COMMUNITY

I wanted our last post of 2020 to be more than a farewell to what has truly been a devastating year on so many levels. If you’re like me, you are probably already tired of the 2020 reviews and the confirmations of how horrible a year it has been worldwide.  

Mid-2019 I was invited by one of my neighbours to join himself and a group of men for one of their quarterly meetings.  He promised me these meetings were short, only an hour, and were not highly structured and full of protocol.  Best of all, he said it involved likeminded community-based people that wanted to be part of a better community, plus it involved beer. 

That ticked a lot of boxes, and I was in. 

The Group’s Name: 100 Men Who Give a Damn Guelph

You couldn’t ask for an easier or more impactful programme.  Being part of an organization that is a non-organization takes some time to wrap your head around, but it works.

Here’s how it works: 

Each quarter, the group meets for an hour.  We hear a short 5 minute presentation – think Dragon’s Den-style – from three local organizations, about what each would do with a $10,000 donation and what impact it would have on their organization and the community.

We then vote on which of the three groups will receive that quarter’s donation.

We then have a second vote on which three local charities would be invited to the next quarterly meeting.

Local charities supporting local Guelph projects are preferred, although 100 Men also welcomes national charities as long as they have specific support for Guelph-based projects.  We also want to support registered charities that have the ability to give tax receipts for donations.  We are not political, religious or lobbyists, so charities focused on those functions are not preferred – but, if a charity happens to be run by a religious or political group that runs projects open to the Guelph community at large, they would be welcomed. 

There is also an equivalent group for women that started a few years before. The Guelph chapter of 100 Women Who Care was created in the Fall of 2014, and has been holding their quarterly meetings at the Delta Guelph Hotel and Conference Centre up until we the world moved to Zoom this year.

This past year, 100 Men Guelph supported these four local organizations with $10,000 donations:

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of Guelph

• The Guelph Community Response Fund

• The Canadian Mental Health Association

• The Guelph Food Bank 

Since January of 2018, this group of men has been able to funnel over $150,000 in donations to local charities and groups. 

100 Women Who Care Guelph are well on their way to a $500,000 all-time donation goal, recently posting their last meeting results and showing total donations approaching $300K.

Both groups have now grown beyond their initial 100 members, and are accepting new members as well.

The impact that a small group of people can have on so many lives is incredible.  A great news story that even COVID-19 couldn’t stop this year, as both groups were able to pivot quickly to online meetings and donations.

I’m looking forward to seeing what both of these groups are able to accomplish in 2021, through the incredible programs and resources provided by so many great local organizations.

For details and membership information follow these links: 

100 Men Who Give A Damn Guelph

100 Women Who Care Guelph

Thank you for taking the time to follow our posts and musings.  I, for one, am looking forward to where we go in 2021. You can count on us to keep you posted on all real estate-related matters in Guelph and the surrounding regions.

Happy New Year! 

Paul

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