100 women looking to make a damn big difference in Yellowknife

A new group is looking to make a difference in Yellowknife, seekingto help local charities through creating a collective of women who "Give a Damn."

SarahErasmuslaunched 100 Women Who Give A Damn in Yellowknife last week, in an effort to bring $40,000 a year to local charities.

The group aims to have four meetings a year, during which every member donates $100 to local charities or non-profitsvoted on by the membership.Erasmushopes to get 100 members, so the donations will reach $10,000 per meeting.

Erasmus says even in the early stages, she's confident the group will reach their membership goal: within 24 hours of launching, more than60 people had already committed to join.

"Our goal was for 100 people, and I'm confident we're going to have that many," she said.

"It's just a neat way of getting a group of people from the community together that all have the same goal of wanting to help others that need it."

5-minute pitches for $10K

Before the meeting, members are allowed to nominate any non-profit organization in Yellowknife or the N.W.T., Erasmus explained. Three nominated organizations are then pulled at random, and the member who nominated one of those charities has five minutes to pitch their cause to the group.

"Then we all vote and the organization that gets the most votes gets the, hopefully, $10,000," she said.

Erasmuswas inspired to start the group by a local men's chapter, 100 Men Who Give a Damn Yellowknife. The grouphad its first meeting in February of 2016 and has since donated more than $50,000 to local causes.

• 100 Men Who Give a Damn launches in Yellowknife

100 Women Who Give a Damn Yellowknife has scheduled its first meeting for July12 at the Top Knight pub.