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Defends her PFL world title. One last time. Unforgettable and got you, Margaret. To an unforgettable career. Saturday, August 22nd, live from Benchmark International Arena.
For tickets, visit pfl.info/slash tampa. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter.
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Harley-Davidson Motorcycles. Right. This is Our American Stories, and up next, a powerful generosity story. Wendy Steele was a banker in Cincinnati, Ohio, when one day she stumbled upon a transformational idea. Here's Wendy.
with the story of that idea. Yeah. I would talk to women and try to get them involved in the nonprofit volunteer work I was doing, and they would tell me all the reasons why they couldn't. You know, because I had grown up that way. It was hard for me to fathom people who just didn't.
understand Not only that each of us is really called to do our part where we can. but that they wouldn't realize how much they were missing out on. I suddenly thought that there needs to be a way that would remove the barriers. You know, when. You work for An organization, you are well paid, but you travel a lot, well, then that means you can't make regular meetings.
And for a lot of women's philanthropy, it's very time-based. And that doesn't work if women are traveling, or they would tell me, you know, gosh, I'm a stay-at-home mom, I can't justify paying a sitter $10 an hour while I go volunteer with you. And so again, how can I overcome this? Uh Probably the Worst part of it for me was hearing women have that sense that. They didn't have enough, they didn't know enough, they didn't have enough money or wisdom or experience that it wouldn't matter.
that their efforts couldn't make a difference. I intuitively knew that that wasn't true. But I really wasn't sure what was it that was needed. Right about this time, I had heard a story about a church. And the circumstance The pastor of the church had come upon some sort of cash flow crisis.
And so as such, he called in. His senior staff, the head of the men's guild, the head of the women's guild, and he explained to all of them this dire situation. and that he really needed everyone to do what they could to raise as much money or they wouldn't make pay. Payroll, they wouldn't make the mortgage payment for the church building, whatever it was, it was a crisis, and it was a matter of three weeks before they had to bring in all this money. The head of the Women's Guild went out and she mobilized all the women on her team.
They went out and they did bake sales. They did garage sales, they picked up donations, they... did yard work. They did all of these things for day after day, trying to raise as much money as possible. And at the end of the three weeks, The head of the women's guild goes to deliver the check something like $8,000.
She had never raised that much money so quickly before. She was exhausted. but exhilarated that they had come together. Mm. And as she's walking out the door, The head of the men's guild walks in.
and he hands over a check to the pastor. That's many times more than what the women were able to do. And she says to him, How in the world? How did you do that? And the guy says, well.
You know, I decided that We could give $5,000. And so then I called my friend Joe and I asked him to give and Tom and Steve and I played golf with a couple of guys and they wrote a check and The point being It was much more efficient, much more effective, and much more powerful. The way that the head of the men's guild went to bring in all this money. And the head of the women's guild in no way was held back. You know, it wasn't like the pastor said, oh, and by the way, whatever you do, don't write a check.
Just go out and work your tail off and try and see what you can do. It was that culturally Women are brought up to think first about doing. Even when we control our own wealth, we are much less likely than a man to. write a check without getting permission from a man in our life or at least getting confirmation. And men don't view money the same way.
Okay. For me, that was sort of an aha moment. As I sat there that summer with my spiral notebook, One by one, I started to create what we now know as Impact 100.
So The model is really simple. You gather at least 100 women who each donate $1,000.
Now for me, This notion of putting in a spiral notebook that every woman would give a thousand dollars. I myself, I had never written a check. for a thousand dollars to a single charity prior to impact 100.
So I didn't go into this with this knowledge and experience of writing what I call a big check. I just knew. that the numbers had to work and they had to be powerful. All that money, 100% of it, nothing taken out for any expenses, would be pooled and given away in grants of $100,000 or more. across five broad focus areas.
This was not women helping women and girls. This was women funding community. The five focus areas are arts and culture, environment, preservation and recreation, health and wellness, family, and education. The idea being that there wouldn't be a nonprofit in the community whose mission wouldn't qualify. We would have One woman One check.
and one vote. If a woman was wealthy enough to write a check for $5,000 or $10,000, she was welcome to do so, but she could not buy five or ten votes. This was democratizing philanthropy. They can select to write a check and not do another thing except cast their ballot. Or they could serve in a variety of administrative committees or the leadership board.
And they could also serve on the grant review committees and then We come together for an annual meeting. We allow those five finalists to each present. Cast your votes and the highest vote getter would get the grant. And so in late October, I invited The women who I had initially identified as being part of the founding board to dinner. They knew we were going to talk about Impact 100 and whether it was a go or no go.
