An Army of Normal Folks - Wendy Steele: 100 Women Transforming Their Community (Pt 2)

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

Wendy was frustrated that many women weren’t able to participate in female philanthropy that was usually time-based such as bake sales and events. So one day she dreamt up a whole new world called Impact 100—where 100 women each give $1,000 and together they’d make a transformative gift of $100,000 in their community. Today, there’s Impact 100 chapters in 60 cities and they've collectively given away more than $123 million! Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an Army of Normal Folks and we continue now with part two of our conversation with Wendy Steele right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Do the applicants are you searching out female applicants? Or that's not a thing. No. It's a female-based philanthropy giving power to women to make a difference in their communities, but you're not specifically seeking out women run organizations. No, and that was the other thing.

Back when Impact 100 started, there were women's funds that were just starting to come into favor around the country. And a lot of them, they were giving with agenda lens, meaning they would only fund women and girls initiatives. And although I think that's important, I don't think that's the whole story. What I know about women is that if they were a cure for prostate cancer, every woman I know would be happy to fund it. So when we get to focused on one part of the

community, the whole community can't thrive. All right, so you did this. And then here we are 20 years later, which we'll talk about the unbelievable amount of money that this organization raised. But amount of money that this organization raised, but how did other cities and other people find out about this crazy check right and group of women that you could cocked? It was crazy. I got a call after we gave away our first grant. I got a call on my landline in Cincinnati from the deputy Midwest bureau chief for People magazine. And they wanted to write a story. Yeah, that was my reaction. Midwest chief bureau chief bureau chief, which, which means a monkey mug, right? Yeah, for people. Yeah. And they wanted to write the story. I literally thought it was a prank call. We had tried so hard to get media. Can I tell you a funny story real quick? Please.

I don't know why this popped in my hand, but it's really funny. We had a guy from the middle. We do business in 42 different countries. And because of that, our banking information is everywhere because you see wires and ACHs and LC's and we're dealing with different currencies. So you're exposed a little, as you would know, being a banker. And anyway, this goth from, turns out it was Nigeria,

tried to mimic one of our customers and get us to wire some money. And it was, it was close. It's pretty believe what we didn't do it. We have controls in place. But in any way, he had gotten some money from three people in Canada. And I called my friend at FBI and said, Hey, I just want to make you aware of this number of this email address. This is what happened. And he said, General, this, I got contacted by someone with the Royal Canadian Police about this very thing, wire fraud. And he said, if you don't mind, I'm going to give you the number. I said, time, fine, whatever. Didn't hear anything for two weeks,

whatever, we didn't get beat out anything. We're moving on in my phone rings. And I pick up and this guy says, hello, A is this bill Courtney? I said, yeah. And he said, this is Ronald McDonald with the Royal Canadian police. You know what I said? Get the hell out of here and hung up. As I knew, as a buddy script, Ronald McDonald with the Canadian Police Department. I did hang up. Phone came back and he said, that happens sometimes. My name's really Ronald McDonald, not really with the cops, and I'm like, okay, you got my attention now. So I can completely understand you want to hang up on People magazine. I mean, you're a banker and Cincinnati.

What does people want to do with you? They're writing stories about Steve Martin and Elmick Fiercen. Exactly. Yeah. You mean Cincinnati. Well, and at the time, we had been trying so hard to get local media coverage. And we were nobody cared. Yeah. But when we gave the money away, like buried in the living section was this little article that said, impact of your newspaper. Yeah, of this. So the most newspaper didn't see it as really newsworthy, but people, and I think I'm not red, I don't know if it still is,

but people is or has been like the most widely read magazine. At the time, it was, I don't know if it still is, but at the time it was the most widely read publication period. So it's a big deal. They go do a story like a real live full a real live story. All right. So you say after you don't hang up on them. Exactly. I say okay. And man did she do her homework? She was, she asked a lot of questions. And interestingly, because this conversation started off talking about my childhood, that's exactly where her interview started.

Now. That just means that I'm a stone-cold professional. Exactly, clearly. It is clear. So that when she started asking me and I am a person who doesn't like lying. Now, let me just say that at that point, my closest friends did not know how my mother died. Oh, but you had found out. So I found out in between, it was shortly after graduating high school, but before I went to college, so literally four years in the summer.

