WOMEN TRANSFORMING SONOMA COUNTY THROUGH COLLECTIVE PHILANTHROPY | FEBRUARY 2021 | ISSUE 41
Upcoming Events and Important Dates
February 21 - 10:30 a.m.
Taylor Mountain Regional Park, North Entrance 2080 Kawana Terrace Road. Register here

February 25 - 5:30 p.m. Cocktails & Conversation. Register here

March 2 - 4:30 p.m. Spotlight on the Intersection of Business and Philanthropy, Cathryn Couch, Executive Director, Ceres Community Project.

March 16 - 5:30 p.m. New Member Orientation. Register here

March 29 - 4:30 p.m. Spotlight on the Intersection of Business and Philanthropy, Jen Stasch, Executive Director, PDI Surgery Center. Register here

March 31 - 5:30 p.m. Cocktails & Conversation Register here

April 22 - 1:00 p.m. - ED TALK on Environmental Resiliency with Claudia Luke, PhD. Registration opens March 15.
Welcome New Members!

Courtney Comer
Wendy Eliot
Stacy Jonas
Bev Angel-Leve
Susan Watson
Did You Know?

There are over 60 Impact 100 chapters across the U.S. and beyond?

Since its inception in 2001, Impact 100 has donated almost $80 million to worthy causes.
President's Message
Celebrating Black History Month

"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." - Shirley Chisholm

This month our nation celebrates Black History Month. This celebration began as “Negro History Week,” which was created in 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator and publisher. It became a month-long celebration in 1976. The month of February was chosen to coincide with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

After the murder of George Floyd last year, we formed a Racial Equity Study Group to explore the historical and social context of bias, white privilege, institutional racism, and racial micro-aggressions, and to develop awareness and commitment among study group participants.

At the conclusion of their 6-month study, the group identified four project areas for focusing their continued work … Shared Values, Membership Education/Awareness, Grant Making, and Membership Recruitment/ Inclusion. You will be hearing more about these topics (and providing your input) in the coming months.

The Shared Values Task Force project was launched at our General Membership meeting on February 9. You should have received an email recapping this meeting and how the process will work. We are looking for interested volunteers to serve on the Values Task Force that is being led by Jan Gilman and Melissa Kelley (founder of Impact 100 Redwood Circle). If interested in participating, or if you have questions or suggestions, please contact them at impact100valuestaskforce@gmail.com.

Equity in Grant Making and Membership Diversity/Inclusion will be folded into the work of our existing Community/Impact Grants Committees and our Membership/NextGen Committees. Several members of the Racial Equity group are also members of these committees, and are excited to bring their perspective and ideas to the table. Member Education/Awareness could include newsletter and website articles, Spotlights, and the offering of additional Study Group opportunities. Our Education Committee is exploring how this might fit with their work as well. 

Several members have asked for suggested reading. Books that the Study Group read are: How to Be An Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi, Me and White Supremacy: How You Can Combat Racism and Change the World Today by Layla Saad, and Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson. The books also annotate other written works that you may want to visit.

One more thing to celebrate: vaccinations are finally starting to roll out! We certainly hope those of you who are eligible have been able to be vaccinated or set up your appointment. We encourage everyone to do so!

Suzy and Cindy
CoPresidents 2021
Liaison Committee Update
The Impact Liaison general meeting on February 9 was a real success. We learned how our 2019 Impact grant winner, Forget Me Not Farms Children’s Services, was able to adapt to a changing environment to maintain the vibrancy of the organization while keeping hope alive that they can restore their original plans for programing later this year. In addition to their report, we were treated to a very entertaining interview with the animals on the farm who profess to be missing the presence of the children this year due to COVID. Below is a link to the video.



Beyond the Check
In other news, thanks to the generosity of Impact 100 Redwood Circle members, hundreds of pairs of warm socks were delivered on Feb 3rd to Reach for Home, one of our 2020 community grant recipients. The agency serves the unsheltered community in north county.
Photo caption: l-r ZuZu, Snoopy, Barbara
Hopp, Sharon Beckman, Margaret Sluyk
The handoff was made to Margaret Sluyk, Executive Director
for Reach for Home, by Snoopy & Tamara Stanley, Impact 100 Redwood Circle member and General Manager of Snoopy’s Home Ice.  Additional donations were sent from Snoopy’s Gallery & Gift Shop. Barbara Hopp, CoChair Liaison Committee and Sharon Beckman, CoChair Membership Committee who joined forces to receive the donations of socks from members and were on hand to assist Snoopy with the delivery. They were joined by CCI release dog, ZuZu.

