126 suburban women, $126,000, 1 charity

The idea behind the new Palatine-based Impact 100 Chicago charity is simple, says president Marybeth Lernihan. Get 100 women to donate $1,000 each and then make good on the motto of “Women Empowering Change” by awarding that 100 grand to a worthy cause.

“When Marybeth asked me, I was not as optimistic,” admits fellow Impact 100 founder Nonie Brown, a Barrington real estate agent who knows this economy isn't ideal for such an ambitious fundraising project. Lernihan, Brown and Michele Polvere, neighbors who have known each other for years through their children's activities and other community events around Barrington, started the ball rolling.

“You'd be surprised,” Lernihan says. “You tell one person and they tell somebody else and it spreads.”

The local women stepped it up a notch by recruiting 126 members. Tonight, in a live event with all the excitement of an “American Idol” finale, the Impact 100 members will hear pitches from the five finalists at Arlington Park racetrack in Arlington Heights and vote for the charity most deserving of the $100,000 prize. The runners-up will split the remaining $26,000.

The Impact 100 concept began in September 2001 when a woman named Wendy Steele wanted to promote philanthropy among her friends in the neighborhoods of greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. She ended up with 123 members who awarded $123,000 to a dental clinic serving homeless people. In the years since, the original group has pumped $1.8 million into their local charities while their idea has spread to 13 other communities — including the one based in Palatine.

It took a quirky twist to bring Lernihan into the Impact 100 fold. As a freshman at Miami University in Ohio in 1979, Lernihan became friends with Jenny Berg. Lernihan transferred to Purdue University but she and Berg stayed in touch after college. Berg, who lives in the Cincinnati area, is the current president of the Impact 100 organization.

“I was visiting Cincinnati and went to church and ran into Jenny, who goes to the same parish as my sister-in-law,” Lernihan says of the chance meeting in October 2009. “We went to breakfast with her and just talked about Impact 100 nonstop for the whole breakfast. After that, I just couldn't stop thinking about the idea.”

Lernihan met with Brown and Polvere and began organizing “recruiting events in women's homes,” Lernihan says. They mailed nearly 500 letters “to everyone we could think of,” she adds, explaining how the group quickly expanded beyond the original group, with members hailing from more than three dozen ZIP codes.

While the group has its roots in Barrington, “it's not a social club where you have to know somebody,” Lernihan says. “There are a lot of women I don't know.”

Impact 100 Chicago got its tax-deductible charity designation in May 2010 and announced the $100,000 grant last November, when the group had just 65 members.

“We were taking a bit of a chance, but it worked,” Lernihan says.

While an “Impact 65” still would have been a worthy accomplishment, “that never crossed my mind,” Lernihan says. “I just had faith it was going to work.”

What made it work is the grass-roots process that empowers everyone who gives, Lernihan says, noting members hail from all over the suburbs and city and range in age from 24 to 82.

“If you are a working mom and work five days a week and have three little kids, there's no pressure,” Polvere says. “You can be involved as much or as little as you want.”

Board member Martha Alexander of Barrington was “sponsored” by someone who put up the $1,000 for her, but says she'd work on the charity even if she wasn't a voting member. “I work full-time, but I love doing this,” Alexander says.

“I like the idea of all the research behind it and everyone pitching in. That's part of the beauty,” Brown says.

A good side effect of that effort is that the more than 60 women who volunteered on committees also learned a lot about other worthy charities, Lernihan says.

Having received appeals from more than four dozen charities, the Impact 100 members narrowed the list to five finalists representing the categories of Arts and Culture (Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra), Education (Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund), Environment (Chicago Lights), Family (St. Martin de Porres House of Hope) and Health & Wellness (Almost Home Kids in Naperville).

For more information on the new charity and the projects eligible for the $100,000 grant and additional money, visit www.impact100chicago.org. The event at Arlington Park (which is funded through $50 tickets and separate donations) is a testament to the power of a good idea, organized women and a driven suburban grass-roots movement. But the members won't be celebrating their success for long.

“Our goal in 2011 is to recruit 200 women,” Lernihan says, “so we can give away two $100,000 grants next year.”