't you know? Why are they using these plastics or smoking cigarettes and throwing them away or whatever it might be, and focus on the problem. When you focus on the problem, you don't help yourself at all and you really don't solve the problem. So when you can flip it and say I'm not going to be able to solve world pollution, I'm not even going to be able to solve pollution in my neighborhood or in my community, but I can stop pollution right here in this two mile walk we're on, I'll feel better that I've done something. I'll feel better because it's instant gratification.

Wendy H. Steele: 15:29

It looks beautiful, you pick up the trash, it's beautiful where it was right and it's just not being afraid. You don't have to solve the whole thing. Just do that part that you can do where you are, and if it encourages other people to follow suit, then imagine what would happen if everyone who went on a walk everywhere had the intention to pick up whatever they found along the way. It doesn't take long to change the world and it doesn't take a lot of people to change the world you just. If we can start worrying about changing what we can change, the rest of it sort of starts moving like a flywheel. It keeps going with more and more momentum.

Mick Spiers: 16:07

Yeah, really powerful, and I fully agree with you. There's something about in the service of others that makes you feel good for the rest of the day as well. So you've done something for someone else where they're going to feel good, but you are also going to feel good, right? It's even more powerful than if you had done something for yourself. There's something about it, there's just something about it.

Mick Spiers: 16:28

And then what you're talking about is then the multiplication of impact, because if you're inspiring others to do the same, now, all of a sudden, there's 10 of you, there's 100 of you, there's 1,000 of you that are doing these micro actions that are then going to add up to a huge impact. And that leads me to a question I've been wanting to ask since the start. In your introduction, you spoke about women that don't see a path to impact. My experience is that women in communities all over the world are incredibly impactful, but I'm hearing from you that they don't always see that path to impact, and maybe they don't even see the impact that they're having every day. Tell us more about that.

Wendy H. Steele: 17:06

Well, you know, I'll go back to the origins, really, of this country of America. You know, women couldn't own property in their own name. They couldn't run a business or open an account at a bank until the mid-1980s. Now if you imagine that it was illegal for a woman to do that, they couldn't do it unless they had a brother, a father, a husband, someone, a man, co-signed with them. They couldn't do it. In the early days the men would go and work and make the money. The women would stay home and care for the children, and when those children started to become school-aged, what women had was time. They didn't have money because they couldn't really work outside the home, and so in that time they would band together and they would volunteer. Plenty of great organizations and strong women who have done amazing things with their volunteer. But now we're two or three generations into women working outside the home and making their own money, and yet we still find women just don't feel and this is broad, and we know lots of women will feel otherwise but women are more hesitant to write a check to a charity they care about. They're more hesitant, they don't think that they know enough to make a decision about which charity or where the biggest problems are. They're not sure that they have enough money or wisdom or experience to be able to be meaningfully helpful, and so they sort of feel a little bit stuck. When they've given in the past, maybe they don't know where the money went. Or you hear about a scandal of some nonprofit CEO who misbehaves and this sort of sense that you know you don't really know what's going on behind the organization. And all of these things for me was just troublesome. And it's not that these women or those organizations were doing anything wrong. The world is just so much bigger when you recognize that you can give, yes, your time, but also your talent and your treasure to address the causes that you really care about, and you can move the needle and make a difference. And to me it was manifested in.

Wendy H. Steele: 19:17

I'll tell the story very, very quickly. It was a local church. Something had happened. They were in a financial crisis. Head of the men's group, head of the women's group, the senior staff of the church, all were going in to try to right this wrong and raise money fast. And so the senior staff, you know, tried to collect payables and push off receivables and cut expenses, et cetera, and the head of the women's guild. She gathered all of her team and they did bake sales and they volunteered and they did car washes and they collected money any way they could, by selling and working and scrubbing and delivering, et cetera. And at the end of this two-week period they raised more than they ever had before. They raised about $8,000.

Wendy H. Steele: 19:58

And as she was delivering this check to the church full of pride, the head of the men's guild comes in and he hands a check that was many times more than her check. And she said what in the world did you do? How did you possibly do that? We've never raised this much money. And the guy said well, I thought about what my family could give and I wrote that check. And then I called my friend Mick, and then I called my friend Joe, and then I called my friend Tom and they all wrote checks and in a matter of you know very little time he raised much more money.

