MEET OUR FOUNDING YEAR FINALISTS

We are delighted to announce the finalists from each of our five focus area committees.

  • Education: Access Youth. The mission of Access Youth is to keep at-risk girls of color in school and out of the criminal justice system through mediation, restorative justice, and positive youth development. 

  • Health & Wellness: Bridges to Independence. The mission of Bridges to Independence is to lead individuals and families out of homelessness and into safe, stable, independent futures.  

  • Arts & Culture: Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop. The mission of Free Minds Book Club is to expose incarcerated individuals to the healing and transformative power of the creative arts in settings where it is severely lacking, and to give its members a voice. 

  • Family: Generation Hope. The mission of Generation Hope is to surround motivated teen parents and their children with the mentors, emotional support and financial resources they need to thrive in college and kindergarten, thereby driving a two-generation solution to poverty.  

  • Environment: The Urban Studio in partnership with Audubon Naturalist Society. The mission of the Urban Studio is to advance design thinking for equitable and sustainable urbanism. They are designers of color working with people of color to envision a world where all people have the means to create healthy, vibrant, and just communities. The mission of the Audubon Naturalist Society is to inspire residents of the greater Washington DC region to appreciate, understand and protect their natural environment through outdoor experiences, education and advocacy.

Congratulations to the women and men behind these extraordinary organizations and programs! Click here to view the video providing short introductions to these organizations. Thanks so much to Nosrat Tarighi and Stefanie Vale at DC MultiMedia Productions.
Looking Ahead: What to Expect Process-wise from Now until September 23rd:

Our June event was designed for introductory purposes only; we know you all are anxious for more details about the organizations and the projects that they hope we will fund. Over the summer, we will follow up on the Meet the Finalists event to provide you with more detailed Executive Summaries on each organization and its project plans. Prior to voting, we will also share short, pre-taped video presentations from each organization so that you can hear from the organizations in their own words. 

In developing this process, we are striving to treat each organization exactly the same in terms of what kind of material we present, and how we present it. That said, you should feel free to check out each organization's own website if you would like to supplement the material that we are compiling. We also encourage you to read the summer newsletters and check our website for more information on the grant finalists and the process as it continues to unfold.
FROM OUR GRANTS CHAIR

Heartfelt Thanks to Our Grants Team

The old adage that "it takes a village" is certainly apt for our work in getting us to this exciting point, starting with the many women who lifted our membership above 100 in our first year so that we could make a $105,000 grant award a reality in 2021. The heavy lifting for the grants work was done by a small but powerful cadre of superstars. Special thanks goes out to the chairwomen of our focus area and finance committees: Arts & Culture, Janelle Haskell; Health & Wellness, Vivian Aguayo; Family, Bonnie Harkness; Education, Dorothy Durden; Environment, Sharon Dennis; and Finance, Latina Fauconier. And of course, the woman behind everything we do -- Ann Vaughn.

Likewise, we are so proud of our 60+ volunteer members who took on the work and responsibility of implementing the grants process. Together, we reviewed dozens of applications, deliberated thoughtfully on each, conducted site visits for a group of 15 semi-finalist organizations (you will hear more about these organizations below), and then came together one last time for the very hard job of selecting a single finalist for each focus area committee. This work allowed us to forge new relationships within the chapter (or strengthen existing ones), and to learn more about each other's professional and lived experiences. It also introduced us to the compassionate, committed and tenacious people inside these nonprofits who are providing essential services to our our region.

We are confident that any one of these five finalist organizations will do the chapter proud as our inaugural grant recipient come September.


The 2021 Impact100 DC Semifinalists

As noted above, each focus area committee struggled with its decision to pick a single finalist to move forward. Our decisions were complicated by the fact that each of the 15 semi-finalist organizations had developed a very promising proposal, and their staffs had dedicated a great deal of time to the site visit process. Members of every single focus area committee asked that we as a chapter continue to follow the following ten organizations that did not make it to being a finalist this year, but whose work certainly deserves our continuing support.

City Kids Wilderness Project
Food Rescue US-DC
Community Youth Advance
Life Pieces to Masterpieces
Montgomery Coalition for Adult English Literacy
Beacon House Community Ministry
Friends of Guest House
Healthy Babies Project
Tenants and Workers United
Fihankra Akoma Ntoaso (FAN)
MEMBER CORNER
Backyard Get-together!!
Please join us on August 26th at 5:00 PM for a very casual gathering in Ann Vaughn's backyard! This will be our VERY FIRST IN-PERSON MEMBER GET-TOGETHER and we cannot wait. Invitation to follow later this summer.
Annual Meeting and Grants Awards Celebration
September 23rd - Annual Meeting and Grant Award Celebration. We are still finalizing details of the voting process and awards event and will send all information out very soon. For now please reserve 12:00 PM for a virtual meeting and 5:30 PM for a live cocktail event!
Membership Directory
If you have not yet filled out your form to opt in or out of a member directory, please do so asap! Please click here.
Volunteer Needs
Are you interested in being more actively involved in Impact DC? We are looking for volunteers in almost every area and are looking as well to fill some leadership positions on the board in the areas of membership and communications. Contact: [email protected]
Member Survey
At Impact100 DC, we are working hard to build an inclusive and diverse community. To measure our progress towards this important goal, we have created a demographic survey to learn more about our members. 

Please help us by taking 60 seconds to complete the survey. The information we receive will help us plan strategically with regard to membership development efforts that need to reach into every corner of the DC metro region.  Rest assured your answers will never be shared. (The information we receive will help us be more effective in our outreach and recruiting efforts.)  Thanks in advance for your help! Click here to get started.
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Impact100 DC
PO Box 40121
Washington, DC 20016
Contact:

Phone: 202 379-4773