But then you never, you did mums the word just like your family. Right. I didn't tell it. I stayed part of that. I didn't tell a soul. Wow. Are you telling me you let your friends know that your mom committed suicide in people magazine? Well, I did reach out to them before it came in print, but there definitely are people who found out

because of the magazine. There's no doubt about it. And I, so, you know, I have to tell the story and I beg her, like, look, don't make this sensational. Please don't make everything that I've done be all about this tragedy. Like, please don't do that. She wouldn't, I said, can you show me the article before you, before it goes to print? And she's like, absolutely not. You don't do that.

That's not happening. and she's like, absolutely not. You don't do that. That's not happening. Right. So I literally had to call my sisters and say, um, I don't know if you've told your friends, but I think when this article comes out, the gig might be up.

Well, your sister's bad. You know, I think they were a little surprised. I mean, the whole thing. It's like, how do you even react to that? They weren't. I don't think they were surprised that I told the truth. I think they were surprised that someone would want to put it in a story. Like, I think it was hard. But, but you really do understand it is so much about who you are. And that's why I'm not sensationalizing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, must have struggled with just going day to day and your poor father and all in you and the girls and all of it. But it's really the whole reason that's so important is because the irony of how hard your mom struggled just to live life and what a strong woman she raised and you became and how then you have made this massive impact on our country

with more strong women. I think the story cannot be unconnected. Right. Exactly. And it was a gift to me in a lot of ways because I am someone who tells the truth. So I couldn't imagine having a lie in print and it ended up being really freeing, but it was sort of scary in the moment because I bet I bet you had all kinds of insecurity over it. I mean, what is this person got to write about

me and all that, but turns out the article was pretty deck I'm good. It turns out, yeah, that the article not only is what spread the word about impact 100, but randomly, it also because it was people magazine, parenthetically mentioned that I was divorced. Oh, you were divorced at this time. Yeah, so while I was building impact 100, my marriage was falling apart. And so how did you go up to the woman at the bait shop up in Michigan? She could have set you up. She was gone by then. Oh, sadly. Yeah. She's got Esther Simpson. All you had to do is go see

Esther. She could have fixed you up with some dude down the street. Actually, that's kind of what happened. I'm pretty sure that Esther channeled her matchmaking through People magazine because, wait for it, the guy that I dated during the summers in Northern Michigan when I lived in St. Louis and went to high school and he lived in Birmingham, Michigan and went to high school on Walloon Lake. He is sitting in a doctor's office waiting for his physical reading people. He picks up the magazine. He sees me and remembers. He knows who I and of course if he didn't know who I was, it gives my maiden name. Like it there was no mistaking which Wendy they were talking about here. And he was divorced.

He's reading, I was divorced. He picked up the phone. I think he called his mom first and said, do you remember Wendy Herman? And so then when I got a call from him, before he could say his name. I knew his voice. You're kidding me. He has this very distinctive Michigan accent. Like it's just a very deep voice and very memorable.

It's very interesting. And so you went on a date and never saw him again, right? Yeah, well, that's happy he sure has that. Happily ever after. Yeah, so we got married. The article came out in January of 03. He was divorced with two kids. I was divorced with three.

We got married in June of 05. We're getting ready to have 18 years of marriage. And our blended family of five kids is like the best thing ever. And yeah, totally. You know, it's really interesting. The sand dunes and water of northern Michigan gave you your mother, your stepmother and your husband. Cool, right? There's got to be a story in there about I think you could have a matchmaking Website called Esther of Northern Michigan or something that thing's insane. It's insane. Yeah, it's so funny how

That place was woven into my dad's romantic life and mine Crazy it is crazy. Alright, so people magazine comes out and I assume because they did a good job with the story, your email starts blowing up. Is that what happened? Wendy's answer to that after the break. Now we return to what happened after the people magazine feature came out. My email started blown up, my phone started blown up, people started saying, how do I buy a franchise? How do I license this? Five franchise. You only made it one year earlier. You don't even know what

