100 Women Who Care Norfolk is a group of local women who join together four times a year to do good in our community. 

As the name implies, the group is composed of women, but don’t let the title fool you about the number involved. At its first quarterly meeting back in 2014, 118 women gathered to donate and create change in the community. 

Today, the group has almost 200 members who donate $100 four times a year. 

At each meeting, local charities and organizations are invited to put their names forward. Three charities are randomly selected from a hat and given the opportunity to present to the group. From those three organizations, one is selected to receive the collective donation from that meeting.

“100 Women Who Care Norfolk has raised over $780 000 for 48 local charities” according to board member Kathy Caskenette, who noted that the money has helped “thousands of people in Norfolk County.”

One of the stipulations of receiving a donation from the group is that the money received must “remain in Norfolk and do good in our local community.” 

Even charities that are not selected have an opportunity to share their work with the group and can return to try again at future meetings. 

The range of charities supported over the years is very diverse.

“When you look at the list of charities that have been successful in receiving our donations, it’s a wide range. We have supported daycares, hospitals, community groups, Alzheimer’s society, cancer groups, seniors,” Caskenette said. 

“ These charities that present are all so deserving, and they touch the hearts of the women. Oftentimes, the charities will come back to tell the group how they spent the money. In these cases, there is rarely a dry eye in the crowd.”

Over more than a decade, 100 Women Who Care Norfolk has demonstrated what can happen when individuals choose to act collectively. Four times a year, nearly 200 women contribute what they can, and together, those individual donations become hundreds of thousands of dollars invested directly back into Norfolk County.