Wendy H. Steele: 20:27

Now, make no mistake, nobody ever said to any of these women you really can't write a check. What you really have to do is go bake a bunch of stuff or sell a bunch of stuff or wash a bunch of cars. Nobody said that, but that was her first impression, knowing it was urgent, knowing they needed a lot of money, and it was because it's sort of in the DNA and if we can retrain that, whereas men are much less likely to say we need to raise a lot of money, I'm going to go wash some cars for that, or I'm going to go sell things from my basement for that. Like, that's just not, it's a little gender difference, that isn't any fault. It's just sort of the way traditional has been borne out, but it was time for a change.

Mick Spiers: 21:11

It's definitely time for a change, and we're getting there and wanting to get into Impact 100 in a moment in terms of what you're doing to give that pathway. But I want to share with you what I'm picking up from this, and the words are social conditioning. So I still get blown away every time I think about stories like you just shared that you know, women in the 1980s in US, that was the first time that you could have a bank account just in your own name, and I can tell you there are still societies where that's the case, by the way. All right, so, yes, so you have this kind of longstanding and hopefully the world is changing, but it's certainly not changing fast enough but you have these longstanding traditions that the man was the accountant of the house, if you like, the holder of the purse strings, the bread winner and then the decider of where the bread would be distributed and all of that kind of stuff, and women were the caregiver and the service giver. Let's call it that.

Mick Spiers: 22:01

So then we've got this social conditioning element, even today, now that the world is finally and slowly changing, where women are more financially independent and independently wealthy and, in some cases, et cetera, et cetera.

Mick Spiers: 22:15

And there's definitely issues with distribution of wealth still today between countries and between genders. But we're getting there right. So we're getting towards this financial dependence and yet the social conditioning has somehow stuck that women are feeling that what they can offer is service, time and care, and what men feel like they can give is money. And I've got to say money doesn't fix everything, by the way, and you need to think about with that, whatever problem you're solving, you need to think about, well, what is going to serve this problem best. Is it my service or is it my money, or et cetera, et cetera. But I'm just interested in this dichotomy of where women are leaning towards the I'm going to give my time, my effort, my care, and men are leading towards their pocketbook and going oh, I can write you a check. How does that sit with you? Am I picking up the right message here?

Wendy H. Steele: 23:03

Yeah, you're absolutely right. You are absolutely right, and I think you're also right that there are plenty of things that can't be solved by money and plenty of things that shouldn't be solved by service. Yet, as someone on the giving end, I believe that we really are at our best when we're doing all three, when you're giving your time, your talent and your treasure not just one or the other. And as an agency or a nonprofit in need, I think the same thing is true. You know, yes, we do Nonprofits everywhere. They need funding, clearly, we understand that. But sometimes they need strategy, they need smart board members, they need volunteers, and other times they just need people to come in and do the work.

Wendy H. Steele: 23:47

You know rake the leaves or cut the grass. aYou know a little bit of a more, you know more time than talent, but also you need funding. And when we engage with the organizations we care about in a variety of ways, a, we do way more good, but B, we really start to understand exactly how that organization does what it does, and it does nothing but elevate the admiration that you have for the people who are doing this work every single day, seven days, you know, every day of the year. It's incredible.

Mick Spiers: 24:21

I'm loving this. Three Ts this time talent and treasure. That's beautiful, Wendy, and for us to all stop and think about when we are serving others, whether it's a charitable organization or the local business down the street or our family members and our friends, et cetera. What do they need? What do they need? Do they need our talent? Do they need our time? Do they need our treasure? Is it a combination of the three? What is going to serve them best? What is going to help solve the problem that they're trying to address? What is going to be most impactful? Absolutely love it.

Mick Spiers: 24:52

So now I'm kind of seeing where Impact 100 comes here, but I want to hear it from you. So you see this issue where people, where women, don't see the path to how they can be impactful in other ways, and now Impact 100 comes in. So tell me how that comes about and what it's all about, because there'll be people in the audience that have not heard of it. I've researched it now, but there'll be people that have not heard of it. So tell us how you stumbled into the idea and how it works.

Wendy H. Steele: 25:20

Thank you. Yeah, so gosh, it was the summer of 2001. And these things that we've been talking about, you know, they were just really heavy in my heart, heavy on my mind, when I heard women talk about that. They just didn't see a way for them to be involved. And what that looked like at the time was I am still, and was then, very much a generalist, so I don't have a certain cause that I'm passionate about. I'm passionate about building a strong community, so I like the arts organizations, but I'm really interested in health and wellness, education, family, I mean, all of it really matters to me. And so I'd be involved in something and I would call one of my women friends and said you know, you should come and join this committee with me, we're doing this important work. And she would say well, I travel for my job. I can't come and do this. You know I can't do that.

