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Welcome to The Giving Garden Podcast, where we explore how small acts of giving can blossom into lasting change. In each episode, we highlight the power of giving—whether it’s time, kindness, or resources—and how these acts can transform both lives and whole communities.
Join us as we explore the ripple effect of giving and its lasting impact.
Today's conversation is one rooted in simplicity and collective power, the kind of giving that reminds us how meaningful impact can begin with a single yes. I'm honored to be joined by Lori Richter, cofounder and vice president of the one hundred Who Care Alliance and founder of the one hundred Women Who Care North Suburban Chicago chapter. Lori helped shape a global movement built on a beautiful, simple idea. When people come together, each contributing what they can, real change happens quickly and locally. Today, more than 700 giving circles around the world are part of this movement, supporting their communities through trust, connection, and shared purpose.
Martina Halloran:Before stepping into this work, Lori spent more than thirty years in market research, including time at Quaker Oats, and later running her own consultancy. She is also a published author and speaker, bringing both analytical insight and heartfelt storytelling to everything she does. At the heart of Laurie's work is a deep belief in grassroots giving, empowering people to lead with passion, and honoring the strength that comes from collective action. Today, we'll explore the story behind the alliance, what makes giving circles so powerful, and how simple acts of generosity can create lasting change. Welcome to the Giving Garden podcast where we explore how small acts of giving can blossom into lasting change.
Martina Halloran:I'm your host, Martina Halloran, founder of The Giving Garden and CEO of Doctor. Hauschka Skincare USA. In each episode, we highlight the power of giving, whether it's time, kindness, or resources, and how these acts can transform both lives and whole communities. Join me as we explore the ripple effect of giving and its lasting impact. Laurie, welcome to The Giving Garden Podcast.
Laurie Richter:Thank you. It's wonderful to be here.
Martina Halloran:What a privilege to have this conversation with you. I am so excited. I was introduced to 100 women who care from one of my work colleagues who belongs to a chapter and is a member. And when she shared the idea with me, I thought, wow, that's powerful. And importantly, that's local.
Martina Halloran:And when I meet people and have conversations, people think the act of giving or the act of impact has to be so huge and monumental and that these really simple, acts can impact change, not just today, but tomorrow, can really impact lasting change in communities. And that's why I was so excited to talk with you today. And hopefully, our listeners will take some incredible nuggets away, and hopefully, they'll put that into action as well. So, Lori, can you take us back to the moment you first encountered the 100 who care model in Phoenix? And what stirred something in you enough to bring it home and start your
Laurie Richter:own chapter? So the same thing happened to me that happened to I think we have 816 circles now. And it's happened eight sixteen times, which is I just happened to be somewhere. I was at a conference with my husband. I didn't know anybody.
Laurie Richter:And they had a spouse's breakfast for those of us who were there and just wandering around and sat with a woman I'd never met before. And she's from Michigan, which is where Under Women Who Care started. And she told this story about an organization she really deeply believed in, and they had been the victim of embezzlement. Bookkeeper had run away with money, and they were about to close their doors. She was just beside herself, and she went to this meeting of her 100 women who care group, and she was terrified.
Laurie Richter:And she got up, and she sort of pitched this as one of the three nonprofits that were pitched that night, and they got the money. And she was able to save this organization. And I'm listening to this story thinking, what? Wait a minute. You know, this is somebody who would never have done this, but she really cared so deeply about it.
Laurie Richter:And she actually had a format to be able to go and try to help this organization. And just sat in my head for six months. And then when the time was right, I just started making some calls and trying to find CIRCLE who were already operating. And I found a couple who were willing to help me along and get me started. And really that is exactly how it has grown ever since.
Laurie Richter:Very organic, somebody just like what you said, somebody hears about it from somebody else and says, that sounds really interesting and I have time right now and I could do that. It doesn't cost a lot of money, You know, just gotta roll up your sleeves and do it. And so that's kind of what happened. I grabbed four friends and asked them to do this with me. And we held our breath and jumped off the diving board.
Laurie Richter:And that was in 2014. So you are well on the journey.
Martina Halloran:When you launched 100, what surprised you most about how quickly people were willing to say yes to collective giving?
Laurie Richter:Well, for one thing, I don't think people necessarily knew what it was. I think they knew us. Reached out individually to our own friends and our own family members and said, Just please come to this first meeting. Here's basically how it works, and then you can decide if you wanna be a member or not. And I think people are looking for something and they don't know where to find it.
Laurie Richter:They don't know enough about what charities are around me, what's good, what's bad, who are really legitimate and who are not, and where do I want to put my time and money? And when something that sounds very simple comes along and falls in their lap, they're willing to give it a shot. And that's kind of how it started. And we were just blown away by how many people, I think we had 75 people show up that first night. We weren't prepared for that at all.
