T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Members of the Marshalltown chapter of 100 Women Who Care pose for a photo at Elmwood Country Club on Thursday night to celebrate surpassing $500,000 in donations to local causes and organizations since the group was founded in 2012.

As the women who were instrumental in getting Marshalltown’s 100 Women Who Care philanthropic group up and running are quick to explain, the concept behind the organization is surprisingly simple.

Anyone can attend. They get together at the pre-selected meeting site, enjoy drinks and a meal, draw three causes or programs — which the women submit themselves — from a hat, hear presentations on why they should donate to each one and ultimately take a vote. From there, each woman writes a $100 check (or more, if they so choose), and it goes straight to the charitable cause or organization in question.

After initially launching in 2012 — Carrie Barr, Janet Collison, Betsy Macke and Maureen Lyons helped to get it off the ground and still serve on the steering committee — the Marshalltown branch has continued to grow, and it recently celebrated an important milestone by surpassing over $500,000 in total donations.

“The four of us carried around little paper invitations in our purses and handed them out at all the meetings and said there would be an informational meeting, and we had over 100 people show up,” Collison said.

They were uncertain if anyone would show up, Barr added, but all of the pieces fell into place very quickly. According to Collison, it took about three months to get the details and the kinks worked out, but once they did, it was smooth sailing from there.

Collison credits a friend in Des Moines who started a similar group there for inspiring her to do the same locally, and the rest is history. Collison has even started a chapter in her part-time home of Estes Park, Colo., since getting the Marshalltown 100 Women Who Care off the ground.

Fast forward to the present, and membership has stayed strong, with a litany of familiar faces in the community attending the triannual meetings. On Thursday night, they gathered for the second time in 2023 at Elmwood Country Club, and the third and final meeting will be held on October 19 with the location to be shared later.

“The goal is to have as few rules as possible, that women come together. We usually have a place where we can grab a drink. We can visit for a little bit, and then as many people as want to throw their ideas into a hat. Three of them are chosen. Those three women speak for five minutes and they answer questions for five minutes, so each woman has 10 minutes,” Barr said. “In 30 minutes, all the presentations happen, we take a vote and then everyone writes a check to the winner. So it’s all done within an hour. We have no officers. We have no lists. We don’t do any homework. It’s very informal and not much work, and it raises as much money as any big project does.”

Even the non-winning presentations often receive substantial donations, so no one leaves too disappointed. And while simply writing a $100 check a few times a year may not seem like much, the totals — as evidenced by the recent milestone — most certainly make a difference.

“It’s shocking. It’s absolutely shocking. Who thought those little $100 checks would add up to be half a million?” Collison asked. “When people write those checks, they seem happy to do it, and they just write ’em and write ’em and write ’em. That’s the best part.”

There are new women arriving at every single gathering, and members of the younger generation — from Realtor Kelli Thurston to Hope United Methodist Church Pastor Dani Musselman to Marshalltown Public Library Public Service and Technology Manager Katie Fink — are now getting involved.

The number of organizations that have benefited from 100 Women Who Care’s generosity is too long to list — the YMCA/YWCA, Riverside Cemetery, the Animal Rescue League and, more recently, Marshalltown United for Ukraine are a few examples — but it’s worth noting they have donated at least $40,000 every year since the group started in 2012 and fully intend to hit that mark again in 2023. In the meantime, they plan to have a lot of fun doing it.

“Everyone leaves feeling really good, whether their thing got chosen or not. They feel really good,” Barr said. “And everybody’s heard about the other ones, so it’s good for everybody.”

For more details on the upcoming October meeting, contact Collison at janet.collison@gmail.com.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.