These donations, facilitated by your Liaison Committee under the leadership of Jan Gilman and Barbara Hopp, are a successful example of the expanded mission of the committee that now includes volunteer activities in the service of all current and previous Impact 100 Redwood Circle grant winners as well as current year community grant winners. The goal of this expanded role is to provide needed help to these agencies while concurrently giving our members an opportunity to be more involved with the non-profits our philanthropic dollars support.

In December, Impact 100 Redwood Circle members signed holiday cards for Food for Thought clients and donated gift cards to the young people served by VOICES Sonoma. Last month the sox were collected and volunteers signed up to prepare meals for the unsheltered at Reach for Home. Donations for feed for the animals at Forget Me Not Farm Children’s Services are being accepted at Western Farms and other feed stores in the county. Together we are making a difference!

The Bird Rescue Center tells us that California is experiencing a deadly Salmonella outbreak. As of January 1, the BRC had already admitted over 150 birds – more than twice their average number – and over one third of those due to the outbreak. For information on why we are seeing this outbreak and what you can do to help click here.

Paws As Loving Support (PALS) surprised a Santa Rosa family on January 17 with a drive-by graduation party for their service dog, Casper. Festooned in matching purple mortar boards, Casper and his new companion, 5-year-old Max Stiles celebrated with hugs, smiles and laughter. Click here to read the Press Democrat's article.

The annual feed bill at Forget Me Not Farm Children's Services is $20,000 and they could still use a little help. Donations may be made on their website with a notation it is for animal feed. By sending a check to Forget Me Not Farm Children's Services, 5345 Highway 12 West, Santa Rosa, CA 95407 and indicate it is for feed. Or by donating directly to one of their feed stores (Western Farm Center, Frizelle Enos in Penngrove or Rivertown in Petaluma) using a credit card over the phone and the credit will be added to their account.

New Feature! Share Your Story - Jody Edwards
Impact 100 Redwood Circle member, Jody Edwards, spent her entire quarter century work life at a single company, Hewlett- Packard in Santa Rosa. It’s not surprising then to find that her secret for making friends is “working with people.  Some people can just walk in a room and make friends. Not me. I need to be working with people on a common cause.”

‘Working with people’ is her mantra both in and out of the workplace, which is one thing that attracted her to Impact 100 Redwood Circle. “I love the people I’ve met, smart, passionate women who care about social issues.”
Photo caption: Jody (Left) is pictured with granddaughter
Harper and daughter Erika Carstensen, with whom she shares a
Dyad Membership.

Jody is a child of the Midwest, having grown up in Wisconsin and Minnesota. She earned a Master’s Degree in Industrial Relations at Purdue University and was thrilled to be recruited and then hired by HP in Santa Rosa, where she had a long, distinguished career in its Human Resources department. Meanwhile, she married, had daughter Erika, divorced, remarried Ian Ross, helped raise step-children, Erin and Ryan, and had a child with Ian, son Rob. During those years, “there was no time to find a friend outside of HP,” she says. “Life was work, and kids and fixing dinner every night.”

That changed when Jody retired and the kids left the nest. She plunged into nonprofit work. “I went from full time work with a salary to full time work with no salary,” she laughs. She taught English as a Second Language to Euritrean immigrants and volunteered at the YWCA before finding her true calling: helping kids in foster care “grow up in a safe and healthy environment.” She volunteered at the Children’s Village of Sonoma County, served as a Juvenile Justice Commissioner and is currently heavily involved with Women’s Recovery Services (WRS), a 2019 Impact Grant recipient.

Jody was recruited for Impact 100 Redwood Circle by her friend Suzy Marzalek, 2021 Co President. She currently serves on the Impact Grants Committee and is so looking forward to the day when she can again apply her gift for ‘working with people’ face to face and not interacting with ZOOM boxes.
ED TALK - Save the date for April 22
On April 22 at 12:00 noon, the Education Committee will host Dr. Claudia Luke, Director of SSU Center for Environmental Inquiry and SSU Sustainability Programs Director

Dr. Luke earned her Ph.D. in Zoology from UC Berkeley. She has 20 years of experience directing field stations for the University of California and California State University systems. Throughout her career, she has worked extensively with partners and collaborators to build regional research and management collaborations that engage students and faculty in regional challenges surrounding watershed management, fire management, environmental technology, habitat connectivity, biodiversity, and education. As Director of the Center of Environmental Inquiry, she promotes education and research on 4,200 acres of wildlands at three SSU field stations (Fairfield Osborn Preserve, Galbreath Wildlands Preserve, and Los Guillicos Preserve). In 2018, Dr. Luke received the North Bay Leadership award in conservation.  

Stay tuned for registration information!
Update on Governance
What are the Governance Policies and Procedures?