Laurie Richter:But worked out. Worked out great.
Martina Halloran:Well, it definitely worked out. People are looking for something simple. I really do believe in the good in in humanity and that people want to give and they they wanna take care of their neighbors and their communities. But they often just don't know how and whether it's financial obstacles or it's time obstacles or it's just knowledge based. It really is about making things accessible and making it easy and not making it feel so huge and such a big commitment.
Martina Halloran:Or you feel like what I'm going do isn't going to make a difference. And the idea of 100 people coming together or even four people as you started, four friends, you called them up. And to think you can make a difference, I think is powerful. And when people start to feel empowered, the giving just starts to happen organically. And that is a testament to the work that you're doing and making giving accessible for anybody, not just the women in your area.
Laurie Richter:I think we're the largest network. And the reason is because it's so easy. There's there's very few obstacles or barriers to getting started. And then for the members, four times a year, a $100 a shot, you're done. You know, it's it's just it's so easy.
Laurie Richter:And because of that, I think it's been very easy to grow. And it's been very easy for people to say, I can do this. I'll try it.
Martina Halloran:I also think it creates community. It creates another level of like minded people. When you look at what's happening in the world today, people are looking for their tribe, if you will. They're looking for people who have somewhat of the same sense of social responsibility, social moral compass, however you want to phrase it. And it seems to create a space for people who want to contribute, to do well, especially locally, and want to lift up organizations within their own communities, a really easy way to do that.
Martina Halloran:The alliance was born from chapter leaders wanting to connect with one another. Why was that sense of connection so essential beyond the giving itself and beyond their individual chapters? So you moved this chapter idea into an alliance idea.
Laurie Richter:Right. Really great question. In the beginning, the only way you could get started was you had to search on the internet, find another group, try to contact them, say, Can you help me? Can you tell me how you did this? And finally, somebody set up, Tracy Richards, who's my cohort, my partner in crime here, she set up either a Facebook page or a LinkedIn page or something and tried to find all the people that were sending emails around and put them in one place.
Laurie Richter:And I think the reason it initially started was we would have problems that we had to solve, and nobody else knew how to solve them except other people who were going through the same issues with their groups. So that was the beginning. It was sort of whining and problem solving. And we just got together and said, wouldn't it be really fun if we could get a handful of people to show up in person and have a conference and actually do this in person? And we decided if 25 people responded, yes, we would do it.
Laurie Richter:And that's how the first conference was born. We sent this out and again, we had about 75, 80 people say they wanted to come. And the first one was in Chicago in 2015. And it became a form not just for solving each other's problems, which is super important, but also for sharing best practices. Because in the process of that, somebody would say how they were doing something and you'd be sitting there going, I never thought of that.
Laurie Richter:That's brilliant. I'm going to do that. And it's sort of been that ever since. We really enjoy each other. It's like minded people.
Laurie Richter:They're all motivated enough to try to do this. And we get our problem solved, and we find out great things that other people are doing that propel us forward. So, we just created another community, just like the communities of our circles, we create a larger community. It's always been volunteer. It's never been a governing or rules based.
Laurie Richter:We're we're just really there to provide advocacy and to provide training for new circles that wanna start and to just kind of be a support system to lift everybody up, keep it going.
Martina Halloran:And the level of giving, you know, because this is the Giving Garden Podcast. When I think about the individual giving, the group giving, and then to come together as an alliance to wanna also share and give people access to information that is going to help their capacity and their ability within their own communities to even be more impactful is powerful. And it's it's a testament to like minded good people because what you're giving is your time, and time is not always the easiest thing. So for you and the organization to come together to find a broader way beyond the initial concept of a chapter is incredible. I do hope that the listener takes a nugget to say that's possible.
Martina Halloran:Like you keep talking about these, we just tried this and it worked and we tried this and it worked. And that rings so much of possibility. If we just give it a
Laurie Richter:chance, if we just lean in a little bit more, what can what can happen from this? Circle leaders are incredibly generous too with their time and their and their talent and their knowledge. And I noticed the circles that are forming in the more recent years, they're getting off to such a quicker start because there's so many of us now around who can help get them started. There's resources on our website and they can jump in quick. We have a very a closed Facebook page for the leaders, and people will put a question on there.
Laurie Richter:How do you how are you dealing with this? And 25 people will respond. And then that person goes away now with not just a solution, but several to pick from. And it's just such a powerful thing. It's a little thing, but it's such a powerful thing to have that network because before we didn't have it.
Martina Halloran:So Absolutely. When you speak about the simplicity of the model, why do you think keeping giving simple is so powerful, especially in a world that often overcomplicates and overstates philanthropy? Yeah.
