INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — One of the greatest challenges for women juggling careers, families and extensive involvement in community activities is simply finding enough hours in the day to accomplish everything.
The solution for Sue Tompkins, vice president and wealth management adviser at Merrill Lynch, is to rise well before dawn each day and head outdoors for a 4:30 a.m. run.
“If you can do that, your work day is easy; get it out of the way and you’re good to go,” laughed Tompkins. “For me it’s all about balancing work, philanthropy and family. And golf; have to fit that in too. I don’t sleep a lot.”
A soft-spoken Connecticut transplant, Tompkins and her husband Chris moved to Vero Beach 25 years ago and have two sons; John (15) and Ben (13). The couple followed her parents, who had vacationed here since 1972 before moving down permanently while Tompkins was in college.
“I’m a Husky – who by the way are the national basketball champions,” said Tompkins, a graduate of the University of Connecticut as she proudly pointed out her Final Four UConn hat, embroidered with a bold No. 1.
She threw herself into non-profits while working at the old Barnett Bank, which she credits with actively promoting volunteerism.
“I did all kinds of things,” said Tompkins, adding that her first major foray into the local non-profit world was through the United Way. It was also at Barnett that she met friend Becky Allen, who eventually enticed her to join the Education Foundation board.
“I just rolled off that board,” said Tompkins, who did so as its president. “All their programs – grants for the classrooms, sneaker exchange, science fair – have grown over the years. They’re programs that wouldn’t have a way to get funded otherwise. That’s a really busy foundation. It’s tiny but it’s really busy. Cynthia [Falardeau, executive director] has tons of energy; she’s just fantastic.”
She also recently cycled off the board of the Dasie Hope Center.
“They do wonderful things for the kids in Wabasso. Verna [founder Verna Wright] has so much passion about what she does; you cannot say no to her.”
One board she joined that doesn’t cycle off its members is the VNA & Hospice Foundation.
“It’s probably one of the boards I’ll stay on forever; it’s such a great cause. The VNA provides care to anyone who needs it, regardless of the ability to pay, so the money we have to raise to cover those expenses is quite substantial.”
These days most of her non-profit time is devoted to her position as Impact 100 board president.
Now entering its fourth year, Impact 100 has enriched the community through seven transformational grants.
Tompkins was one of an initial cadre of women who created Women in Philanthropy, aimed at educating women about philanthropy and charitable giving. After a few years, the group sought an outlet to turn that knowledge into action.
“Lenora and Kerry came across Impact 100,” she explained, referring to Lenora Ritchie, executive director of the McCabe Foundation, and Kerry Bartlett, executive director of the Indian River Community Foundation.
“We loved the idea; the format was just perfect for this town.”
Deceptively simple, the concept was to have 100 women donate $1,000 each and pool those contributions to provide a high impact, transformational grant.
“We had 205 members the first year; it was considerably more successful than we expected. We had thought – if we could just get 100 people – and we ended up with 205.”
And it just got better. There were 232 members the second year, and a “power of three” push in the third year resulted in a whopping 348 members.
“Impact 100 in Vero is one of the fastest growing ones they’ve ever seen,” said Tompkins, speaking of the nationwide initiatives. “Even when you go to larger cities they don’t have the membership we do. Faith [Daniels] who is going to be our kickoff speaker lives in Westchester, and said she doesn’t think they could get the same response.”
“This is such a unique community; people are so giving and so interested in helping each other out. We all call on each other when we see something that needs to be done. I grew up in a very small town and love living in Vero because it’s small enough that you can get involved and you can see the impact. It makes it so much fun to live here.”
While Tompkins said she would love to have the membership hit 400, what she really hopes to see are innovative grant requests for transformational ideas, which are sustainable, and have the financial capacity to be implemented.
“We’re asking them to identify a problem or an issue and come up with a creative solution to solve a problem that will really make a difference in the community,” she explains. “I thought a really good one last year was ORCA [Ocean Research & Conservation Association]. They identified pollution in the lagoon as a problem and they came up with an idea to map the lagoon; it was innovative. Then they wrapped up the idea with high school kids to do some of the research. It was something that hadn’t been done before and it could be used in other communities that have the same problem with their waterways. Solving the problem and educating at the same time.”
As Tompkins can attest, the only negative in an all-volunteer organization is that it is very time consuming.
Fortunately, the women in the community are equally as generous with both time and finances.
“It’s a very interactive process,” said Tompkins. “If you really want to dig in and learn about nonprofits you can be on a grants panel. If you want to just give your money, you can do that too. You choose. If you have time you want to spend, great – because we need the help. The key concept is that collectively we can have such a much bigger impact. One-hundred percent goes to charity – period. We will find our administrative money somewhere else. Nobody else does that.”
