Organizing Members

The seeds for an Impact 100 chapter in St. Lucie County were sown back in 2017 when Organizing Member Cris Adams read a magazine article about the Impact 100 movement and began wondering why there was no chapter here. She mentioned it to a few women who mentioned it to a few more until more than a few women were talking about it. Founding member Essie Morales brought some of these women together and, although she opted not to become a member of the original Executive Committee, she was influential in the creation of Impact 100 St. Lucie. In 2017, the six philanthropically-minded women pictured above, all residents of St. Lucie County, got together and decided it was time to form a chapter of Impact 100 in St. Lucie County to help reduce the burdens of the underserved in St. Lucie County. Inspired by other Impact 100 chapters in the country and beyond, they began their quest by holding informal gatherings of women in each other’s homes in an attempt to gather 100 women into a St. Lucie County women’s giving circle. These informational sessions generated quite a bit of excitement and evolved into an organization of 121 like-minded women and the creation of our first $100,000 grant which was awarded to Tykes and Teens in April 2019 and two smaller grants of $10,500 to each of the other two finalists, In the Image of Christ and Healthy Start Coalition (a collaboration) and The Inner Truth Project.

In total, the women of Impact 100 St. Lucie have awarded $558,589 to  twenty-one different non-profit agencies in St. Lucie County. We  treasure this history and let it motivate us to do even more as we honor and strengthen our legacy in St. Lucie County.