you're doing completely yet. Exactly. And this was designed to remove the barrier to get wound in brawl. Yeah, no, we're not. So I was over the moon. That's like, wait a minute, really? You want to do that there? That's fantastic. Let me tell you how. And that's how it all began. And now 20 years later, 20 years later, cities that it is. So it's, it is around the world. So we have chapters in the United States. We have eight in Australia, one in New Zealand, one in the UK, and what city in the UK is it London? London, yeah. You said eight in Australia. Right. That's interesting. It's really interesting. It's taken off like wildfire there. It was fantastic. So Australia

in New Zealand, UKAT, and in the States. And around the United States, we have so our first grant was in $2,000 for $123,000. By the end of 2022, so 20 years later, we have grown 1,000 fold and we've given away now more than $123 million. One woman at a time. Is phenomenal. Isn't it crazy? And you can't do that bacon cookies. I know, you really can't. You really can't. Listen, the story of,

and it works the same way you describe the first year everywhere. Everywhere. It works the same way. Everywhere, although I will tell you in Australia, all but one chapter is gender neutral. So in other words, it's not all women in Australia. And, but other than that, yes, it works. The model works.

So the thing about it, well, not the thing, but I mean, how much how many million hundred what over $123 million? Which is ironic because that is exactly a thousand times. Isn't that crazy? And I'm embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to make that connection. I'm not kidding. I'm the king of ironic connections. It was, it's the most obvious. I'll see. I'll see. Because we announced it on what is called the Global Day of Impact, which is the first

Thursday in November. And this year, so last year was the first Global Day of Impact and we broke through 100 million, which was super exciting and lots to celebrate. And it was the first. Well, this year, I'm looking at, I'm like, it's like 123 million and change, you know, like, I'm like, couldn't it be 125 million? I couldn't it be like, and I literally, I literally said to the someone on the committee, can we, can we just say more than 120 million because I like round

numbers? And they're like're like no 123 is powerful Literally, it took me way longer than it should have and I was like holy mackerel. This is crazy This is the most poetic number you could have had so well phenomenal phenomenal, but You know has it dawned on you, the, um, the numbers of women you must have empowered through this as well? Yeah, it's wild. I mean, to me, that's the, it's not as big a blessing as all of what, all of that money haven't serious major profound impacts

on nonprofit work all over the world. And you can't, by no means do I want to diminish that, but what I am saying is, I think there's a, I think there's an almost equally powerful byproduct of your work that is changing a culture for women from work-based stuff to being able to say, hey, we can raise money too with the best of them and we can pull it off just like anybody. I mean, you've in large smart change the way a lot of women think about philanthropy and their commitment

and connection with it. Yes. And really how they think about themselves. That's interesting. Because imagine, so there are so many things that have come of this that I wish I could say I expected, but I didn't. One of it is that when you look across the impact 100 universe, roughly 50% of the women who join have never written a check to a single charity for a thousand dollars prior to joining impacted. Now in some cases it is a little bit of a capacity. They actually had to budget. They had to rearrange things in order to make that donation. But there were other women who had the capacity. They just didn't feel that they knew

enough or they were the right person to give. So you imagine what do you mean the right person? They were well connected to their husband or they or they deferred that to another whether the other was someone in their own family or whether the other was unknown other in the community that knows more than they do that are better connected. Do you think that has to do with confidence? I think it has to do with, yeah, I would say, sometimes it has to do with confidence, and I think it has to do with making philanthropy mystified. Like, you've gotta be in this ivory tower. You have to know somebody, or you have to be somebody in order to be a philanthropist. And part of the reason I

intentionally used philanthropist is because when you take apart that word and its Greek origins, to be a philanthropist means to love humanity. And so what I refer to as an effective philanthropist is someone who loves others well. You know, Wendy, in a sense, the whole reason this show exists is because I have this belief that what what what it will, our society will never be fixed by people in DC and New York and fancy suits, talking big words. It's just going to be quote an army of normal folks that just see a need and sack and help. And as I hear you, it dawns on me that you started an army in Normal Folk 20 years ago. You empowered women specifically to look at philanthropy different and just say, yeah,

