Men take cue from women to give back

A newly-formed giving circle called 100 Men Who Care Clark County aims to get 100 men to donate $100 each to a local nonprofit every quarter. That pencils out to $40,000 annually going to charity.

Eric Sawyer, the board chair, said he got the idea for the group about a year ago. He works at Barrett Business Services Inc. across the street from The Heathman Lodge. While waiting for a client at the lodge one morning, he chatted with an employee who told him about 100 Women Who Care SW Washington, a giving circle that had held its first meeting the night before. The women met at the lodge and voted to collectively donate more than $10,000 to the Portland-based nonprofit Friends of the Children.

He wondered why there wasn’t a group of guys doing something similar.

“It’s a really cool concept,” Sawyer said.

Katherine Morris, one of the directors of 100 Women Who Care, helped him start a men’s group. Sawyer attended their second meeting — the only man in attendance — and got a round of applause when Morris announced that he’d be starting a men’s chapter.

“There was no turning back at that point,” Sawyer quipped.

He reached out to business and civic leaders to form a board. According to a news release, 100 Men Who Care Clark County was formed to further “the support of the community’s most critical and deserving nonprofit organizations.”

Members will pool their money to go toward a different Clark County-based nonprofit each quarter; the philosophy is that collective giving has a greater impact than individual, scattered donations.

“Our goals are pretty ambitious. I want to see us put a minimum of $40,000 back into the community,” Sawyer said.

Almost 50 people have signed up in the last two weeks since 100 Men Who Care launched its website: 100mencc.com.

The first fundraising meeting is 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 17 at The Heathman Lodge, 7805 N.E. Greenwood Dr., Vancouver. Interested? Visit the website to learn more and sign up, and, once you’re a member, nominate a charity.

Every nomination gives a nonprofit a greater chance of being selected during a drawing about a week before the fundraising meeting, which will narrow down the options to three finalists. At The Heathman, members will hear from the final three nonprofits about what they do, then they’ll vote on which one should receive the $10,000.