Accelerating Impact
Wendy Steele
Impact100 was founded by Wendy Steele in 2001 in response to feeling as though women’s roles in philanthropy needed a new way to be expanded and encouraged. Wendy launched the organization with the goal of empowering women to see themselves as activists through utilizing large grants to a make an impact within their communities.By 2002, Impact100 received nonprofit status and donated its first $100k grant. In 2003, People Magazine published a story about Impact100, and Wendy’s idea quickly began to spread.Today, her model has been replicated in cities all over the world and only continues to grow.