Laurie Richter:Well, one interesting thing I think about our groups is people understand when they sign on, it's going to be mean, there there's a couple little differences, but it's primarily $100 a quarter. So they understand what they're on the hook for. And when they've made that decision, that commitment, they don't have to think anymore about, am I giving enough? Are my friends going to think I'm a cheapskate? Am I going to be pressured by this person to do something I don't really want to do?
Laurie Richter:I think there's a lot of pressure that goes with being asked to give because most people don't know what's acceptable, don't know what to do. And so in this format, you don't have to think about that. All you have to do is focus on these three organizations and try to think through which one would I most want my money to go to. And that alone, taking the pressure off makes it very simple. And then again, you only have to show up a couple times a year.
Laurie Richter:In fact, if you can't make it, as long as you keep up to date on your donations, you're fine. A lot of us now Zoom also, so you can both watch in Zoom and in person if you can actually be there. And it's just like what you were talking about before. It removes all the barriers people have. I don't know what to do.
Laurie Richter:I don't know what the organizations are around here. It feels onerous, and my $100 isn't gonna matter. But yet it really matters when all of a sudden it's $10,000 with a goal.
Martina Halloran:In an aggregate. Absolutely. Yeah. Love I do love the simplicity of this because again, I often hear giving volunteering, it feels so overwhelming. And then the overwhelming comes to somebody in a different way than they say, I'm so overwhelmed by the choices and the options.
Martina Halloran:And is it enough? Just like you said, it really creates this clear path for yes, it's enough. And I also believe that giving at any level is enough because all those small steps, all those small movements create momentum exactly like your organization is that if somebody's thinking is a $100 enough, then all of a sudden it's $10,000 that can really, especially at the local level, when you're talking about community oriented right there in somebody's own, literally in their neighborhood, a $10,000 donation to a small nonprofit is a huge It's huge. Momentum builder. It really is.
Laurie Richter:Let me give you just a quick example. Like, let's say you're gonna give a $100 somewhere and all of us have friends that have favorite charities and they come to us and they say, would you please come support this fundraiser with whatever? And we write our $100 checks. And we don't really know whatever happens, and we're not really connected to this organization, so there's no follow through. But we're sort of doing it as a favor to our friend and because we think it's the right thing.
Laurie Richter:We take that same $100 and you do this, and not only do you get a choice in where it's going to go, but we all bring our organizations back three months later to the next meeting to tell us about exactly what they did with the money. So your same $100 donation now has become whatever, depending on the size of the group, dollars 10,000, 15,000 overnight, and you're going to find out exactly what happened to it. And probably somebody that you know, family member, friend, whatever in the community has been affected by whatever this organization directed towards helping. So it's just so meaningful to have it be local because everybody knows people who are affected by these things. And then we get to see the effect of where our money is actually.
Martina Halloran:It becomes really tangible and it becomes that connection, which goes back to what we were talking about earlier. People are looking for their people, community, that connection. So to see where your contribution is going and then see it put into action to really impact change. I was so excited when I heard about this again, Laurie. And the woman who shared it with me is a little dynamo.
Martina Halloran:And I was like, wow. And I kept going back and I kept asking her questions. It seems so simple. It seems so simple. And I think it's hard to get your arms around the simplicity of it.
Martina Halloran:But that's the beauty of it. And I love the fact that you've made it really clear and really simple. And to your point, somebody knows what they're on, quote unquote, on the hook for. Right. It's four times a year.
Martina Halloran:It's a $100 a quarter. And yes, that is meaningful. And yes, you'll get to see where it goes ultimately. From your perspective, what makes giving circles different from we probably talked a little bit about it from traditional charitable fundraising? Emotionally, what's the difference and the practicality of it?
Martina Halloran:I think people approach fundraising in such a different way from this intimate kind of perspective that you have.
Laurie Richter:Well, it's really nice to do things with other people. You know, it's just a collective thing. It's very democratized. Everybody, as long as you're paying your donation, everybody has a vote. It's the same vote.
Laurie Richter:And there's an interesting commitment that we make, which is because it's local, you might not necessarily like the charity that we picked this quarter. Might not be your favorite charity, but you've made a commitment that because it's the will of the group to support that charity, you're going to support it too. And that's powerful also, because if it was people coming and going when they like the charity and not, well then you might as well go back to individual giving. But because we have it set up this way, everybody accepts that as a premise and they're just excited to have their money go further because it's going to be larger. Know, every group is different, but we're very social in our group.
Laurie Richter:We always have it in a restaurant and people come early with their friends. They have something to eat, they have something to drink. It's very much like a social evening, but it has this wonderful component that at the end we've done something good for people. And individual philanthropy is very different. As I mentioned before, I think there is some internal pressure that people have to deal with.
Laurie Richter:Like, I want to make sure I'm doing something that feels okay. I don't want to look cheap. Don't whatever.
