A big thank you to everyone who has participated in this year’s Focus Area Committee (FAC) process and Community Investment Review Committee. (CIRC) The virtual platform (Zoom) made it possible for even more members to participate. In fact, two of this year’s FAC’s had over 40 participants signed up with over 30 on each call. Almost 40% of our members had some role in this year’s Grant Review Cycle.
Starting in late January, the 5 FAC’s (Culture, Family, Environmental Preservation and Recreation, Health & Wellness and Education) reviewed LOIs and narrowed the pool to request grants from the most appealing programs for Impact 100. Late March, the FAC’s were back at it reviewing grants and making even tougher decisions to limit the number of site visits. And, most recently, throughout May, the FAC’s conducted virtual or in-person site visits with many members participating. In fact, the virtual site visits enabled more participation than could possibly attend in person (some site visit teams had over 20 Impact 100 participants) and also allowed for recording such that all FAC members were able to experience the non-profits first hand. What a great representation of Impact 100 in the community! And, so many of our members were exposed to amazing nonprofit organizations.
“It takes a village” is an understatement when it comes to FAC success. Many of the FAC’s relied on members to research and summarize the grants ahead of the meetings. And, then a huge task for another core group of volunteers was coordinating site visits – reaching out to the non-profits, scheduling, asking and answering questions, facilitating the discussion and writing up the reports. Finally, our CIRC team members diligently reviewed the financials of the selected nonprofits – ensuring that our grant recipients will be good stewards of their awards! A big THANK YOU to all of those who participated in throughout the Grant Cycle process.