Women-led philanthropic group to award four, $101,000 grants in Cincinnati region
Impact 100 named in late June seven nonprofit finalists who will compete for its members’ votes to win one of four $101,000 grants the women-led collective giving organization will make this fall.
The finalists offer a range of options from its members to choose, from a small community center in North Fairmount to one of Northern Kentucky’s most prominent nonprofits to a local winner of the national Jefferson public-service award.
For 21 years, Impact 100 has awarded grants to local nonprofit organizations in the Greater Cincinnati region, now totaling more than $6 million. The organization was founded in Cincinnati in 2001 as a meaningful way for women to respond to the needs of local communities through a collective giving concept: women pool their resources together to make a greater change than often one can do alone. Every year, Impact 100 members contribute and then help choose what organizations will be funded.
The name, Impact 100, comes from the initial goal of 100 women contributing $1,000 to award a $100,000 grant to a community organization. Impact 100 has grown into a movement with chapters in more than 50 U.S. cities and two foreign countries. Together, the organizations have awarded more than $105 million in grants.
All seven finalists will present their proposals to the Impact 100 membership, and, after member votes are counted, four will each receive a $101,000 Impact 100 grant to implement their projects. The names of the four top vote-getters will be revealed Sept. 20 during the organization’s annual awards celebration.
The seven finalists were revealed June 20 in the organization’s first in-person since 2019. The sold-out event at Cincinnati’s Memorial Hall gave about 200 of the organization’s members the opportunity to hear from representatives from the seven organizations for the first time. The seven organizations were narrowed down from more than 70 applications by a member committee.
The organizations and how they would use the Impact 100 funding are:
- Cincinnati Urban Promise. Its Bracken Woods Lane redevelopment project will provide equipment and supplies to transform seven blighted lots into a children’s playground, STEM learning opportunities and community gardens for children and adults, providing fresh produce as sustenance for an impoverished area.
- City Gospel Mission. The organization will purchase commercial kitchen equipment for a new kitchen that will be used to cook 150 hot meals each day for the women and their children who are in a residential treatment program.
- Found Village. The grant would be used to provide support to a program that connects young adults ages 18-25 who have been released from social service systems with a community of care to help them navigate their transition to independent adulthood.
- Life Learning Center. Its Pillars Café transformation would see an upgraded kitchen by purchasing commercial kitchen equipment and supplies to support clients with food insecurities. Those clients would then be more able to complete classwork and keep appointments with the goal of long-term employment.
- Music Resource Center-Cincinnati. The MRC Rolling Studio would allow the center to purchase and convert a van into a rolling music studio to increase their community outreach, thus creating and expanding opportunities for teenagers to develop musical skills and abilities.
- North Fairmount Community Center. The center would purchase a passenger van for safe, reliable transportation, linking more residents to free community programs and services, and repair the concrete patio, ramp, and steps of the center’s front entrance.
- Price Hill Will. Its Homesteading Program would assist in the purchase and renovating of blighted properties and helping low-moderate income families that do not qualify for conventional financing become homeowners and supporting Price Hill as a desirable place to live.
To learn more about Impact 100, or for information about the upcoming 2023 grant application process,
visit www.Impact100.org.