Martina Halloran:That is a really powerful testament to community and to a group. It takes away that feeling of am I doing enough? I love the multiplier effect of You
Laurie Richter:feel like part of something really big. I mean, people feel like they're really part of something important, even though it's the same $100 that they would have written a check to their friend's charity. So you just feel like you're a part of something much bigger than you could accomplish on your own. And, you know, that's the power of it.
Martina Halloran:That is it. That is powerful and empowering. If you're an individual, and you decide, I can do this for $400, and then you really dive into it, and you understand how your $100 is then amplified. And then you do that four times a year in your community. That is
Laurie Richter:significant impact. Also, it's very empowering to the individual members also, because we're all member driven. A charity can't call me up and say, I wanna come present. A member in my group has to come and say, I want to nominate this charity. Then if they get picked out of the hat, and it's literally how we do it, we pick them out of the hat, then they have to come present.
Laurie Richter:They can bring somebody from
Martina Halloran:the Very democratized. Picking it right out of the hat.
Laurie Richter:We have observers watching it, you know, it's being transparent. But I have seen several women over the course of whatever thirteen years I've been doing this, would never ever, ever get up in front of a group of people. And yet they did it here because there's something they care so much about. It affected them so personally that they do it. And we give most of the money to the one who gets the most votes, but we also give $500 to the other two.
Laurie Richter:What happens as well is people will come forward and volunteer for them because now they have a they understand what they do. They have a face they can connect to it. They'll go ask some questions. They might end up on the board. They might volunteer.
Laurie Richter:So there's all these other residual things besides getting handled in the big money at the end of it. And I've seen people just cry when they were selected because it was such a leap for them of faith to do this, to try and get up in front of people. And it's very empowering. And that's one of the things I love also, which has nothing to do with the money that we're giving away, really has to do with the impact it has on the people who are members of the group. I love that part.
Martina Halloran:And that's giving as well. If a group doesn't win the money, but they gain volunteers, or they gain somebody that can help them in admin, or they gain somebody who can introduce them to another opportunity, that's giving in action, full circle, every aspect. And that's community. When you think about it, community members come together in hopes that they share and lift everybody up. Having seen hundreds of these chapters across different communities, what common thread do you notice in places where the model thrives the most?
Martina Halloran:Oh, it's
Laurie Richter:an interesting question, and you'll probably be surprised by the answer. In the smallest, most rural areas is where it thrives the most. And it's because there's not a lot of competition for either share of your time or your money. I'm running something in a suburb of Chicago. People have a million other things that are going on that they can spend their time doing and they can spend their money on.
Laurie Richter:We have some rural areas in Canada where we have groups that are three fifty people large because it's like a destination. It becomes a thing in and of itself in that area and everybody joins. So once a group is settled, they're usually kind of equally successful at raising the money. We all have the same issues with people that don't donate, and then you have, you know, sort of a leaky bucket, and you have to find other people. Everybody has that.
Laurie Richter:But the actual size of the groups and how many people will end up joining are the largest in the areas you would you would least expect.
Martina Halloran:You know, it does not surprise me because I also think the group that I'm familiar with is from a very small town in Massachusetts, very rural, buffers the hill towns. And the group is very active and very committed. And it doesn't surprise me because I think big urban areas, you have so many things coming at you. There's so many social opportunities. There's so many opportunities to build groups of different types or find your people, if you will.
Martina Halloran:But in rural communities, I think the dynamic's a little different. And I think there's a sense of deep rooting in rural communities that you don't often find in urban communities.
Laurie Richter:And there's a logistical issue also, which is the larger the area, you know, we all have to find a place to meet. And the larger the group, the larger you need a place to meet. And in the cities, for example, there was a group in the city of Chicago, not anymore. Anywhere you went to try and meet, they wanted thousands of dollars. We have no budgets.
Laurie Richter:We have nothing. We're all just volunteers, middlemen who were taking money from here and handing it over there. And in the smaller places, there's always some local business that wants to be associated with the group and steps up and gives them whatever they need. And there's other people that donate, you know, food and drink for the meetings and whatever. That's harder to find in the larger urban areas.
Laurie Richter:Yeah. That's another logistical reason.
Martina Halloran:I can imagine. Urban areas are tough. Urban areas are tough when you're trying to build community. Especially the other piece to that is there's high competition. And you're always reading about charitable events and fundraisers, especially and they seem to over index in urban areas, especially places like Chicago, New York City, LA, San Francisco.
Martina Halloran:I can imagine. So the story of Karen Dunnigan and the very first crib donation is deeply moving. How do you see her legacy showing up in the work being done today?
Laurie Richter:Yeah, I'm really glad you asked that because she's a really important part of who we are. And for your listeners, Karen was the founder. I won't bore you with the whole story, but she basically came up with the idea. She was a local realtor, and she was tapped for every fundraiser in her community. Jackson, Michigan, very small community.
