The “Next Step” Awards are an opportunity to introduce Impact 100 to new nonprofit partners and to give members an opportunity to work with smaller, grass roots and diverse organizations within our community.
Awards are in support of projects or programs that meet a community need, are transformative, collaborative and innovative. The actual amount of each award will be selected by the applying nonprofit organization.
The Next Step Awards are made possible by the return of funds previously awarded to the 2018 grant recipient, Venice on Vine.
The name “Next Step” was selected because these monetary awards will enable several organizations to take the “Next Step” in a transformative project or program.
It was also chosen because after 20 years of awarding $100K grants to nonprofits in our community, this “Next Step” will introduce Impact 100 to a different set of community organizations. Most of Impact 100’s traditional $100K grants have gone to large, well-established organizations – because these are the organizations that have the capacity to compete for and manage a large grant. The “Next Step” Awards will go to smaller nonprofits – many of them grass roots, innovative, and more diverse nonprofits.
Impact 100 is very excited about this opportunity to meet and work with the organizations who apply.
Impact 100 members interested in helping to select the awardees will have an opportunity to sign-up to join the Application Review Team. The sign-up will be available on the Impact 100 website in mid-April.
In addition to creating the Next Step awards, the Impact 100 Board recently adopted a Strategic Plan for the next 3-5 years. In an interactive, engaging Board Retreat, the Board discussed community trends and needs as well as opportunities for the organization to continue to evolve and grow. The objective selected for the Strategic Plan is to “increase Impact 100’s impact on our community by evolving to be more equitable, inclusive, collaborative, innovative and sustainable”. The four strategies selected include:
1) Adapting grant-making to be more equitable while growing collaboration with nonprofits
2) Adding small grants (Next Step Awards) as the 20th Anniversary Celebration
3) Recruiting more diverse members while engaging all members
4) Strengthening the organization to make it more sustainable.
Members have already had an opportunity to experience some of the plans driven by these strategies including the recent Equity in Grant-Making Open Forums.
Stay tuned for more throughout the year.