Highlighting Our Women: Shelle McCoy

By Kim Gronniger

In 1980, Shelle McCoy moved to Topeka from Rochester, Minn., with her husband, Michael McCoy, an orthopedic surgeon. In those early years, she cared for their young children while acclimating to the area. Eventually she joined Junior League of Topeka.

“During our training, we were asked what we wanted to focus on, and I said I’d like to serve on boards to learn more about the community,” McCoy said.

Her fundraising work for Ronald McDonald House and other local charities soon caught the attention of Topeka Community Foundation leaders Chandler Moenius and Marsha Pope. McCoy served as a Topeka Community Foundation board member and the organization’s chair in 1998-1999. Because of her familiarity with the foundation and its influence in the community, Moenius and Pope asked her to help put together an endowment for The Women’s Fund. 

“It was such an easy ask to accept and the easiest sell ever to others,” McCoy said. “Women by nature are charitable and our work attracted a cross-section of members with different ages and backgrounds who wanted to participate. Starting the Women’s Fund was literally the easiest thing I’ve ever done, and I don’t think there was a single person we spoke with who didn’t join us in helping women and children.”

From the beginning, McCoy said “the single greatest impactful activity for helping women and children was going on site visits and conducting interviews to see the situations grant recipients were facing and how they could benefit from the funds.”

She said The Women’s Fund’s initial founders were also mindful of the importance of sustainability and succession planning from the start. 

“Once we had the foundation built, we knew we had to step back and step away so others could become involved in leadership roles,” she said. “We took great pride in what we had created, but we also really wanted to make sure that new faces were involved in carrying the mission forward. We encouraged women who perhaps had never seen themselves as philanthropic to play a part in the effort’s success.”

McCoy said she was struck by how few faces she recognized in a recent luncheon photo, which underscored for her how The Women’s Fund’s founders’ inclusionary focus continues to draw others in.

“Now, at a time when I’m less active with the Women’s Fund, I really appreciate the work that’s been done more than I ever have,” she said. “It’s gratifying to see how far we’ve come and what The Women’s Fund’s influence has been. We’re here, we’re doing the work, and nothing is stopping us.”