What I didn't tell them is I invited fifteen women and what I didn't share is that Unless 10 of them We were as committed as I was to moving ahead with Impact 100, I wouldn't do it. I knew that this was way too big an undertaking. That certainly couldn't be done by me alone, and it couldn't even be done by just a small group, that we needed. 10 women to be able to own this in the way that I did and to build it. Mm-hmm.
The questions became, you know, if not us, who? If not here, then where? And if not now, then when? Fortunately for Cincinnati and for several other communities, all 15 women said that they were in. By the end of 2019, we had given away Cumulatively, just under 80 million dollars.
And 80 million dollars, a thousand dollars at a time, is it's just a mind-boggling set of numbers. Yeah. And you've been listening to Wendy Steele. And, my goodness, trying to solve a problem and hearing how men did it better. In this respect, they just did it better.
And so she said, how can we do it? better than that. And this idea Well, it's better than just calling up a few pals. Who you golf with? When we come back, more with Wendy Steele's story here.
on our American story. Saturday. August 22nd in Tampa, witnessing MMA Legends final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history. She's an absolute pioneer in the sport.
Defends her PFL world title. One last time. Unforgettable and got you! To an unforgettable career. Saturday, August 22nd, live from Benchmark International Arena.
For tickets, visit pfl.info/slash tampa. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter.
Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com. Hi, I'm Steph, and I work at United Healthcare. When I think about United Healthcare's members, I think of my own family. My niece was diagnosed with an ultra-rare genetic disorder.
I know how hard it is for families at United Healthcare. We can make it easier. I'm Brian. I care because I know what it's like to not speak the language. It's not easy.
Health insurance is complicated. I would say our job is to make everything easy for our UXC members. I work for United Healthcare. I'm committed to care. Ice Cube's Big Three season has come down to this.
The Big Three Championship is coming to Charlotte, who will be crowned the Big Three Season 9 Champion. Plus the Big Three All-Star Game, the biggest names in the game, all on one court, one more time. Two games of the most physical, competitive, and non-stop three-on-three action. The game played the way you love. Watch live Saturday on CBS at 1 p.m.
Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific, and catch replays Monday on BET. Presented by iHeart. And we continue with our American stories and the story of Impact 100. The generosity movement where 100 women or more in a community each donate $1,000 and make transformational gifts of $100,000.
Let's return to its founder, Wendy Steele, on the very beginning of what was meant to be the first and only chapter in her community. of Cincinnati, Ohio. By March of 2002, we had our 501c3 nonprofit status. By May, 123 women had given us a check for $1,000, and we offered up a single grant of $123,000. And the highest vote-getter was a dental clinic in Over the Rhine, which is one of Cincinnati's most challenged neighborhoods, called the McMicken Dental Clinic.
They had one staff dentist, a woman named Dr. Judy Allen. They had five dental chair setups that have been donated by a very generous dentist. Several years back when he was updating his own practice. These dental chairs were old and troublesome, they didn't quite operate as well as Judy would like them to.
And so the application was to re-outfit them. And that's what our members voted to do. We were all invited to an open house where Dr. Judy, with great pride, Walked us around her newly refurbished dental clinic, and on easels, she had pictures of her patients. I mean, my gosh, these pictures.
of people of every age and every background. Who, in the before picture, they're barely smiling. You can see the sadness in their eyes. They've got missing teeth, they have black teeth. In some cases, they have swollen.
Faces and mouths from some severe illness that's going on. You know, people don't always think about it, but your dental health is so critical. If you've got black teeth or missing teeth, You're really not even hireable at a lot of traditional entry-level kinds of jobs. I mean, imagine. The receptionist at your company, or the hostess at a restaurant, even a buser.
if they have black teeth or missing teeth. It's very hard to get a job of any kind. And your own self-confidence is diminished. You know, you don't smile, you're embarrassed. And so there were before and after pictures.
of all of these different patients and how their lives have changed. And then a story that would tell you that before Somebody was unemployed and homeless, and you know, their whole situation. And after They now are employed and you see these beaming smiles.
So, Dr. Judy and I had become good friends at this point. She called me into her office. And she pointed on the wall and she said, Wendy, I really want you to look at that. And it looked like a calendar, and I said, that's fantastic.
Judy, it looks like you're serving more patients. That's excellent. But she said, No, Wendy, you're missing the point. Yeah. the names on that calendar.
Our dentists who are now volunteering to come into the clinic every week. She explained that for years when she would go to her dental association meetings and the continuing education credits and so forth. She would explain that she needed volunteers, she needed more help. She explained how these dentists, they would smile and they would nod and they would tell her yes, but they never came. And now they were coming.
