A collective of 70 women who each pitched in $1,000 has handed its very first grant, worth $70,000, to a foundation born out of one Medina family’s grief. Impact100 Cleveland awarded the inaugural grant to the Reid Wiley Charitable Foundation, which will use the money to fund asthma education and critical management resources for students across 43 Northeast Ohio school districts.
The foundation is named for Reid Wiley, a Medina resident who died of complications from asthma, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. Impact100 Cleveland describes itself as a women-led collective giving organization, with each member contributing $1,000 so the group can fund large-scale grants supporting nonprofits across Greater Cleveland, according to Impact100 Cleveland.
A Program Built From Personal Loss
Reid Wiley died from complications of asthma in December 2020, and in 2022 his parents, Glenn and Mary, along with his sister Erin, established the Reid Wiley Charitable Foundation in his memory, according to the Reid Wiley Charitable Foundation. The foundation was created to fund in-school asthma education and support programs for school-age children in Northeast Ohio, carried out through its Wiley Asthma Program in partnership with the American Lung Association and Akron Children's Hospital, according to a statement from the American Lung Association.
That program already provides inhalers, spacers and treatment support to students across the same 43 Ohio school districts the new grant will benefit, per the foundation's own description of its work. Students with asthma receive backpacks containing school supplies, bilingual educational books and asthma-management resources, while school nurses are given asthma flipcharts and comprehensive training materials. The program also offers stipends so schools can stock emergency albuterol rescue inhalers, disposable spacers and storage systems.
How the Grant Winner Was Chosen
The Reid Wiley Charitable Foundation was chosen from over 93 nonprofit applications during Impact100 Cleveland's first grant cycle, the Beacon Journal reports. Brooke Potrzeba, founding president of Impact100 Cleveland, said the recipient was collectively selected based on where members believed the grant could create transformational impact, per the Akron Beacon Journal's reporting. The foundation was selected after months of review, site visits and education, according to the same report.
Four other finalists made it through that process, including the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland and Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity, the Beacon Journal notes. A broader account of the selection process from Cleveland.com states that Impact100 Cleveland received 93 nonprofit applications in its first grant cycle, and that a member-led review narrowed the field to 13 site visits before settling on five finalists: ThirdSpace Action Lab, the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland, Holden Forests & Gardens, Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity and the Reid Wiley Charitable Foundation. That same account indicates the $70,000 grant was planned to be awarded Oct. 1 at an event called The Big Give.
Asthma's Reach Among Ohio Children
The stakes behind the grant are significant: asthma impacts one million adults and 195,000 children in Ohio, according to the American Lung Association's statement. Separately, the Lung Association's own Ohio asthma page states that almost 8% of children under 18, or about 190,000 children, have a diagnosis of asthma, while the Ohio Department of Health has reported that approximately 294,000 children in the state have been told at some point in their life that they had asthma — figures that reflect different sources and measurement approaches.
The Lung Association separately ran its first-ever back-to-school backpack pilot in Ohio, successfully distributing 400 backpacks to school-age youth for the 2025 school year, part of its broader push to get asthma resources directly into students' hands. Free resources distributed through these programs include an asthma sports pack with school supplies, a bilingual asthma educational book, asthma-management resources and an inhaler spacer, according to the Lung Association's statement.
What Comes Next for Impact100 Cleveland
Impact100 Cleveland's funding for this first grant came entirely from its 70 inaugural members, each of whom contributed $1,000, according to the group's own account. Looking ahead, the organization has said that with 100 members, it could award at least $100,000 to Greater Cleveland nonprofits in a future cycle. Cleveland.com reported in August that the group hoped to reach 100 members for its next grant cycle, which would allow it to award a $100,000 grant.
