CONVERSATIONS
Women Giving Together: Making an Impact and Building Connection in Fairfield County
What happens when women pool their resources and their desire to make a difference? In this episode of the HAYVN Hubcast, host Nancy Sheed welcomes Annie Itkin and Jennifer Servedio, co-presidents of Impact Fairfield County, for a conversation about the power of collective giving.
Annie is an attorney who grew up in a Connecticut family where volunteering was part of everyday life. Jennifer’s career took her from event planning and marketing at a large bank to Columbia Business School’s Institute for Not-for-Profit Management. Together they explain how members’ $1,000 contributions add up to $100,000 grants for local nonprofits, and why the impact reaches well past the awards themselves.
The Ripple Effect of Giving – Key Points:
- Turning individual gifts into larger grants: Each member contributes $1,000, and those gifts are pooled to fund grants in $100,000 increments. In one giving year, 273 members funded two $100,000 grants plus four operating grants of just over $18,000 each.
- A careful process behind every vote: Applications go through reviews, financial evaluation, committee conversations and site visits. By the time six finalists present at the grant awards celebration in May, members can vote knowing the proposals and financials have been thoroughly reviewed.
- Participation that fits different lives: Some members contribute and trust the review process. Others join committees, which Annie describes as two meetings and up to three site visits, mostly between January and April. Scholarships and corporate sponsorships open more paths to membership.
- Seeing community needs up close: Reading an application introduces members to a nonprofit’s mission. Visiting its space and meeting the people doing the work brings that mission to life.
- The ripple effect: Members go on to volunteer, donate, join boards and sometimes find jobs with the nonprofits they discover. Organizations gain new connections even when they don’t receive a major grant, and Jennifer sees nonprofits teaming up to serve the community without duplicating each other’s work.
Those relationships were on full display at Impact Fairfield County’s tenth-anniversary celebration in 2025. All 17 past grantee organizations came to the grant awards event, and members raised extra funds to give each of them a small operating grant.
Annie found Impact through a conversation on a playground, and Jennifer through coffee with a friend. Their stories show that collective giving builds community as much as it funds it, and the first step can be as simple as a conversation.
Connect with Impact Fairfield County
Website
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