Laurie Richter:She had 99 relatives there, very large family. And she was tapped for this crib fundraiser and she really believed in the cause. She said, I can't do another fundraiser. I just can't do it. So she just called all her friends and said, Come to this restaurant on this night and bring your checkbook.
Laurie Richter:And when they did, she had the woman talk for a couple minutes about what their need was. And she said, Okay, everybody is right at a $100 check for this crib thing. Let's get it over with, and let's have a great dinner. And they did. In fifteen minutes, they raised $12,800 Amazing.
Laurie Richter:I figured out immediately, there's really an idea here. So she's got a couple pieces of her legacy, but I think a really important one is by figuring that out, she solved a problem so many of us who want to be involved with philanthropy have had, which is either they don't know what they're doing, which is what we talked about, or another big one is they've worked on fundraisers for their local, maybe a local church or school or whatever, and they take an enormous amount of money and volunteer hours. And it's a thankless job and they don't always have the outcome they'd like to have. And she solved that for us. She showed us a way to do this in an hour without all of that begging people to volunteer their time and whatever.
Laurie Richter:And so I think that's one piece that will always be her legacy that she solved a big problem for how to make, as you said, fundraising really accessible and easy. The other thing about Karen, she's very big personality. Unfortunately, she passed away about five or six months before our first conference in Chicago. But we invited her sisters who continue to run the Michigan chapter to this day, And they've been a part of every conference ever since. And they always get up and talk and they always tell stories of Karen and they show pictures.
Laurie Richter:So her personality has really been a part of our organization since we started and probably always will be. And, you know, love the fact that they show up since 2006, they've been running that circle.
Martina Halloran:Oh, that's incredible. That really
Laurie Richter:And so everybody who joins knows the story of Karen. It's on the website. We talk about it at every conference, you know, everybody knows that story. But, know, she came up with a simplistically brilliant idea and we don't have to sell it. I mean, people just hear about it.
Laurie Richter:I'm the person at The Alliance who gets the emails that show up at The Alliance and probably two to three times a week, we have the form somebody sends in that they heard about it and they want to start a circle and they tell us where and whatever. And then the conversation starts. All of those don't get off the ground. There's a long distance between
Martina Halloran:wanting to do something and then actually Yes. Doing Right.
Laurie Richter:Yeah. Everybody kinda knows knows that story and and is ready to jump in when
Martina Halloran:they find out about it. You come from a market research background.
Laurie Richter:Mhmm.
Martina Halloran:How has that professional experience influenced the way you think about impact, scale, and sustainability within the alliance? Because the first thing that comes to thought often when you think about this type of giving, some people might think it's not sustainable.
Laurie Richter:I would say I I don't see that. I mean, the only thing that ends circles is when something personal usually happens in somebody's life. COVID was a challenge for us. We did an interesting thing. We just bought one Zoom account, a paid Zoom account, and all of our CIRCLE, I mean, there was a whole process they would go through where they would just apply for the times when they wanted to do a Zoom meeting.
Laurie Richter:And we had hundreds of meetings on that one account that might not have happened otherwise. We stayed alive through that period of time. But back to your initial question about market research. So I am pretty empirically based. I keep pretty good records.
Laurie Richter:I mean, little things like I know who's paying, I know who's not, I reach out to them, I let them know. Some groups are looser about that than others. But another important thing, and I do this in my own group and we do this at the Alliance level, we don't pester people, but we do survey people when it's something that's important and we wanna make sure we have a consensus decision. So any big decisions we make, we will go out and ask the membership. And all of these circles start independently and they could all run independently.
Laurie Richter:They don't really need us to be there. There's nothing that we do that they couldn't do on their own. So we probably have about 200 that are very, very active and engaged with us about everything. And then several other 100 who are, they're fine every now and then they'll pop in and ask a question. And we wanna hear from all of them, everybody who wants to be involved, we wanna make sure that they're getting what they need.
Laurie Richter:So one big example is we use third party payment platforms for our donations. And we've done that for several years and now we're developing our own because it's one of the big areas where people kind of complain about, it's not set up for me. They can't really customize it enough for me and it's too difficult to manage. And they've worked fairly well for us. But anyway, that's our big endeavor is to take that on and we can customize it to exactly what our own group's needs are.
Laurie Richter:So that's pretty much what we try to do is just stay in tune, but also at the same time, not be in people's faces because the simplicity is what makes us work. If we started being very bureaucratic and adding all kinds of rules and regulations and things people had to fill out, they would all tell us to take a hike. So you're always trying to find the right balance between being there for what people need and leaving them alone to do what they
Martina Halloran:do best. The payment thing, I think, is a big undertaking. But I love the fact that it's tied back to the simplicity that you're trying to create the opportunity to make it really streamlined and make it for what your organization needs. So even though that seems like a bit of bureaucracy, I think sometimes you need a little bit of that. Because if you're going to keep improving and keep it simple and keep it accessible, the more people will lean in and say, I can do that.
