Spectrum’s Channel 9 joined us on March 28, 2019, when we presented St. Anne’s Foundation with $17,000 of our collective giving. The funds will provide “Birthday Celebrations” for the girls at St. Anne’s. For many of these adolescent girls, it will be the first time that their birthday is acknowledged. The celebration will include a cake, gift card and recognition of their day. In addition to the caring folks at St. Anne’s, these girls will know that there are 100+ Women who also care!
At our November 2023 100 Women Who Care Albany meeting, we took the time to celebrate crossing the half a million mark in donations to twenty-nine worthy Capital District charities! An incredible milestone celebrated by 100 roses for our members, provided by Trader Joe’s.
In addition to the donations from our 100 Women Who Care Albany chapter members, each of the organizations selected each quarter is submitted to the Richard M. Schulze Fund for a matching $5,000 additional donation, making the total funds raised from our joint efforts even more!
An update was provided by Wizard’s Wardrobe, the August 2023 recipient. They offer literacy support in the South End of Albany – an area that has a low literacy rate. Our collective giving donation will be used to modernize their library and to add more books to be sent home with the students. They will also be expanding their offerings to Saturday programs to add enrichment for these children. Wizard’s Wardrobe is looking for reading tutors if any one is interested in volunteering.
The three worthy organizations presenting at this meeting were:
Grassroot Givers was selected as the recipient of our collective giving for this quarter. We look forward to hearing from them at our next meeting in February with the details of how the garage conversion to much needed storage space is proceeding.
Our donation checks from this meeting were presented on Friday, December 15, 2023.
New members are always welcome! Next meeting is on February 8, 2024. Learn more about our meetings, how to join and how to nominate a charity (you must be a member to nominate).
At the August 100 Women Who Care Albany meeting, we were treated to a great turn out – both in person and on the Zoom call. During this meeting, we heard from three incredible Capital District non-profits:
Congratulations to our August recipient, Wizard’s Wardrobe – where reading is magic! Wizard’s Wardrobe is an after school tutoring program. Students are young readers living in Albany’s South End. They all come to the program reading below grade level. Some students are eager to read, some are emerging as readers, and many are struggling. ALL are capable of learning to read. ALL are given the confidence to practice and improve reading skills.
On September 15, the checks were delivered to Wizard’s Wardrobe totally $22,400. We also informed Chief Operating Officer, Diane Hester Brown that they will be receiving the additional $5000 from the Richard M. Schulze Fund!
Thanks to all our members for their continued participation. New members are always welcome, learn more here. Consider joining us at our next meeting on November 9, 2023.
It was a tough choice between these three worthy charities. When the votes were counted, Sidewalk Warriors Troy was selected. This worthy organization is dedicated to supporting those experiencing poverty in the Troy, NY community through humanitarian assistance; distribution of food, hygiene products, and other necessities for daily living. Our funds will be used to purchase and provide hot meals and other food to the friends at their weekly distribution.
On July 6, 2023, a subset of the 100 Women Who Care Albany chapter met with volunteers from Sidewalk Warriors Troy. They are 100% operated by dedicated volunteers to help those struggling in the Troy area. Every Thursday night, regardless of the weather, they distribute hot meals, food, cleaning products, hygiene essentials and so much more. We were fortunate to see them setting up and spoke with Robin Fontanelli, the founder of the group. For the past 2 1/2 years they have made an incredible difference for so many in need.
In addition to the $22,200 in funds donated by our local chapter members, the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, a nonprofit created by the founder and chairman of the national electronics retailer Best Buy, will also be donating an additional $5,000 to Sidewalk Warriors Troy.
The 100 Women Who Care Albany chapter held our February 2023 meeting fully virtual. Members presented these three deserving nominees via a shared video:
When our voting concluded, our chapter voted for Capital District Women’s Employment & Resource Center (WERC). WERC works to advance women’s success in the workplace by building their economic and personal independence. They provide workforce development services to women in the Capital Region who have lost their source of support due to divorce, separation, other spouse’s job loss, disability or death. WERC’s training programs also serve women who are pending loss of public assistance benefits.
On March 23, the collective giving checks were delivered to WERC. Beth Guthier, WERC’s Director, gave us a great review of all the wonderful services they supply.
We look forward to meeting in person at our next quarterly meeting on May 11 at the Delmar Reformed Church in Delmar.
We always welcome new members and we hope to see you then!
100 Women Who Care Albany met on November 10, 2022 for our second in-person meeting since the Covid pandemic began. We had a great turn out of members meeting in person at the Delmar Reformed Church. We also had approximately twenty-five members participating through Zoom to see the presentations and vote on-line. The on-line votes were then added to our in-person votes to determine the winning recipient. We are excited to be able to continue offer this hybrid option to our members and sincerely thank Eileen Howe Bird for supplying the computer and Zoom meeting software.
The three excellent non-profits chosen to present at this meeting were:
Congratulations to our November recipient, Joan Nicole Prince Home whose mission is dedicated to providing a safe, comfortable, caring residence for terminally ill patients in need of a home during their final days.
Just before the Christmas, a group of 100 Women Who Care Albany members presented the checks and took a tour of JNP Home.
It was such an emotional experience visiting their beautiful home, which is a place of comfort for patients in the final days of their life.
The picture above the fireplace is of Joan Nicole Prince, a young mother of four, who lost her battle with cancer. In her honor her husband gave a notable donation which allowed the Home to originally open in 2006.
