The Ripple Effect of a Changemaker: Claire O'Hare

By Isis-Rae Goulbourne, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications, LiveGirl

I remember the first time I met Claire O'Hare. It was my first LiveGirl event as a staff member, and the organization was awarding Shine On scholarships to 17 young women. I didn't know much about Claire then. I didn't know about the career she had built or the role she had played in making those scholarships possible. I just remember noticing the energy around her and the way people seemed to gravitate in her direction.

There are some people who have that kind of presence before you know their story. Claire was one of those people. Her career alone is impressive. She rose through media and technology, working at CMP Media, Yahoo! and Facebook before eventually founding Livewell Design. But what interested me more was what she chose to do with the success, access and influence she gained along the way, and how those choices began to ripple outward.

Where the Ripple Began

Claire's relationship with LiveGirl began years before she founded the Shine On Giving Circle. Through Livewell Design, she sponsored an annual Impact Scholarship and became more connected by attending events and meeting the young women receiving those awards. "What was little to you was big to somebody else," she remembers thinking.

One scholarship event in particular stayed with her. Claire had made a personal contribution of about $500, and Sheri West, LiveGirl's Founder and CEO, brought her onstage to present the funds to one of the young women. Instead of leaving feeling good about what she had given, Claire went home uncomfortable that she hadn't done more. She told her husband, Dick, how she felt, and his response was simple: "Don't let that happen again."

The fire was lit. Now the question was what doing more actually looked like. Claire could have written a larger check herself, but she began thinking about how to bring other people into the experience. "I have always felt that I can create a ripple closest to me," she told me.

That instinct makes more sense when you understand where she came from. Claire grew up one of six children, five girls and one boy, surrounded by a strong mother and older sisters. She remembers knowing early that she had "firepower" in her, a belief reinforced over the years by bosses and mentors who saw what she could do and gave her opportunities to grow. When Claire had children of her own, she wanted them to believe in that same firepower. Throughout their childhood she had a simple phrase for them: "Shine on."

Years later, those two words would take on a much larger meaning.

Shine On

As Claire thought about how to make a bigger impact through LiveGirl, her thoughts turned to her daughter, Libby, who was now in her early twenties and beginning her own career. Claire knew her daughter and her friends had grown up with tremendous opportunity, something she was conscious of in her own life as well. "We've worked hard, but we have been very fortunate," she said. "And it's really important to share that with others who haven't been as fortunate."

She also understood that there are young women with just as much ability and ambition who have not had the same relationships, resources or opportunities. "I think that you can do a lot to give other people access," she said.

Once Libby was on board, she brought the idea to her friends. Before long, seven young women were pooling their resources and figuring out how to create opportunities for other young women. They called the giving circle Shine On. What began with a mother and daughter wanting to do more has since helped support dozens of girls and young women through LiveGirl.

But Claire also began to see the effect Shine On was having on the women doing the giving. "It's such an important part of who they are," she told me. They are building careers, relationships and families while making giving part of their lives now, rather than waiting until some future point when they feel successful enough to begin.

Claire has been deliberate about letting them own what they created. "It's not mine. It's theirs, and it's theirs to build," she said. Her younger daughter, Ellie, is beginning to get involved, while her son, Jack, has watched his sisters and started asking why there isn't something similar for him.

Then there is Dick. After attending a recent Shine On event, the man who once told Claire, "Don't let that happen again," found himself telling her, "Gosh, I should be doing more."

Claire laughed when she told me Shine On has started "infiltrating the O'Hare family values." The ripple she wanted to create close to home had quite literally made its way through her home.

Making Change

When I asked Claire what she hoped her legacy would be, her answer had nothing to do with her career or any particular accomplishment. "I would love to be known as somebody who creates a space for everybody," she said. And it is clear that is how she has lived her life. She has spent years turning the light toward other people, seeing what they are capable of and helping create opportunities for them to succeed.

That brought me back to the first time I saw Claire at that LiveGirl event and the energy around her that I noticed before I knew anything about her story. I understand it differently now. What I couldn't see then were all the people she had brought with her, the doors she had helped open and the ripple that was constantly moving outward.

It is for this reason that LiveGirl will honor Claire with the Changemaker Award at this year's She Is Rising benefit on October 1 at the Roger Sherman Inn. While she may not always recognize the light she is creating in the process, its impact is all around her.

Maybe that is what her story leaves the rest of us to consider. Not whether we will build what Claire built, but what might already be within our reach to set in motion for someone else.

So I ended our conversation with one last question. After everything we had just talked about, it felt like the simplest one to ask.

Do you consider yourself a changemaker?

Claire paused.

"I've never thought about it before, but yes, I do."

Sometimes the person who starts the ripple is the last one to see just how far it has traveled. We can see it, Claire. And at LiveGirl, we are grateful that so much of your ripple has reached us, our girls and young women, and the people who will carry it forward.

Claire O'Hare will receive LiveGirl's Changemaker Award at the 2026 She Is Rising benefit on Thursday, October 1, 2026 at the Roger Sherman Inn in New Canaan, CT.