Martina Halloran:I can do that. You know, I've been involved with fundraising. Obviously, you see what we do at The Giving Garden and charity work. But the minute it gets a little, the button doesn't work, somebody will call me and say, I tried and it didn't work twice. And I'm out.
Martina Halloran:You know, with technology. So, I think it's incredible that with your background in the alliance is really trying to help from a technology perspective, to make things easy to keep things viable for the future, because obviously payment methods are critical in what you're trying to do. But I've had that experience where people have come to me and said, I tried to make the donation, the button didn't work.
Laurie Richter:So,
Martina Halloran:you know what, and then I jump off quickly.
Laurie Richter:I'm fully cognizant of this, that it's a big jump. And you know, in the beginning, when I started, it was all checks. And that was it. There were no third party platforms where you could make a donation and be tax deductible and all of that. So it's made it very easy in some ways and more complicated in other ways because, you know, some of our members are older and they're just not as comfortable with all of that.
Laurie Richter:In the beginning, I started, you know, the steering committee all brought our laptops to the meeting and just said, anybody stay behind who's having trouble signing up and we'll sit here with you and we'll make it happen. So, but there's so many other things we can build into that simple things like RSVPs to our meetings. You know, now everybody has to figure out how to do that, and everybody has different ways. We're trying to make it more seamless and put it together in one package that works. So wish us luck.
Laurie Richter:Big thing to chunk off, but we're really excited about it because we know how important it is to the future.
Martina Halloran:Gonna wish you luck, but I actually don't think you need luck because you seem to have a handle on it. Are there any moments or stories from a chapter donation? We're talking about donations that has just stayed with you? Like anything really powerful? I can tell
Laurie Richter:you just a couple from my own circle. I have one woman who's been a member from the beginning, and she has a son who is autistic. I mean, he's in his 30s or 40s by now, but he got through college, couldn't find a job after that. So she started an organization with her husband and they started software testing. They got some contracts for software testing, which is just a kind of a tedious process that he was very well suited to do.
Laurie Richter:And by the time we found her, I think we gave her $13,000 She was probably in her second or third year and over the moon that we gave her this money. And one of the interesting things that happened then is there were other organizations she had tried to get money from and they were all kind of sitting on the side. And when they saw a local group of women in that community give them that much money, they all came out. And she has a very successful thriving nonprofit now. And people from all over the world are looking for what their adult children should do, or she's got a long waiting list.
Laurie Richter:But she always said it was that donation that sort of put them on the map. And there's another thing in that story in that there's so many nonprofits that are started because somebody is in a situation and they can't find a solution and they just roll their sleeves up and they figure it out. And it's just by sheer will, you know, that they do it. And there's so many like that. And she was a perfect example of that.
Martina Halloran:When you feel connected, when you feel like the work matters, And giving at any level, small, medium, large, extra large, that misunderstanding with a lot of people, that even the smallest gift can make a difference to somebody. And that becomes the ripple effect when you really think about the ripple effect of giving and what happens in a community when people lean in because they care and they believe in something. And I loved what you said earlier in the conversation that everybody kind of gets in line and gets on board, even if it's not the charity that is their favorite. I always think about everybody kind of has their like priority pyramid in life and and you have favorite things. And you have to say, well, today might not be for me, and it might not be the thing that I love the most, but this group also needs it.
Martina Halloran:And because I've decided to make a commitment here, the commitment 100%, I'm going to accept what the group decides and what the group consensus is. That is incredible because I think it might also allow somebody a different perspective to say, that is a need in our community that you may not have recognized because you're so focused on the organizations that are near and Everybody has an organization near and dear to their heart. I love the fact that as members, you come with the idea that it is about the work. The work matters. We matter in making an impacting change.
Martina Halloran:So whatever the decision is, it might not be my favorite, but I'm going to go with it because it's important. I think a lot of organizations don't work like that. People will go to the mat and keep saying, but we should do this and we should do that. So I love the fact that you're also attracting people who say, I've made a commitment, and this is the simple framework, and I'm going to work within that framework and
Laurie Richter:not try and bend the rules, if you will. More often than not, they say, at the end of it, that was a really hard decision. You know what I mean? So there's not usually one or two that they hate and one that they love. It's usually three really good ones.
Laurie Richter:I would have picked this one, but they're all really worthy. And they are. And we're a little unique in that way because most giving circles are based on an affinity group like LGBTQ or people who care about social justice or whatever. It's usually a group that comes together over some shared values. And so it's easier for them to pick what they want to give their money to because it's all based on shared values.
