When Kevin Jack moved from Canada to New Hampshire eight years ago, he didn’t know anybody. But he knew he wanted to make a difference.
He wanted to give a shit about his new community.
Jack, who now lives in Pembroke and describes himself as a busy family man with a demanding job, had a simple idea to make friends—get a group of guys together, sip beers, and donate to charities.
“I wanted to contribute to the community that has welcomed me,” he said.
The men of about 150 men, who call themselves the Guys who Give a $hit, get together four times a year to nominate a charity they want to give money to. They contribute $100 each, have some cold ones, and select three charities at random out of a hat. Representatives from all three charities are invited to attend the meeting to make their best pitch for funding, then the guys vote for one to receive the evening’s pool. The money, totaling around $15,000, is donated on the spot — after the Guys ask some questions.
“Number one question that everyone always asks is, ‘what is your annual budget?’ Jack said. “And then they want to know where the money comes from. And then they want to know how many full-time employees they have.”
Jack said the guys prefer to donate to small nonprofits.
“By sticking with these local groups, our money goes a long way,” Jack said. “Often, our donations actually double their annual budgets.”
Jack, the chief operating officer of Swenson Granite Works in Concord, was sent to New Hampshire in 2016 as a manager for a job that was supposed to only last a couple of years, but he’s become ingrained in the community. His daughter is active in gymnastics. People say hello when he’s eating out with his family. That’s no surprise: In Canada, Jack was a volunteer firefighter for 10 years and was an active volunteer school board member.
Guys Who Give a $hit is a way for people like Jack to give back without investing a lot of time.
“I’ve always liked to pass it on and help others and I never found a way that was really adapted to a busy lifestyle,” he said. “I have three kids and a demanding job.
“I felt like this was a casual, informal way of giving back to the community.”
The origins of Guys Who Give a $hit
The original Guys who Give a $hit group was started in 2015 by Jason Mosher of Prince Edward Island.
Jack met Mosher at a brewery, just before he moved to New Hampshire. Jack remembers that first-time get-together.
“He was on his phone constantly,” Jack said. “I was kind of joking with him saying, ‘Hey, are you going to get off your phone and talk to us or what are you up to?’ And he looked at me and said, ‘Sorry, Kevin. I’m transferring money to a charity.’ And I felt guilty.”
Mosher explained the Guys who Give a $hit concept “and my jaw dropped,” Jack said. “It’s simple, and it’s genius. I was so impressed that I promised him I would start one in New Hampshire. I’m a man of my word and I kept it.”
All of the money the Guys collect goes directly to the charities, eliminating the need to establish a 501(c)(3), Jack said
“All I’m facilitating is a group of guys to get together,” Jack said.
Interestingly, the Guys concept was actually borrowed from a group of women.
The men borrowed the fundraising model from a group called 100+ Women Who Care of Prince Edward Island.
In fact, founder Aileen Matters played a key role in assisting the men to launch their initiative.
“It’s great, I encouraged it,” Matters told Saltwire.com in 2018. “A couple of times I put the challenge out there for the guys.”
The once small group is really making an impact
The New Hampshire guys group has steadily grown over the years.
Jack had almost 40 people at the first meeting. Now, he has around 170 registered members. The guys include lawyers, architects, plumbers, and people from all walks of life.
“At first people were very skeptical because they didn’t know me and they had no reason to trust me,” he said. “They wanted to know where their money was going.”
Those fears seem to have subsided now. To date, they’ve donated $206,000, despite missing five meetings during the pandemic.
Jack said the group has heard from nonprofits large and small.
In March, Bikers Against Child Abuse was the big winner, and walked away with $13,900.
Members of Bikers Against Child Abuse help children feel safer at home through mentorship. If a child feels unsafe, a licensed professional can connect the child with the name and number of two bikers who live geographically closest to them. Anytime the child feels scared, the child can call the bikers to go to the child’s house or ride around their neighborhood.
“It’s hard to describe in words how happy it makes us and proud just to be able to help people like that,” Jack said. “We get a lot of emotional people. Everybody in that room feels like they gave $15,000. You don’t feel like you only gave $100.”
At their last meeting in September, the men donated $15,000 to Womenade, an all-volunteer group of women in Concord with a similar mission of offering support through monetary donations. In 2018, the Guys donated $6,700 to their work.
Womenade gets together monthly to provide up to $500 to individuals and families. They’ve also donated winter clothing, given funds for the homeless to spend a night in a hotel, and donated incontinence supplies. They even bought a new mattress for a domestic violence survivor who experienced trauma on her old mattress.
“We’ve given our kids a good life and we want to be able to give back,” said Womenade member Amy Golden.
Winning that pot of money from the Guys, she noted, doubled their annual budget.