I'm an average person, but a team of average people can do extraordinary things. And you gave them a platform to express that and to achieve that. I mean, that's gotta be, you gotta be, I'm not saying you're pious, but I mean, do you allow yourself to be, do you pinch yourself and allow yourself to be proud of what you're doing? Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, I am amazed, I'm amazed really when I look at it. And when we change those

hearts, think about the ripple effect of how many lives women touch. And so if I go from I have to tell you something, everybody walking was first touched by a woman. Yes, that is very true. Yes, or as I have friends in the women's health research and they say, all life starts with women. Oh, I start with women. If you imagine going from ringing your hands, being concerned about the problems that are facing our community today. And you pivot to being on the side of the table that gets to be a part of the solution. You're a changed person. So true. Now that's true for men or women. That's true no matter, right? And then you understand that a lot of the women

who join Impact 100, they're not what I would call your usual suspects. So if you go to any community, there are those women who are involved in everything, just like I'm sure there are men who are involved in everything. They are the usual suspects. So the first people you go to when you want to do something new.

And we get a lot of those women very happy. They do, right? But because of the way impact 100 works, we get women who would tell you, I'm not a joiner. I don't like women's groups. I prefer to hang out with men. I prefer beer over wine. This is not my thing. And yet they join Impact 100. So what happens is, is that when you have these seasoned philanthropists, the names that you know in every community, sitting alongside women, who are newly minted philanthropists. This is a first for them. And under your one check one vote thing, the season

philanthropist are no more important than the beardry can check that doesn't want to hang out with all the women. Exactly. But when you get them together, suddenly they realize they have a lot in common. Now they wouldn't know each other. They don't live in the same zip code. They don't shop at the same stores. Their kids don't go to the same schools. They aren't going to the same churches and synagogues. But they are realizing that there's not very much that separates them from each other. And so friendships start to happen and the impact of impact 100. If we see it in the community with extra grants and more money and connections that go to the nonprofits, whether they get our funding or not, but we also see it among the women who serve is that their lives change. So they actually build a community.

Yeah. changed. So they actually build a community. Yeah. I hear my favorite thing to do other than this. My favorite thing to do is to go to these communities and meet the women who are making it happen. And what I hear is these are my lifelong best friends. This I now know my passion. You know, I learned, I didn't even know that that was a problem. Now I know this organization is addressing it. I am no longer gonna serve on the leadership team of Impact 100. I wanna go volunteer to be on this person's board

because I now know that this was what I was born to care about. This is what I was born to do. Is the 123 million or what you're talking about right now, the biggest payoff for you personally? This. It's those individual women who step into their their strength. I've said a hundred times that I don't think philanthropy is a nice thing to do. I think about virtue of the blessings that we've been graced with. It's a requirement to get back. Not a nice thing to do. I think about virtue of the blessings that we've been graced with, it's a requirement to get back, not a nice thing to do. But I've also said, and also believe with everything, that if you do it humbly and for the

right reasons, motivated by the simple edification of someone who's not as blessed as you are and you You grow as a result of the work that you do that the payoff behind all of it is you get 50,000 times more out of it And you ever put into it and I hear and I wish people could see your face when you're talking about it because you light up When the 123 million dollars is phenomenal and it's untold how many people's lives have been better as a result of all the money raised from your idea 20 years ago. But it is true that you personally get more out of seeing the strength and power of women in the relationships fostered. You get so much more out of

that than you ever thought you put into it 20 years ago. Absolutely. And in that to pay off to get out in your community and go into work is what you get out of it too is so much more than what you put into it. We'll be right back. You know, it's an army of normal folks and what could be more normal than 100 women? None of which are, we're not talking about multi-millionaires or whatever, but a hundred women getting together and writing a check for a thousand dollars, democratizing philanthropy, which is a phenomenal idea. That's very cool. It's came up with it.

And then affecting change in their neighborhoods, I read that some of your chapters have now 200 women and 300 women and 200 women and you would tear that and you would think well yeah Dallas or Houston or San Francisco or LA or Chicago or well now that I know maybe Sydney or London where you got these huge population centers that that's doable but if I'm sitting around listening and making Georgia it'd be hard to pull a hundred women together which it might be but I read about a chapter in the Panhandle. And I want you to share that story because it, to me, illustrates that you don't have to be in New York surrounded by it and meant some amount of wealth to pull this off. Yeah, absolutely not. My goal is if an impact

chapter can grow to 500 women, then they give one grant to each of those five focus areas every single year. Which is a half million dollars. That would be my goal for any chapter. For all your chapters. And not all chapters can do it for sure. And honestly, not all chapters,

they're all run by volunteers. So not all chapters want to do it and not all communities, you know, will support that. But you can't judge a book by its cover as you are alluding to in Pensacola, Florida. First of all, not all of our listeners know much about Pensacola, I mean, people from my neck would do because because we all vacation the Panhandle Florida because it's close to speech. But Pitschle of Florida is demographically. It's probably the second poorest county in all of Florida. It is, it's stunningly beautiful. It is beautiful, but it's also a military town. Yeah, the Navy's there. The Blue Angels make their home there.