Wendy H. Steele: 26:08

Now, by way of background, I was an economics major in college and I was a banker by training and I took care of very high net worth people in my banking career. So I also knew that there were people who had great deal of wealth who really didn't quite feel comfortable. They weren't quite sure that they wanted their adult children to know how much money they had. They weren't sure we would see. You know, you'd meet with families and they were giving financially to where the husband might have gone to college or graduate school, the wife may have gone to an equally lovely place, but they wouldn't give necessarily to where the wife was going and she wasn't all that interested in it. And it was just this thing that just didn't add up. It was like a puzzle and I couldn't understand, because prior to moving to Cincinnati, ohio, which was where I was living at that time, I'd lived on the East Coast of the United States, and on the East Coast there are lots of well-paying jobs but the cost of living is very high. And so if I met women when I lived there that weren't involved, my economics brain sort of took the shortcut and said well, the math must not work. In other words, you can't afford to volunteer, you can't afford to write a check, you can't, whatever that was. I thought it was a math problem. Now I come to Ohio, in this place where there are a lot of corporate headquarters, in Cincinnati you can get really good jobs and the cost of living is low. So the math works in your favor. So now, these women weren't getting involved. I knew it was more than math and it really was this accessibility, this sense of well.

Wendy H. Steele: 27:38

When I write a check to my university, to my church, my synagogue, wherever it is, I never really know when they spend it, I don't know what they do with it, I don't think it matters, I don't think I have enough to make a difference. So I thought, okay. At the same time, I was hearing nonprofits say we love getting five and $10,000 grants, $15,000 grants, but that really doesn't help us to accomplish what we need to accomplish. We really would like to see a significant grant. So I thought, okay, what if I can get at least 100 women in a local community to write a check for $1,000? Now, $1,000 is a stop and think gift. It's not an easy check to write for many of us, myself included. When I dreamt up this idea, I'd never written a check to a single charity of $1,000, but I thought I could do it and I thought it might be fun to try. Well then you say, well, if you invite them all to donate $1,000 and you pull it all together into one grant of $100,000 and then offer it right back to the local community so the nonprofits could apply for it. Now that would be interesting. Now we'd have nonprofits across these five broad focus areas applying for these grants. Now that would be interesting. Now we'd have nonprofits across these five broad focus areas applying for these grants and we'd be able to really move the needle. And what I know to be true is that when we're connected to our initial gift that gift of $1,000 in my case we will stay connected to the $100,000. Whereas if I ask them to give me $25 or $50, $100, even sometimes $500, it's not enough for you to really make a personal connection. If it feels personal, that makes a difference.

Wendy H. Steele: 29:16

Now, I was a banker. I didn't have the pedigree to come up with an idea like this. I had no idea if it was even feasible. But in doing some research and asking some questions, I found that not only was it reasonable, but I had some really strong women who were willing to stand alongside me and help me build this thing. And the idea is to be as inclusive as possible. Your only requirement is to write that check for $1,000 and vote. So it's one woman, one donation and one vote. Now she could choose to get very involved in the process and she'd learn how to vet the nonprofits, how to do a site visit and do all the things to determine who is the most worthy. But if not, if she traveled for her work or took care of ailing parents or young kids or anything in between, then she could simply cast her vote at the end.

Wendy H. Steele: 30:06

The process is fully transparent and it is democratizing philanthropy.

Wendy H. Steele: 30:11

And what we find is that in communities we get some of what I call the usual suspects, those women who are always involved and they volunteer and lead all kinds of things.

Wendy H. Steele: 30:21

We get those, which is awesome. But we also get women, regardless of their financial capacity, who've never donated $1,000 to a single charity before. 50% of our members have never written a check for $1,000 before joining Impact. And when you get that variety, that diversity of lived experience, that diversity of thought and knowledge around these things, really good things happen. The dialogues to vet the nonprofits are intentional and wise and much better than when we all sit around in sort of an echo chamber telling each other what we already know, and it became incredibly powerful. So that was 2001. I had the idea by early 2002, we had our nonprofit status by May of that year, 123 women had written a check. We received over 100 applications across these five focus areas and in September, with a vote of our membership, we awarded $123,000 to a local dental clinic that serves the homeless and uninsured, and that check outfitted five new dental chairs.

Mick Spiers: 31:27

This is amazing. I'll tell you the three things that are popping into my mind as you talk, wendy. The first one is multiplication of impact, second one is connection and the third one is community. So if I unpack those three very quickly, the multiplication of impact yeah, I was playing out that story in my head. I was thinking about the $50 here, the $50 there and your thought process right.

