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Impact100 Philadelphia is going big for its 10th year of collective giving

Impact100 Philadelphia 2018 annual meeting. June 5, 2018 Category: EventFeaturedFundingMedium
It’s a big year for Impact100 Philadelphia.

The local chapter of the national giving circle network hosted its annual grantmaking event last night, awarding $387,000 to five Philly nonprofits working in arts and culture, education, environment, family, and health and wellness.

In the coming months, it’s also playing host to a national convening of women-led giving circles and launching a program to increase the age diversity of its membership.

These initiatives are all part of the organization’s 10th year of collective giving. Here are the full details on each.

The grants

At the group’s annual meeting on June 4, three nonprofits won $100,000 in core mission grants:

  • Nationalities Service Center
  • Center for Advocacy for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly (CARIE)
  • Hopeworks ‘n Camden

And two were awarded $43,500 in unrestricted operating grants:

  • Taller Puertorriqueño
  • The Philadelphia Orchard Project

Winners are chosen by a vote of its 387 members who each contribute $1,000 to the funding pool.

This grant cycle marks the second time Impact100 has awarded core mission grants instead of programmatic grants, a sign of its commitment to trust-based grantmaking.

“Instead of having us tell the nonprofits, ‘This is the best use of [our] money,’ we’re empowering them and letting them tell us where the money is best used,” Director of Strategic Initiatives Emily Biscardi told us in 2016.

The conference

Impact100 Philadelphia is serving as the local sponsor of the national Women’s Collective Giving Grantmakers Network (WCGGN) Conference, to be held at The Logan in Center City this October 21 through 23. The event, titled “Changing the Face of Philanthropy,” will convene about 400 reps from WCGGN’s 60 member organizations to collectively consider how to be better conveners and members of the larger nonprofit community.

From our Partners

Speakers include:

  • Kat Rosqueta, founding executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy
  • Liz Scott, co-executive director of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
  • Jane Golden, executive director of Mural Arts Philadelphia
  • Mary Ellen Iskenderian, president and CEO of Women’s World Banking
  • Uneeka Jay, president of Rewrite 365
  • Marsha Levick, cofounder, deputy director and chief counsel of Juvenile Law Center
  • Marty Moss-Coane, host and executive producer of WHYY-FM’s Radio Times
  • Kristina Wahl, president of The Barra Foundation

The program

At its annual meeting, Impact100 also announced its new initiative to engage millennial donors: The Young Philanthropists program invites women ages 21 to 35 to join the giving circle for a membership fee of $575 — half the regular fee of $1,150. (That’s $500 and $1,000, respectively, for the grants, and $75 and $150 for organizational operating costs.)

These younger members get full membership benefits, including a vote in the grantmaking process, plus an opportunity to join the larger board via the Young Philanthropists committee. Members will also be encouraged to recruit other millennials and to host their own Impact100 events.

Why a new program? Simply put, Impact100’s membership as it exists now skews older, with only about 30 members currently in that age group.

This new group will contribute new perspectives as well as become the “future leadership of the organization,” said Biscardi, who helped develop this concept alongside existing younger members; it’s about “extending ourselves to younger women, and exposing them to philanthropy.”

Impact100 has no specific target for how many women it’s hoping to recruit for the program, instead focusing on growing it “organically,” Biscardi said.

Young Philanthropists doesn’t replace the recently revamped Founders Fellowship, which allows aspiring givers to participate in Impact100’s grantmaking for one year without paying the membership fee. Both, though, are part of an effort to increase the group’s overall diversity — age-wise, and otherwise — which will also result in forthcoming, formal partnerships with diversity-focused groups in the Philly area, according to Biscardi.

Impact100 is hosting a kickoff info session for the Young Philanthropists program on July 24; check its website in the coming weeks for more details.

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