Right. If you like that, which we do, I mean, watching those Blue Angels fly is incredible. But don't hear Pensacola and think, Miami or whatever it is, like you said, I think it is the second or third-pours county in all of Florida. And Pensacola, by their 10th anniversary, reached 1,000 members, and they gave away in a single day that has become known as million dollars Sunday. They gave away a million dollars. They gave two grants in each of those five focused areas. But they- It's the second poorest county in Florida. But they didn't stop.

So that was this year 2023, is their 20th anniversary year? Every year from their 10th until 2022. I don't know the numbers yet for this year. They have given away at least a million dollars. Most recently for at least the past four or five years they've given away 1.1 million dollars so they give away 11 grants of at least a hundred thousand dollars in the two counties which is Santa Rosa and Escambia I think counties in Pensacola which is just remarkable. And honestly, absolutely phenomenal.

I don't know what they're gonna do for their 20th anniversary. It's pretty hard to be where they already are. They are the world's largest impact 100 chapter. But can you imagine in a community like what we just discussed, how far that money goes and what it's doing for some amazing organizations. I mean, it's so cool.

That's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. It is a lot of money. And yet, I travel a lot and when I'm on a plane to Pensacola inevitably someone will say what brings you there and I will say have you ever heard of impact 100. Now this is on a plane going to Pensacola and to the largest chapter. To the largest chapter that has done amazing things. And they say no.

And they say I've never heard of it. I say, really? So if there are still people in Pensacola who've never heard of impact 100, they haven't reached their highest potential. I don't know what that looks like, but imagine those bigger cities, the Sydney's, the New York's, the Palmumbich, the Miami's.

All of those, that's what has to drive you. Is that there's so many people who still haven't heard. So Wendy, here's the deal. I can't think of a more appropriate person to be part of the army of normal folks because you're a kid who grew up in St. Louis and then ended up in Cincinnati. You know, three kids, a dad who traveled and and a mom who struggled, and everybody in the world has struggles, and you go and get a degree and go into banking and get married and get forced to get remarried, and you had an idea. And you've affected countless lives, not only of the people that your organization has given

money to you, of the people that your organization has given money to, but the people actually inside the organization operating it and the empowerment and the and the sense of self they get from it. It's an amazing story and you should be proud and I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed our chat. One of the things we do on an army of normal folks is we all give our contact information. I have mine, our producer Alex, he used to have it, but it was in his car. So would you mind sharing if anybody hears this

and says, I wanna do this in my community, how do they find out more and get in touch? Thank you. It's very easy. Wendy at impact100global.org. So it's global100impact100global.org. You can reach me at w the H steel dot com. STEL.

L-E. Thank you. My cell phone number is 231, 632, 3588. Now you've done it. It's, I'm pretty easy to find. I want to be easy to find. Yeah. I love it. Wendy, thank you so much for coming to Memphis.

And thanks for telling us your story. It's an amazing, it's an amazing trip. And the fun thing about it is you're still in it. And God knows where you go from here. I guess, I guess it's time to tack. Is that what you do? Yeah, look at you. I know, look at me.

Thanks for joining me, Wendy. Thank you so much, Bella, it was a treat. And thank you for joining us this week. Y'all, if Wendy or any other guest has inspired you in general, or better yet to take action by joining an Impact 100 chapter starting one, buying her book, invitation impact, or donating to Wendy's organization, Impact 100 Global, which is

advising all these chapters for free and helping the movement grow. Or something else entirely, please let me know I want to hear about it. You can write me anytime at billatnormalfokes.us and I promise you I'll respond. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends and on social. Subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it. Become a premium member at normalfokes.us. All these things that will help grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

I'll see you next week. you