Laurie Richter:Ours isn't really shared values. The only real shared value is giving, philanthropy. And we want to do something local. We want to support our community. So that's why you have these situations where it wouldn't always be your first choice.
Laurie Richter:And we never really never have trouble with that. Once or twice, I've had over the course of thirteen years, I've had somebody say, I can't support that particular nonprofit, and here's why. And I just have them make a donation to one of the other ones that we have already picked because that also reflects the will of our group. And that's it. And then it's fine next time.
Martina Halloran:So it rarely, rarely comes up. People sort of buy into it. Which is incredible. And buying into it is not just about women. So the alliance supports women, men, kids, businesses, mixed groups.
Martina Halloran:How does engaging different ages and identities strengthen community overall? I love the kid idea. I think it's it's, you know, a 100 kids who care. Brilliant. So it seems like there are very different entry points.
Martina Halloran:If you're not a woman, obviously, there's other opportunities for you here. So they're all kinda different. Do they all work the same?
Laurie Richter:More or less, but, you know, it's it all started as a 100 women who care. And then over time, you know, other groups formed on their own, which made sense. And it also shows you, you know, philanthropy is everywhere. It's not just within women. I mean, you tend to think of women as the ones who run the fundraisers and whatever, but it can be anywhere.
Laurie Richter:And I'm particularly intrigued by the high school kids and the younger kids, because for the high school kids, and we have some real dynamos who are running groups in high schools, it's a huge leadership challenge. And there's so much they learn from that at a very young age about not just about philanthropy, but managing groups and managing people and all of that. And then the younger kids, I mean, we have little kids and obviously their parents have to help. They don't have any money, but they they give volunteer time. Yeah.
Laurie Richter:So they do little tasks. So everybody finds a way to sort of work with it. You know, the adult groups pretty much always give a $100. But, you know, again, the little kids, they can't do that. And think some of the high school kids, they'll give a little bit less, they'll give $50 but it can be anybody.
Laurie Richter:And more and more, we're noticing we're getting more and more mixed gender groups, more and more just men and women together. And not necessarily couples, it could be couples, but the mixed gender groups, say under 40s are usually mixed gender groups because they become like networking also. So everybody kind of does the same thing and they're all raising money, but they all have like a little bit different slant to it. There are no limitations to how this works. We always tell our groups, here's the basic model, but you know what's going to work in your community, you adapt it.
Laurie Richter:We're not going to tell you not to do something as long as you're not hurting anybody. You adapt it to what's going to work best for you.
Martina Halloran:And people figure that out. I love the fact that you're demonstrating, especially to children, little children, that giving looks different every day and in every way. You can give in so many different ways. And it doesn't always have to be financial. Because I often hear that from people that I really just can't do it, the finances of it.
Martina Halloran:But time is such a gift in terms of giving. You think about elderly people who would love for somebody to read for them, or elderly people who can't get their yard work done. There's so many different ways to give and lean in into communities. And I think it's brilliant that from a young age, children can be a part of this, even if it's not a financial mechanism. They're really learning that they have something within them that's a value that they can share with their community and make impact.
Martina Halloran:And I think that's really beautiful.
Laurie Richter:Right. It's good modeling. I mean, we didn't intend for that to happen, but it's great that it did. It's just so it's all organic. It just all sort of everything that's happened with us just happened because of the people behind it that are moving it.
Laurie Richter:It's not us necessarily leading people down a track. They just kind of figure out something that they know is going
Martina Halloran:to be meaningful and work and they do it. You know, again, I come back to community and localized giving, and it's just so powerful. Again, when I heard about this and, of course, I heard about it from the lens of a woman. And I really think women are movers and shakers. And and given the fact that the original group was started by a woman, they have a tendency to understand need in communities.
Martina Halloran:They have a tendency to be able to look beyond themselves because a lot of times they're managing. You know, women are managing so many different things in the world, whether it's family, professions, elderly parents, taking care of siblings. So, I think it's such an incredible testament to the will of women, but to the will of humanity and wanting to come together consistently in a sustainable way. Because we talked a little bit about this, but this is a very sustainable model. It is really just about a desire.
Martina Halloran:If somebody has a desire to want to contribute to their community, the sustainability is there. So for someone listening who feels called to give but unsure where to start, I often hear that a lot. What would you say to them about joining or starting a giving circle?
Laurie Richter:So reach out. Go to the 100whocarealliance.org website. There's a lot of resources on there. If you were interested in starting a circle, there's all kinds of resources there to help you get going. But the person who starts a circle is different than the person who joins a circle.