Impact 100 Redwood Circle’s Governance Document formalizes the roles and responsibilities of our organization.  It contains language that addresses our membership structure, organizational stability as well as guidelines for confidentiality, grievances and conflict of interest. This document guides our decision-making and keeps us focused on our mission. 

The Procedures Section of the document describes the means by which we conduct our committee business.  Amendments to the Procedures Section are more common as we continue to define our best practices.  

Periodically, you will be receiving updates regarding minor changes to our Governance Policies and Procedures Document.

All proposed changes are reviewed and approved by the Leadership Team, and, if significant, presented to the full membership for approval. 

At the December 8, 2020, Leadership Committee Meeting, the Committee unanimously approved the following minor changes to the Governance Policies and Procedures Document.

Language was added to clarify how the disbursement of the grant funding process is completed.  

Once the membership has voted to award a grant, the Co-Presidents and Treasure authorize the disbursement of the grant funds by completing the Grant Recommendation Form, the Grant Agreement Letter, and any other documents required by the Community Foundation.

Language was also added to the Promoting and Publicizing Section of the document to include the following:

Highlighting former grantees will be at the discretion of the Liaison and Marketing Committees.  These committees will ultimately determine the value and relevance of the communication.

The latest version of the Governance Policies and Procedures can be found in the Membership Section on the website.
Membership - Let's Keep the Momentum Going!

We encourage all members to invite guests to the next Cocktails and Conversation Zoom on Thursday, February 25, at 5:30 p.m.. Let’s raise a drink together as we showcase our impactful giving circle to potential new members. Register here!

Spotlights are also excellent venues to introduce Impact 100 Redwood Circle to friends. The Spotlight on March 2, at 4:30 p.m. will feature Cathryn Couch of Ceres Community Project. Did you know that many current Impact 100 members currently volunteer at Ceres? Tune in to hear how this organization serves our community! Register ­here

New Members: Watch for your email invitation to the New Member Orientation via Zoom on March 16 at 5:30. You’ll meet other new members and learn about many ways to engage in and stay informed of Impact 100 activity.
Spotlight on the Intersection of Business and Philanthropy
March 2 at 4:30 p.m. Guests are welcome. Advance registration is required and is available here.

Cathryn Couch, Founder and CEO of Ceres Community Project will be joining us to share her insights as part of our Intersection of Business and Philanthropy series. She is Ceres is a nonprofit working to foster health by connecting people to one another and a healthier food system. Ceres provides 150,000+ organic medically tailored meals annually to low-income people struggling because of a health challenge. Youth volunteers grow food and prepare the meals as part of the youth development, culinary, and food system education program. Ceres has trained a dozen communities across the United States and in Denmark to replicate their model.

Couch is a founding member of the California Food is Medicine Coalition, a six-agency collaboration conducting the first statewide medically tailored meal pilot for Medicaid members. In 2020-2021 Ceres was one of four agencies that conducted large-scale randomized control trials for medically tailored meals at Kaiser Permanente. Couch is an advisor to the Aspen Institute's Food & Society initiative, a Food Lab member at Google, and contributed to the Rockefeller Foundation's 2020 Reset the Table report. She also helps lead Hearts of Sonoma County – a collaborative working to reduce heart attacks and strokes; and participates in Marin HEAL and Marin Food Policy Council, and the California Food & Farming Network. 

Couch is a CNN Hero and has been a finalist for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Community Health Leaders Award, a finalist for the James Irvine Leadership Award, and a Red Cross Adult Humanitarian Hero for Northern California. She holds an MBA from the University of Michigan.

We will be hearing about her insights on the blurring of the distinction between Business and Philanthropy. In recent years many nonprofits have increasingly adopted business means while businesses are increasingly pursuing philanthropic values as part of their business practices. Regardless, at the end of the day a nonprofit needs to be organized to support the capacity to respond to improve the human experience.  

Cathryn has embraced this blurring head-on and applied her management skills for clarity for all stakeholders. In her words, "Supporting the three-legged stool to deliver the mission, ensure that staff and volunteers are taken care of and raise funds to establish a foundation for long-term financial sustainability."
Register to learn more about Cathryn and apply her business leadership and strategic vision for Ceres Community Project.
NextGen Committee

We’re excited to be working on new initiatives for the NextGen program especially around community outreach, mentorship for younger members and incorporating equity and diversity. Our committee is made up of both younger and seasoned Impact 100 Redwood Circle members and we’re seeking new members who are creative and energetic and ready to focus on specific projects. Join us as we work to make our giving circle reflect all the vibrant female voices of our community. Contact chair Robin Wendler to find out more about committee membership. 707-889-4497 rwendler@rocketmail.com
Newsletter feedback is welcome and may be submitted to the Marketing Committee.