Mick Spiers: 31:52

So if there's a charity down the road that's running something and I'm going to give them $50, one of my thought processes is where is that $50 going to go? Is it just going to be whittled away in operational costs and keeping the doors open, or is it really going to have some kind of impact? Whereas $1,000 times 100 people, $100,000, I start going oh, actually this is going to make a real difference. So the hesitant of whether I even put my money out starts to diminish when I feel like this is really going to have an impact. It's not going to be just a drop in the ocean that just gets fritted away in monthly operating costs. This is going to make a difference.

Mick Spiers: 32:25

The second one is then connection on that $50. If I did that to the charity down the road by next week, I've forgotten that $50. I'm not even thinking about it anymore. But if I've put $1,000 on the line, oh, I'm connected to the project. Now I'm going. Oh, I wonder what we're going to do with this. This is going to be really cool and all of a sudden it's $100,000. So there's that personal connection and then there's the community aspect, because then when you get a hundred people together that are all focused, they've all got their democratic vote about where the money goes. Now, all of a sudden, it's not I did something interesting, it's. We did something interesting. We did this, we had an impact. And now I'm picturing friends for life where you've got something that you've bonded around and you've created a caring community that made a difference in your community. How does that sit with you? So, multiplication of impact, connection, community.

Wendy H. Steele: 33:13

Yes, you are 100% spot on. That is exactly what happens, and that sense of community is important. All the points you made are important, but in this case you imagine there are women sitting so if they choose to, they can get involved in the vetting process. And so each of our focus areas education, health and wellness, environment, arts and culture and family If you're a member, you can choose to serve on one of those committees. We call them focus area committees, but they're really grant review committees.

Wendy H. Steele: 33:43

And now you end up with women who perhaps they are seasoned philanthropists. This check for a thousand dollars is relatively simple for them and it's not the only thousand dollar gift they make. So they sort of have this view of the mountaintop. They know what's happening outside of our community. They know what works and what doesn't. They're probably up on some of the research studies. You have your newly minted philanthropist, the woman who has never written a check to a single charity for $1,000. And she has a very localized view. She might know someone who needed these services. She may have had these services herself. She may know which bus line is vital to the success of this proposal or which community partners can be trusted.

Wendy H. Steele: 34:26

But when you bring sort of those two extremes and then every shade in between around the table as these nonprofit applications are being vetted.

Wendy H. Steele: 34:36

What ends up happening is you end up meeting and connecting with at a very deep level, as you said, but people you otherwise wouldn't have met because you don't live in the same neighborhood, you don't work in the same buildings, you don't shop in the same stores.

Wendy H. Steele: 34:56

I mean, now you're coming together over the common care for your community and what happens after that is really interesting because, yes, you're connected to the work that you've done and your life is changed as a member, as a donor, but your life is enriched because your network of women or men in some cases, as we'll talk, but your network of people, has now grown and you're moving outside of maybe what you grew up with. And one of the biggest things that I learned is the connections that come this way. It's such an authentically true connection of really shared values and shared approach that I mean, yes, best friends, but sometimes one is offering another a job, or sometimes one's encouraging another to run for office, or it spills over into these other things because you've got this big community that's coming alongside each other and saying what else can we do? We've done this thing. What else can we do and who should help us get there?

Mick Spiers: 35:53

So what I'm loving here and I'm going to bring you back to your three Ts for a moment right, and let's unpack it one at a time. So everything I'm hearing here, let's talk about treasure. So treasure now we don't have a $50. Don't even have $1,000,. We've got a minimum of $100,000.

Mick Spiers: 36:08

Talent we've now got all of these very talented individuals that have got ideas in their head about where that money can be best spent to make sure it's not fritted away, to make sure it does something impactful. And then time it's now not just 24 hours a day. We've now got 100 people that have got 24 hours a day. We've just multiplied our time factor. So talent, time, treasure is now multiplied by 100 times in each of your chapters. Minimum, minimum, because I know that's the minimum. It's not the maximum. Now we're talking about real impact. We're talking about real impact because it's 100T, 100t, 100t talent, time and treasure and you can make sure that it's really having an impact. Then the personal result, the payback, is that now you've got this amazing community and this amazing network and you're going to get personal reward from having these wonderful people that you work with, the pride, the community, the spirit. I just think it's amazing. How does that play back of the three Ts? How does that sit with you?

