FAQ’s for Members and Prospective Members:
Why Should I Join Impact 100 PBC?
There are many reasons to join, but here are few important considerations:
For every 100 women who join, we can award a $100,000 grant!
What are my obligations as a member?
There are no obligations to membership other than contributing your $1,000 donation plus the administrative fee. An important benefit to membership is your ability to vote to select the nonprofit grant recipients. You can also consider volunteering in several ways, including evaluating grant applications, graphic design, writing and editing, media relations, data entry, technology management, planning and/or hosting events, recruiting corporate sponsors, speaking to groups about Impact, reaching out to nonprofits, working on member relations, photography, videography, helping with various projects. We encourage you to get involved, but it is not a requirement.
How much of my membership fee goes to the grants awarded to nonprofit organizations?
Every dollar of your $1,000 contribution goes directly toward the nonprofit grants awarded each year. The remaining fee is for our administrative costs and/or to cover the credit card fee we are charged if you pay your membership fee via credit card.
What is the term of my membership?
This year’s grant cycle will run from April 1, 2023 to April 1, 2024. You can join at any time during the year but joining early in the giving year is extremely helpful to our organization. The benefits of joining early are:
At the end of the giving year, we must immediately begin raising funds to award grants in the next giving cycle.
If I join in March, how long will I be a member? If you join in March, your funds are contributed to the grants awarded in April of that year. Once our grants have been awarded, we immediately begin fund raising for our next giving cycle. Therefore, if you join in March, you will only be a member for approximately one month until the Grand Award Celebration which is held in April every year. We accept payments throughout the year, but a payment made early in our giving cycle (before January 1st every year) is extremely valuable to us. The earlier a member joins allows us to know how many nonprofit programs/initiatives to vet and select as finalists for future grant recipients.
I joined Impact 100 PBC in January. Why do you ask me to join again in April? Our organization is based on funding $100,000 grants. Each year, we give away all of our grant funds at the April Grand Awards Celebration and then immediately start to gather grant funds (memberships) for the next grant year. Early membership contributions are very helpful, but we understand that if you joined in January, you may not wish to pay your membership again until the following January.
Why do you ask me to make my membership payment early in the giving year? We typically close our membership cycle at the end of March each year. This leads to a significant number of women joining in that month. We love that women choose to join with us at that time, but it causes our volunteers a significant amount of work to gather and process so many memberships at that very end of our giving cycle. A payment made earlier in our giving year (before January 1st) is extremely helpful to the organization. We greatly appreciate it when members move their membership payments to before January to ease the workload of our volunteers and so we can better determine how many transformative programs we can bring to the community each year.
Do I need to be invited or sponsored to join Impact 100 PBC?
No, you do not need to be invited or sponsored. We welcome all women! Our goal is to connect, engage and inspire women to join us in our pursuit to transform our community.
Are events only open to members?
No, our events are open to members and prospective members all year long! If you are a member, we encourage you to bring a friend who is a non-member to our events. Our mission to transform our community is contagious, so please invite women friends and family members to learn about us! This is a wonderful and easy way to help us grow our membership and increase our impact.
I prefer to direct my donations to the organizations I choose, so why should I join Impact 100 PBC? We understand that and know the organization will benefit from your support. However, by joining Impact, you will learn about many worthy organizations in our community that are doing incredible work, that you may not be aware of or have the time to thoroughly review their operations or long-term viability. Through your $1,000 donation to Impact 100, your gift will have exponential impact since it is combined with other member’s contributions. Further, since we award grants in five focus areas, your contribution will have a diverse and profound impact, perhaps far greater than a single donation to one cause.
My employer has a matching program, will you accept this donation?
Yes, we gratefully accept employer matching gifts. If you are applying for such a match, please note this on the membership form and let us know if you will need documentation from Impact 100 to apply for the matching gift.
Is my donation to Impact 100 PBC tax-deductible?
Impact 100 is an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Your donation is tax deductible to the full extent permitted by law.
What role is there for me if I don’t want to become a member?
