About

Impact100 Greater Wausau members contribute $1,100 annually. Of that amount, $1,000 from each member is pooled into a grant fund to be given away to nonprofit organizations in our community. The number and size of grants awarded depend on our membership, but our goal is to give incremental grants of $100,000 each year. Grants can be awarded in the areas of Arts & Culture, Education, Family, Health & Wellness, and Environment. Grants are awarded based on a vote of the Impact100 Greater Wausau membership at our annual meeting. Every woman who gives $1,100 or more has one vote.

Co-founders Jen Thomas and Becky Kettleson learned about the Impact100 model from a childhood friend of Jen’s who is an Impact100 member in Milwaukee. She invited Jen and Becky to attend Impact100 Greater Milwaukee’s Awards Banquet in June 2019. After reading about the chapter’s finalists – and doing some research about where they could get the best desserts – Jen and Becky went to Milwaukee.

The banquet hall was filled with women of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. At their table sat mothers who came with their young adult daughters, coworkers, neighbors, and friends. The room was electric; the excitement and anticipation were palpable. That night, they learned about Just One More Ministry’s Impact Grant proposal. With a $100,000 grant, they would purchase industrial refrigerators and freezers that would increase their food storage capacity by 700%, diverting countless pounds of fresh food from the garbage and into the hands of hungry men, women, and children. When Just One More Ministry’s proposal won, the women in the room stood to applaud, and Jen and Becky were hooked. With ideas spinning in their heads, the two friends forgot all about dessert and instead talked late into the night about what grants that size could do in Marathon County. Jen and Becky knew that the greater Wausau area needed Impact100.

In January 2020, Jen, Becky, and Margy Stahr incorporated Impact100 Greater Wausau. Plans for a September 2020 Membership Launch were running smoothly, until Covid-19 closures turned their attention to the global pandemic. What they learned from speaking with local nonprofits and Impact100 chapters around the globe is that the nonprofit community needs women and their resources now – perhaps more than ever!

The Greater Wausau area’s population is far smaller than some of the other geographic areas with Impact100 chapters. This only means that the impact of $100,000 grants will be more strongly felt by our community members. Our inaugural year goal is to recruit at least 100 members by December 31, 2020 so that we can award at least one, $100,000 Impact Grant in May of 2021. The time is now, Greater Wausau, to connect women and build a stronger Marathon County.

For more information about how Impact100 started, see our council story.