Wendy H. Steele: 37:06

Yes, I love that. You're absolutely right. It's amplifying, it's putting on steroids those things, and it's this notion that we really are better together that no one of us, when you're trying to solve a problem, no one of us has the whole solution. I might hold a little piece of it and you might hold a piece of it, and we bring 10 more people around, or a hundred more people around, and now you can really debate what that answer is, instead of getting stuck in the echo chamber of our own heads, of trying to solve it and feeling frustrated.

Mick Spiers: 37:38

Love it. Yeah, it's exactly what happens, right. So here's a call to action for everyone. Before we transition to a key question for Wendy, just stop and think for a moment. If you're listening to this on the way to work or whatever you're doing going about your chores today, just have a think about how can I use my talent, time and treasure in the best way, how can it best serve others and make a difference? Then how can I, as an individual, then multiply that impact through community? So talent, time and treasure how can I multiply an individual, then multiply that impact through community. So talent, time and treasure how can I multiply it? That's your call to action today, directly to you. Now, wendy, if people are listening to this and go, I want to know more about this organization that Wendy's already created. How do people find Impact 100 and how do they get involved?

Wendy H. Steele: 38:22

They can get involved any number of ways and they find it very easily Impact100globalorg. So impact100globalorg, that's the website that will list every location that we currently have Impact 100 chapters. And then there's also that's easy for you to connect directly with a chapter if you've got one anywhere near you. By the way, you don't have to live, work or play in a particular region to donate. You might just really care about a community and live somewhere else, and you can still become a member of that chapter by donating $1,000 if you so choose.

Wendy H. Steele: 39:00

If you want to start a chapter, that website also allows you to send a contact email to say I'm interested in what it looks like to start a chapter. That website also allows you to send a contact email to say I'm interested in what it looks like to start a chapter. But it's connecting with Impact 100 is a terrific thing to do and hopefully you will have some of your listeners who are going to be interested in that. But if not, I love the idea of just doing it organically, right in your own neighborhood, your backyard or your company, your organization. That can make a huge difference.

Mick Spiers: 39:29

Yeah, that's wonderful. I just love it, Wendy. I've so enjoyed our conversation today. It's been really enlightening for me and I know it would be for the audience as well. I'd like to take us to our rapid round now. So these are the same four questions that we ask all of our guests. Firstly, what's the one thing you know now that you wish you knew when you were 20?

Wendy H. Steele: 39:47

Oh my gosh. There's a really long list of things that I know now that I wish I knew when I was 20. But I would say, oh word. One thing that I wish I knew then was how big Impact 100 was going to get, because I did it sort of on the side. You know, I did it while I was still a banker and I had no idea it would multiply. When I started impact I thought I was doing it for one town and now it's in four countries. So I really wish I would have known that.

Mick Spiers: 40:20

Yeah, okay, brilliant. What's your favorite book?

Wendy H. Steele: 40:22

Oh, I have a lot of favorite books, so right now I would put at the top Big Potential by Sean Acor. It is amazing and he's brilliant. If you have not seen his TED Talk, it is well worth it. And Leaders Eat Last by Adam Grant, another huge book that I love.

Mick Spiers: 40:38

All right, brilliant. What's your favorite quote?

Wendy H. Steele: 40:40

Oh, this won't surprise you, it's an African proverb. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go to there.

Mick Spiers: 40:49

Sorry for giggling. As you said that, it's my favorite too.

Wendy H. Steele: 40:52

Well see, there we go. That's my favorite.

Mick Spiers: 40:55

That's my favorite quote. Yeah, so there we go. All right, Brilliant. Now finally, Wendy, we spoke about how people can find Impact 100, but what about you individually, If people would like to connect with you and know more about you? Read your book. How do people find you?

Wendy H. Steele: 41:08

Thank you. Yes, you can reach out to me on email, wendy at impact100globalorg. I have a website now, wendyhsteelcom, and you'll find out about the book and my speaking. I'm trying to think what else they need, or Impact 100 Global. I think that's all the ways to reach me. So thank you.

Mick Spiers: 41:27

Brilliant, wendy, and we'll put the links in the show notes as well. It always helps people to find you as well. So thank you so much for your time today. Thank you on behalf of everyone for what you do, because what you are doing is a true multiplication of impact for people that probably felt that they couldn't be impactful. So you're empowering people to turn their desire to help into action to help. So thank you. And meaningful action Meaningful because it's multiplied by at least 100 in every chapter. So thank you, thank you, thank you for what you do, thank you for your brilliance in innovating and bringing this together, and continue doing it, because it makes an impact. Thank you.

Wendy H. Steele: 42:05

Oh, thank you so much, Mick. What a treat it was.