Our next meeting will be February 10, 2023. We will be holding this meeting fully virtual as we were doing during the Covid pandemic. This will enable us to avoid issues with the weather and to keep us all healthy during the winter months. Members will be nominating non-profits in late January. Three will be chosen and the associated members will record a five minute video to share. The videos will be available to members starting February 10 with online voting closing on February 13.
On August 11, 2022, 100 Women Who Care Albany finally had our first in-person meeting since the Covid pandemic began. It was very exciting to finally be together in a room and have live presentations from our members! To support those members that were not able to be in person, we made this a hybrid meeting and simultaneously had members viewing the live presentations through Zoom and voting online. The online votes were added to our in-person voting to decide the winner.
During this meeting we had a wonderful presentation from our May recipient, Muslim Soup Kitchen Project. We learned more about the wonderful work this all volunteer organization does and how they are already putting our funds to good use.
The three excellent non-profits chosen to present at this meeting were:
Congratulations to our August recipient, Soul Fire Farm. They are an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system by raising and distributing life-giving food as a means to end food apartheid.
We look forward to our next meeting on Thursday, November 10, 2022. We always welcome new members. Read more about our meetings and how it works.
Richard Schulze, Best Buy’s founder, has identified the 100 Women Who Carestructure as a meaningful way to partner with local philanthropists and give back to the many communities that have helped make Best Buy the world’s leading electronics retailer.
For the last four years, the Minnesota based Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation (RMSFF) has participated in a phased national rollout to provide matching grants of 50% of total dollars raised per meeting (up to a $5,000 match) for invited giving circles within 20 miles of a Best Buy retail store. The matching funds, that align with their mission and funding guidelines, go to the nonprofit organization chosen by the 100 Women Who Care chapter.
Now in the fifth (and final) year of their phased roll out plan, RMSFF have added 98 chapters to the list of invited giving circles to reach all 50 states. 100 Women Who Care Albany is proud to be one of those chapters!
The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation (RMSFF) will consider providing up to a 50% match (up to $5,000) to invited Women Who Care chapters whose chosen charities also meet certain criteria:
Recognized as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization under the Internal Revenue Code for at least 12 months as of the date of a request for a matching grant.
Working within the geographic area of the chapter making the request. National charities will only be considered if 100% of the donation will be used in the geographic area of the chapter making the request.
The organization and the program considered for a matching grant must align with RMSFF’s mission and funding guidelines. RMSFF reserves the right to withhold matching funds to organizations which, in its sole discretion, do not align with its grantmaking priorities.
Community Caregivers was our February 2022 recipient and they applied to RMSFF for the additional grant. We are so pleased and excited the grant has come through. In addition to our $21,000 collective giving, they received an additional $5,000 in funding from RMSFF. We are excited that all future 100 Women Who Care Albany chapter receipient non-profits will be able to apply for a grant – extending our funding even further to help the Capital District.
After watching member’s videos of each nomination and voting, our members selected Muslim Soup Kitchen to receive our collective giving.
Check presentation to Muslim Soup Kitchen on June 28, 2022
On June 28, 2022,100 Women Who Care Albany members presented checks collected from our chpater totalling $21,500 to the Muslim Soup Kitchen. Under the umbrella motto of Creating Unity by Serving Humanity, this volunteer organization is serving meals to homeless, refugees, and housebound families of all religions and backgrounds. Since 2014, under the direction of Uzma Popal, they have served over 420,000 meals.
During the COIVD pandemic, 100 Women Who Care Albany switched to a virutal format. While we had hoped to meet in person in May, because of a surge in known Covid cases, we did switch back to virtual. Please continue to check our website, Facebook page and for member’s email for our August 11, 2022 meeting details. We hope to be meeting in person soon! See our website for more information on how our chapter is making a difference for non-profits in the Capital District..
At the first meeting of 2022, 100 Women Who Care Albany members nominated some wonderful charities. The three non-profits below were picked and members recorded great videos for our virtual meeting.
On February 21, we announced that our members selected Community Caregivers to receive our collective giving.
In total, $21,000 was collected from our members and presented to Community Caregivers on April 5, 2022. This wonderful non-profit provides services that enable individuals of all ages to maintain their independence, dignity and quality of life within their homes and communities. Our funds will help support their efforts, recruiting more volunteers to reach a wider base of clients.
During the Covid pandemic, we have met virtually seven times. Wathcing videos of members presenting their charity nominations and then voting on-line we picked seven awesome non-profits who needed our help more than ever! It certainly worked well, but we miss the interactions and live presentations. We are happy to announce that for the first time since February 2020, we will be meeting in person on May 5, 2022. We are so ready to share in the excitement and energy of an in person meeting! See our meeting page for more details!
As always, we welcome new members to join us. See you all on May 5!
The November 2021 virtual meeting of 100 Women Who Care Albany continued it’s mission to support our Capital Region exception loval non-profits. During this virtual meeting, members reviewed nomiation videos from the following three charities:
Congratulations to our November recipient, St. Paul’s Center, whose whose mission is to provide a community that strives to awaken hope and rekindle dignity in families who seek comfort, support and assistance in moving from homelessness to a sustainable future. Services include: an emergency shelter to mothers and their children without a place to call home as well as initial and ongoing support to families as they transition to independent living.
On January 7, 2022, on behalf of all members, Jeri Bosman presented checks totaling $21,500 to St. Paul’s Center.
Our next meeting will be February 10, 2022. It will once again be virtual in order to keep all of our members safe. We look forward to one day getting to meet in person, but until, we are thrilled that we can continue our mission to support local Capital Region non-profits. New members are always welcome to join us. Learn more here.
100 Women Who Care Albany, NY 