The Miami County effort was introduced in 2015 with a goal of attracting more than 100 members with each donating $100 quarterly. The donations were made after participants listened to member presentations about three randomly selected charities, voted for a charity of choice and then all gave their check to the charity with the most votes.
By 2016, the Miami County group reached its goal of having at least 100 members and was able to maintain that number until February 2020. Over that time, more than $181,000 was donated to county charities.
Things changed in May 2020 when the meeting was canceled due to COVID-19. The group began virtual meetings that August and continued following that format until this November. The change, though, was not positive for the organization.
“We believe the inability to meet in person caused membership numbers to drop — we lost half of our members with charity donations dropping to $71,000 for that three-year period,” the GWYL Steering Committee said. The committee is made up of Maggie Kenny, Richard Bender and Gary Kuziensky.
“Then in May 2023, our members did not nominate any charities for consideration of a grant. We had reached a fork in the road — do we call it a day, or do we find another way?” he said.
They weren’t ready to call it a day because of the need to support the county’s charities financially.
By the November meeting, procedural changes were made, and representatives of nominated charities were invited to make presentations to the GWYL group.
“The presentations were heartfelt and included all the relevant information for members to make their donation decisions,” Kuziensky said. Needy Basket of Southern Miami County was selected as the grant recipient. “We believe that we have found a unique and better way of giving where we are living.” Kuziensky said.
“One of the advantages of becoming a member of GWYL is the opportunity to learn about charities operating in Miami County such as the Community Food Truck Blessing Box, and once this knowledge is gained, to take action to support selected charities with a grant. GWYL operates on the premise that alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much,” Kuziensky said.
GWYL membership is open to anyone, and people can join at any time. Membership information can be found at: https://givewhereyoulive.wixsite.com/miamicounty
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
About the Author