Impact100 sets new record for grant funding, membership

During their annual meeting on Jan. 21, Impact100 Sonoma, a women’s philanthropic organization, announced it will award $337,400 in grants to local nonprofits this year – a record for the organization.

The collective has offered grants to nonprofits around Sonoma for over a decade by pooling funds from its members, and is one of the largest nonprofit funders in Sonoma Valley. Last year, it awarded $335,500 in funding to 14 Sonoma Valley nonprofits.

Each member in the organization makes a one-year, fully tax-deductible minimum donation of $1,000 toward grants. The more members they have, the more money is available to distribute. This year’s amount will raise the group’s cumulative grant total since 2010 to over $3.5 million.

“We begin the year with a record-breaking 332 committed member philanthropists,” Sandee Crisp, membership co-chair, said in a press release. “This is the power of women giving as one.”

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. According to Dana Simpson-Stokes, grants oversight co-chair, the new grant strategy will continue as it was well received by recipients and the local Impact100 members.

“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,” Claudia Sims, co-president of Impact100 Sonoma, said in a press release.

Grant recipients can use the money to sustain their current programs, expand or improve their offerings or better fulfill their core mission.

The organization returned to an alternating funding cycle this year, which doesn’t allow recent recipients to re-apply in the year after they’ve won. For the upcoming grants, organizations that received two in a row in 2021 and 2022 were ineligible to apply for the 2023 cycle. Applications for the 2023 cycle closed on Jan. 13.

During the annual meeting, Nancy Dome, founder and CEO of Epoch Education -- a professional development consultancy that helps organizations build trust, inclusiveness and empathy -- gave the keynote address. Her talk, titled “Community of Belonging and Compassionate Dialogue,” urged members to think beyond dollars donated, to work to resolve the root causes of inequity.

According to Simpson-Stokes, the organization will continue evaluating applications through a diversity, equity and inclusion lens, while focusing on supporting core missions and assisting newer and smaller local nonprofits. Impact100 also adopted a new grants-management software to simplify the application process.

Grant recipients can use the money to sustain their current programs, expand or improve their offerings, or better fulfill their core mission.

Throughout February and March, member teams within the organization will evaluate this year’s applications, make site visits and select finalists for presentation to the full membership in mid-April. After the presentations, members will vote.

The 2023 Impetus Grants will be announced April 29 at the Annual Awards Celebration, which will take place at Hanna Center, located at 810 Agua Caliente Road W., Sonoma, and be open to the public.

Contact the reporter Rebecca Wolff at rebecca.wolff@sonomanews.com.