Laurie Richter:And you don't need a lot to start. You need probably a couple friends, so you're not burying the whole thing on your own and you have to find a place and that's really it. You don't really need a lot of money to do anything. You just need to be the person who has the drive to say, we're gonna put the thing together. For the member, I get often emails from people who are saying, hey, I live in such and such a little town, and I'm looking on your website, and I'm trying to see if there's a circle there.
Laurie Richter:And we'll try to help them find you know, we have a directory. That directory is also in the past year, we put that together. You can search anywhere. They're actually all over the world.
Martina Halloran:Which is fantastic because I've been on it more than once. And I think everybody in our office has been on it, especially colleagues that have children. So we've all been searching, trying to find our fit because, again, so motivated by this, and it it's just so powerful. And the localization just really speaks to me.
Laurie Richter:Hopefully, you can you can find if you don't wanna start one, you can find one close. We will sometimes put people together if we get people in the same area, or if there's somebody running one close by, we'll connect the two of them so they can kind of talk through. Do they want to try to do something together? Or does one want to try to mentor the other one to start? But you just have to decide you're willing to do it.
Laurie Richter:And people join all the time. They can come, they can watch, they don't have to pay. They don't have to commit to observe a meeting. And a little secret I would say is if you don't really want to do that part of it, if you don't wanna do donations, but you wanna learn about local charities, start going to these meetings. Because just the exposure, you'll learn so much.
Laurie Richter:But that's a
Martina Halloran:great idea. That is a fantastic idea.
Laurie Richter:I mean, I think it would feel a little weird to, you know, to keep coming to meetings and not join.
Martina Halloran:And not join? Well, that's how maybe that's how they get you. Just keep coming, and eventually you're gonna join.
Laurie Richter:Right. And you probably will. I mean, most people come to their first meeting are so excited when they watch because it's when the announcement is made, you just see people are just so overjoyed. It's not restricted money. They didn't have to fill out tons of paperwork.
Laurie Richter:They didn't have to go run through all these hoops. They just got up there and talked with passion. And we we will often bring in people who are beneficiaries of whatever that charity is doing, and they'll tell their story. Here's why I got connected to them. Here's what happened to me.
Laurie Richter:Those are some of the most powerful stories really, because they get people crying. It's usually the person who was in bad shape and ended up much better shape. But yeah, we we know we're always willing to talk to people. It's just go on the website and see if you can find something close by and reach out to us and we'll help in any way we can.
Martina Halloran:That's what our
Laurie Richter:purpose of our group is, just to help you get going.
Martina Halloran:So looking ahead, what is your hope for the future of the one hundred Who Care movement? And what role do you believe everyday people can play in shaping a more caring world?
Laurie Richter:Oh, boy. So our hope is that we can be self sustainable. Again, as I mentioned, we're all volunteers. This is a passion project for everybody who has been at the top of this. And we want to find a way to make ourselves financially viable forever without having to go back to our groups and say, you have to pay up, you know, you have to register.
Laurie Richter:So that's one hope for us and that the next generation will come along and want to continue and take it to the next level. And I think when people hear about and watch how we raise money and what we do with it, I think it's inspiring. Very inspiring. Act itself, just share that with people and let them know. And I think that is what helps continue this for the next generation and for people who are not familiar, because there is not very many people who said, I heard about that, and it just seems like a really stupid idea.
Laurie Richter:That just doesn't happen very often. So, you know, just exposure, the more exposure, the better. And just believe that you can be a part of something much bigger than yourself.
Martina Halloran:Yes. And
Laurie Richter:yourself is wonderful, but you can be a part of something much bigger.
Martina Halloran:Exactly. As we come to a close, I find myself reflecting on how powerful it can be when giving is made simple, when community leads the way, and when people trust that together, they can make a meaningful difference. Today's conversation with Lori reminded us that generosity does not have to be grand to be transformative. It can begin with a shared table, a collective decision, and the belief that caring for one another strengthens us all. Through the work of the one hundred Who Care Alliance, we see what happens when everyday people come together with intention, responding to the needs of their own communities with compassion and trust.
Martina Halloran:If you are moved by this conversation, I invite you to explore what giving looks like in your own life. Perhaps it is joining a local giving circle, starting one of your own, or simply showing up with care where you are needed most. Thank you for gathering with us today, for listening with an open heart, and for being part of this growing circle of care. Until next time, may the seeds you plant through kindness continue to grow. Thank you for listening to The Giving Garden Podcast.
Martina Halloran:I hope you're leaving inspired because even the smallest act can spark positive change. If you've enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. The Giving Garden podcast is produced by Edwin Bautista and edited by Steven West. A special thanks to Helen Palisi for her guidance and generosity. The Giving Garden podcast is brought to you by Doctor.
Martina Halloran:Hauschka Skincare USA, pioneers in natural skincare for over fifty years in home to the Giving Garden loyalty program. Visit drhauschka.com to learn more.