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Impact100 Sonoma announces biggest grant pool ever

Posted on January 25, 2023 by Sonoma Valley Sun

Women’s collective giving organization Impact100 Sonoma — one of the Valley’s largest funders — will award a record $337,400 in grants to Sonoma Valley nonprofits in 2023. That amount will raise the group’s cumulative grant total since 2010 to $3,661,900.

For the third year in a row, Impact100 will award multiple Impetus Grants of up to $25,000 to selected nonprofits. This strategy of disbursing funds widely, as opposed to offering fewer large grants, was initiated during the pandemic and is planned to continue long term.

Presenters (from left) Sherry Preiss, Lynne Lancaster, Kathy Bloch, Claudia Sims, Marney Malik, Dr. Nancy Dome, Emma McCulloch, Dana Simpson-Stokes, and Dian Duvall led the Impact100 Sonoma annual meeting on January 21.

The recipients will be announced in April. Grant recipients can use the money to sustain their current programs, expand or improve their offerings, or better fulfill their core mission.

“The wide range of grant applications submitted this year reflects the high level of need in our valley,”  said Dana Simpson-Stokes and Kathy Bloch, Grants Oversight Co-Chairs. “We are more convinced than ever that it is the right decision to spread our funds broadly through the Impetus Grant program.”

Every Impact100 member makes a one-year, minimum donation of $1,000 toward grants. The more members, the more money is available to distribute. “We begin the year with a record-breaking 332 committed member philanthropists,” said Membership Co-Chair Sandee Crisp. “This is the power of women giving as one.”

On behalf of the Impact100 board of directors, Co-President Claudia Sims said, “We are constantly awed and humbled by the generosity of our members in supporting our nonprofit community and our organization’s vision of a just and thriving Sonoma Valley.”

The new grants and membership totals were revealed Saturday morning, January 21, at the Sebastiani Theatre during Impact100’s Annual Meeting. The event was sponsored by the Sebastiani Theatre. MUFG Union Bank sponsored the education component. 

The program included a keynote address by Nancy Dome, Ed.D., Founder and CEO of Epoch Education, a professional development consultancy that helps organizations build trust, inclusiveness, and empathy. Her talk, entitled “Community of Belonging and Compassionate Dialogue,” urged members to think beyond dollars donated, to work to resolve the root causes of inequity. She offered tools for addressing difficult topics in ways that help promote understanding among diverse groups, build stronger communities, strengthen organizational effectiveness, and support individual growth and learning.

In February and March, Impact100 member teams will evaluate this year’s applications, make site visits, and select finalists for presentation to and voting by the full membership in mid April. The 2023 Impetus Grants will be announced on April 29 at the Annual Awards Celebration, which will take place at Hanna Center and be open to the public.

Founded in 2009 by Annette Lomont and Christine Dohrmann, Impact100 Sonoma is a women’s philanthropic organization that pools member funds to support nonprofits from Schellville to Kenwood. Its vision is to support a just and thriving Sonoma Valley by empowering women to invest in a more sustainable nonprofit community through collective giving, responsible stewardship, and active engagement while emphasizing diversity, equity, and inclusion. For more information, visit www.impact100sonoma.org or write [email protected].

 

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