National Charity League – Madison Chapter, joining charity and community

Bringing together moms and daughters for charity and community. The National Charity League Incorporated was founded in 1925, and the Madison chapter is the first chapter in North Alabama, starting in 2020.

“We focus on three pillars, community service, leadership and cultural experiences,” said Vice President of Membership Dusty Varcak. “From a community service standpoint, this really is a service organization; it’s a mother-daughter service organization. We really want to foster the mother-daughter relationship, so we partner with 15 different organizations, and most of them are local.”

Varcak said the National Charity League aims to grow and build girls’ leadership capabilities and problem-solving through having each girl hold a leadership position.

“They meet within their grade levels monthly, and each girl has a role,” she said. “There’s a president, a treasurer, a secretary. They hold meetings, and they conduct those meetings following Robert’s Rules of Order. They take meeting minutes, and then they are expected to provide that information and report back to their group. [We have a] cultural [emphasis] where we just appreciate and recognize the differences. So sometimes the girls might go to the museum, or they might watch one of their classmates in the Nutcracker. It’s really just about exposing them to differences in our area, and not just the philanthropy side, the cultural side as well.”

The National Charity League membership is open for girls entering seventh, eighth or ninth grade, and they continue their membership until the end of high school.

“My daughter was actually entering the ninth grade [when we joined], and so I just really wanted to spend time with her and to do something in the community,” Varcak said. “One of the things that we talk about at the National Charity League is that people always say, ‘We should do more, we should volunteer, we should get out in the community.’ And this provides the structure. It gives us the organizations that we can partner with, and it gives us a schedule. I have two daughters, so when my youngest daughter was in seventh grade, she’s now a freshman, it gives us the ability to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to volunteer at ShowerUp this Sunday,’ and they know that that’s what we’re going to do on Sunday, we get up and we go and we we volunteer and it’s just a really, really great experience for us to spend time together and to serve our community.”

The Moms of the National Charity League also have their own meetings that help build community, learn ways to support their daughters and play fun games.

“The moms have their own monthly meetings, and those meetings are intended for us to bond and get to know each other and learn about topics,” she said. “We have had meetings where we’ve had a college and career counselor come and talk to us, and somebody came to talk to us about estate planning. We’ve had smaller meetings where people have learned how to play Mohjang.”

Through charity and leadership requirements and time volunteering, Varcak said the National Charity League Madison Chapter members frequently exceed its requirements.

“From a philanthropy standpoint, everyone is required to get 15 hours of philanthropy in the year,” she said. “They’re required to provide 10 hours of leadership, so whether that’s in their role or taking on some other leadership opportunity throughout the year, and then they have to attend a certain number of meetings. The girls have to attend six meetings in the year, and the moms have to attend five meetings throughout the year, but most of our girls get over those 15 hours of philanthropy.

“Last year, as a Chapter, we completed over 3,000 hours of service, and we had multiple girls who were eligible for the Presidential Volunteer Service Award,” she said. “For children up to age 15, it’s 50 hours a year [to receive the Presidential Volunteer Service Award]. And after age 15, it is 100 hours a year. We had probably 20 girls [meet the qualifications].”

Varcak said the Madison Chapter of the National Charity League is open to eligible girls and mothers in Madison County.

“We have steadily grown our membership, our younger classes that are new, they start out sometimes small, but we can have up to 30 members in a class, and we try and grow those younger classes,” she said. “This year, for our senior class, there are 16 girls in that class. This is our largest graduating class that we have had before that, because we’re a new chapter.”

To learn more about the Madison Chapter of the National Charity League, Varcak said there will be a 2026-2027 membership drive that will officially kick off Jan. 1. Leading up to the membership drive, there will be information sessions for mothers with daughters who will be in seventh, eighth or ninth grade next year.

For more information, visit National Charity League, Inc., Madison City, Alabama Chapter on Facebook.