We are excited to announce 2 changes for the Annual Awards Ceremony and Grant Awardee Selection Process in 2025

  • Members will complete their selections earlier.  All Impact 100 members will receive the videos and executive summaries in time to complete ballots before the event is held.  In fact, the selection process and OPA vote portal will close approximately 2 weeks ahead of the AAC.
  • All finalists will be notified of their status as a recipient or runner-up before the event is held.  This provides the organization a choice to attend or not based on the outcome.  This solution will better allow us to celebrate ALL the deserving finalist organizations without them being forced to process disappointment in such a public forum.  (Of note, Impact 100 Members and guests will not be notified of the outcome until the event.  This allows us to retain the element of surprise and create a collective moment of shared celebration, excitement, and accomplishment during our annual celebration.)

As an organization, Impact 100 Cincinnati is constantly striving to improve the grant cycle for both our Non-Profit partners and our members.  We continually solicit feedback and have heard lots of compliments from both finalists and members about the Annual Awards Ceremony and how we award the grants at the event.  Unfortunately, we have also heard many concerns about how our process has created anxiety and public embarrassment for non-recipients. Year after year, some of this feedback was quite hard to read and hear.  Finalist organizations described feeling public humiliation after months of working through the grant review process.  Members and attendees provided similar feedback about feeling discomfort in watching the reactions from the recipients who were not finalists.

“… even though the big reveal (the AAC) may be fun for members, it’s incredibly nerve- wracking for the organizations… I spent a good portion of the week prior to the event working on self-calming measures because I was worried I might start crying after the last winner was announced and we hadn’t made the cut.” – Finalist, 2023

Our board and members are dedicated to continuous improvement so with careful consideration and planning, we made several changes in 2024 to address this feedback from members and finalists. (Improved videos, providing finalists a full table to attend the AAC at no cost, and launching the extremely successful “Extend Your Impact” campaign to raise funds for runners-up organizations to receive up to $10,000 award.)  We are thrilled to report that we will be continuing these well received changes in 2025!

“I’m glad that this year everyone gets something but that doesn’t really change the feeling of being rejected in a room full of people. In fact, it’s for this reason that I am not inviting board members to the awards because if we don’t win, that’s not what I want my board to experience.” – Finalist, 2024

However, even with these improvements, we heard loud and clear from members and attendees that there is still work to do.  So, based on many years of feedback, we have decided to change the timing of how we select our grant recipients. By completing the selection process and notifying finalists in advance, we can treat our nonprofits better at the AAC – allowing them to leave feeling even more honored and valued.  At the same time, this change allows us to honor the history of Impact 100 and highlight the process and event that makes us unique – that each and every one of our members have a voice in selecting our grant recipients.

“I dislike the fact that 7 are brought in with very high hopes but 3 leave with those hopes dashed in front of everyone – this format of the AAC negatively impacts the experience for me and diminishes the intrinsic satisfaction I get from participating in philanthropic giving”- Impact 100 Member, 2024

We plan to ensure that the Finalists’ inspiring stories and projects are shared at the event so everyone will have a chance to hear about their impactful work. We believe that these adjustments will help us continue to grow our partnerships with Non-Profits, while also continuing to engage members and potential members in the spirit and fun of collective giving.

“We’re nonprofit professionals, not actors. Our disappointment shouldn’t be commodified as donor engagement for the Impact 100 members.” – Applicant, 2024

As always, we welcome your engagement, questions or feedback.  Feel free to reach out to any board member or email ideas@impact100.org.  We look forward to celebrating with you on September 25th for the 2025 Annual Awards Ceremony, mark your calendars now!