The difference, she said, were these chairs. That the dental chairs that she had been using, they were about 20 years old. and the useful life of dental equipment. is about 20 years. And so what was happening Is that Dentists weren't going to come because they were doing very complex treatments and they couldn't rely on the drill or the light.
They couldn't rely on the equipment. But now with this equipment... She now had this army of local dentists who joined the community and come alongside. We had tried really hard to get the local press in Cincinnati. to tell our story.
And We just couldn't break through. It's so. about a week after visiting the McMickin Dental Clinic. My home telephone rang. And I almost hung up because I thought it was a prank call.
When the woman explained that she was Lorna Grisby, the Midwest bureau chief for People magazine. and that she wanted to do a story about Impact 100. I was not a People Magazine subscriber at the time. But I did know that People Magazine was the most widely subscribed or read magazine apparently in the world at that point. The People magazine story came out.
The phone rang off the hook. In those days, I had a landline, and in those days, my email was AOL. I got hundreds of people reaching out of the woodwork talking about How they Wanted to replicate this model in their own community, and how much would I charge for the license fee? How much would I charge to help them get started? From the beginning, It was never designed to be a profit-making exercise for me.
And so I could not imagine charging people to be able to use this. And so I. didn't. I gave the model freely and Interestingly, Pensacola, Florida. Is now the world's largest Impact 100 chapter.
And if you know anything about Pensacola demographically, that might be a surprise to you, especially if you know that. We have chapters in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Chicago, Illinois, and Palm Beach, Florida. San Francisco, California. and Pensacola, they started off strong. Yeah.
The goal of every impact organization, in my opinion, the goal should be to get to 500 members. When you get to 500 members, you give away five grants. You give one grant in each focus area. And in doing so, you satisfy all the women as well as we can all be satisfied, I suppose, but you satisfy all aspects of the community, really get blanketed. And year over year, when you're giving 100,000 or more, Across each of these five sectors, if you will, it really is a game changer for the community.
In year one, Pensacola. thought why would we only give one grant let's keep going and they were able to attract more than 200 women their first year. They got to 500 members relatively quickly. And when it came close to their 10th anniversary, they decided that it made sense to get all the way to a thousand members, and they did.
Some people thought that that 1,000 member was just a special thing for their 10-year anniversary and they'd revert back to 700 or 800 members. But they didn't. They've stayed above. A thousand members since then, and just a couple of weeks ago, they had their annual meeting, or what it's known as in Pensacola, is they had Million Dollar Sunday. They gave away 11 grants.
Totaling $1,166,000 on that Sunday. Across all five focus areas. It's the second year they've given away that much money.
So they had 15 finalists, three in each focus area. Members would vote. For two of the three in each focus area, and then choose one focus area that they thought should get fully funded.
So should get the third grant funded as well. It was absolutely amazing to see this million dollar Sunday and the outcome from Pensacola. Uh I think that sometimes God gives favor to the most unlikely people. And turns what would be a simple woman who thought she was gonna be a banker. into the founder of a movement that is getting ready to turn 20 and knocking on the door of $100 million.
In new money contributed to communities around the globe is Is to me as shocking as it is awe-inspiring and as it is dumbfounding. I would not be. the one that most people would pick for the team. And so I am very grateful that our God has a sense of humor and that he thought I would be the right person. Cincinnati would be the right place, and now would be the right time to start.
That to me is a surprise, but I'm grateful. Uh And you've been listening to Wendy Steele, her story of impact, 100. And by the way, go to impact100council.org. that's impact one zero zero council. Wendy Steele's story Here.
on our American story. Yeah. Saturday. August 22nd in Tampa, witnessing MMA Legends final fight. Chris Cyborg, one of the greatest in history.
She's an absolute pioneer in the sport. Defends her PFL world title. One last time. An unforgettable and an unforgettable career. Saturday, August 22nd, live from Benchmark International Arena.
For tickets, visit pfl.info/slash tampa. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter.
Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com. SQ's big three season has come down to this. The big three championship is coming to Charlotte, who will be crowned the big three season nine champion. Plus the big three all-star game, the biggest names in the game, all on one court, one more time.
Two games of the most physical, competitive, and non-stop three-on-three action. The game played the way you love. Watch live Saturday on CBS at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific, and catch replays Monday on PET.
Presented by iHeart. Whether it's help with hormone therapy, weight management, or sexual health. Every woman should have access to affordable prescription medication and personalized care that understands the whole woman. Join me, Dr. Doug Lucas, clinical lead of hormone optimization and longevity at LifeMD, along with other leading experts on the podcast.
Here's something good on women's health and longevity. To learn more, go to lifemd.com slash iHeart. Yeah.
