About

The vision to start a Sarasota Chapter of Impact100 SRQ began in February, 2017, when Founding President Jane Watt was inspired by her mother and sister’s involvement in their Impact100 Pensacola Bay Area chapter. Jane shared her dream of founding a chapter in Sarasota and Manatee chapter with two of her close friends, Jodie Zerega and Tilly McFadden.  Together, the three of them built the infrastructure enlisting the assistance of the other amazing women in our community and creating an impactful Board of Directors that enabled the Impact100 SRQ dream to become a reality.  The Impact100 SRQ chapter began empowering a local diverse group of women of all ages, stages in life, income levels and backgrounds to join together to annually fund $100,000 transformational grant(s) in Sarasota & Manatee counties.

In 2019, Impact100 SRQ kicked off its inaugural year with 228 founding members and two grants awarded of $114,000 each.  With over 50 chapters across the US and Australia, Impact100 SRQ debuted as the 3rd largest start-up chapter ever!

In record time, they have ignited the passions of women in our community to unite to effect change. Together, they discover how nonprofits are working to meet the unmet needs of the community.  In two short years they have awarded nearly $600k in transformational grants.

Our 2020 Grant Recipients were:

Children’s Cancer Center, Mayor’s Feed the Hungry, and Sky Family YMCA

In September 2001, in Cincinnati, Ohio, an idea to promote philanthropy formed in the mind of Wendy Steele.

With the help of Wendy’s close friends and business associates, that idea became the non-profit organization operating as Impact100 Cincinnati. The original notion: Impact100 would consist of at least 100 women members, each contributing $1,000. These funds would be pooled and fully donated as transformation grants of no less than $100,000 to non-profit organizations serving Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Eastern Indiana. By early 2002, Impact100, Inc. had acquired their non-profit status. They made their first grant of $123,000 in the Fall of that year. In January 2003, People Magazine published a story about Impact100. After the article was featured, Wendy’s model began to flourish across the country and into Australia.

The Impact100 Council encourages collaboration and sharing of best practices among Impact100 chapters to allow for continued growth and sustainability of Impact100 around the world. Impact100 SRQ has been a member of Council since 2018.