We welcome individuals, foundations, or corporations who would like to help us through in-kind service or monetary donations. We rely on in-kind and monetary donations to help offset our operational and on-going expenses. Although these roles do not provide voting rights, these donations are essential to helping us accomplish our mission.
How does Impact 100 PBC stay in touch with members?
Impact 100 PBC’s monthly Newsletter is the primary source of information for what is happening at Impact. The Newsletter is sent by email and contains information about upcoming events, ways to get involved, projects of our nonprofit partners, the work of our volunteers and the impact we are making. We also use social media to stay in touch with members, so please follow us and be sure to share our posts with friends.
How do you decide who is awarded the grants?
After our Grant Review Committee completes a rigorous process that includes reviewing Letters of Intent submitted by nonprofits, Impact 100 PBC invites nonprofits to submit full Requests for Proposals (RFPs). The Committee thoroughly evaluates each proposal and conducts site visits, and then finalists are selected. The nonprofit finalists give short presentations at our annual Grand Award Celebration. After reading Executive Summaries on each project and listening to the presentations, members vote to select the grant recipients. With each member having one vote, everyone has an equal say in the selection of the grant recipients. Members vote by individual ballot either prior to or at the Annual Meeting (or by absentee ballot if they are unable to attend), and that vote determines the grant recipients. Grant awards are announced at the Annual Meeting.
Committee members who serve on the Grant Review Committee have attended training sessions on the grant process and have learned how to evaluate grant proposals, such as determining credibility and merit of the applicant organization and the feasibility and significance of the proposed project or program.
Why does Impact 100 award large grants of $100,000 to a single organization?
It’s simple: a grant of this size makes tremendous impact! By pooling the contributions of our members, the impact of each member’s contribution is magnified and diversified far greater than could be achieved by making a single donation. Impact 100 members can be part of funding a project that has tangible and measurable impact on our community.
FAQ’s for Nonprofit Applicants:
What types of nonprofit projects/initiatives does Impact 100 PBC fund?
As a 501(c)(3) organization, Impact 100 Palm Beach County funds visionary projects* that change the way a community and/or organization operates. We seek to fund projects that are truly transformational, address unmet needs through an innovative approach, greatly impact the beneficiaries, and are sustainable for years to come. We seek projects that:
Impact 100 Palm Beach County seeks applications from nonprofits in five Focus Areas. A Grants Committee comprised of trained volunteer members is appointed to review grant applications in each of the five categories. The Focus Areas are:
*The number of grants available each year is determined by the number of Impact 100 PBC members that join each year. In any given grant year, if Impact 100 PBC reaches 500 or more members, a $100,000 grant is awarded in each of the five focus areas. In years where the membership exceeds 500 members in increments of 100, additional $100,000 grants are funded. For example, in the 2022-2023 grant year, 804 women joined Impact 100 PBC, allowing us to award eight $100,000 grants. In any year when more than five $100,000 grants are awarded, the additional grants are selected by the membership from any of the five focus areas.
What requirements must the nonprofit projects/initiatives meet to apply for a grant?
We aim to select organizations that, if empowered with our funding, would take a huge step forward in advancing their mission and dramatically help their beneficiaries overcome adversity and thrive. Here are the requirements that nonprofits must meet:
ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES
EXCLUSIONS
Impact 100 Palm Beach County does not accept grant applications to support:
**Impact 100 PBC does fund grant requests for Capital Campaigns which are defined as efforts to raise significant funds for a specific project including, but not limited to, the acquisition, construction, or renovation of a building, or for the purchase of essential equipment. As noted above, Impact 100 PBC does not fund grant requests for funding the strategic planning, fundraising, and marketing efforts of a capital project. A grant request for a Capital Campaign must meet the following criteria: a) the specific use of grant funds for a capital project is clearly identified and itemized in the Letter of Intent; b) the grant funds will not go toward any marketing and/or fundraising efforts of the capital project; c) the capital project specified in the Letter of Intent must be scheduled for completion within 2 years of receiving the grant, and; d) the grant request meets all current and standard Impact 100 Palm Beach County grant criteria.
