Impact100 South Jersey, a local women’s donation initiative, awarded $185,000 in 2024 grants to South Jersey nonprofits last month.
The initiative awarded six grants: one of $100,000 to the Camden-based Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Atlantic, Cape May and Camden counties; two $27,500 general operating grants to the Bayshore Center at Bivalve in Cumberland County and the Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey in Camden; and three new $10,000 Community Heroes grants to the Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation in Voorhees, The Tender in Mount Laurel and the Women of Hope Resource Center in Atco.
Impact100 president Kyle Ruffin explained that the all-female initiative began with the understanding that men and women look on their philanthropy differently: Men often want to be recognized, he said, while women often do not.
“Once we learned that, through a couple of convenings of South Jersey women, we started to research the Impact 100 model,” Ruffin recalled. “It’s a model that’s been around since 2001 and used by over 65 communities around the world.”
Impact100 members each donate $1,000 and use their collective funds to create large grants for nonprofits in the Burlington, Camden, Cumberland and Gloucester county areas. Their first grant, awarded in 2018, was $74,000 for Hopeworks in Camden.
“This is a great way to leverage your giving,” Ruffin noted. “If you want to have a greater impact than you might have alone, collective giving is a great way to do that, and that is what our members tell us they appreciate the most. Their 1,000 goes a lot further because it’s placed in a pool with other membership contributions, and they are now part of a body that is giving $100,000 grants to local organizations.
” … We’re not an organization, we’re not a 501c3,” Ruffin added. “It’s basically a … community foundation. And they (member donations) allowed us to really hit the ground running and ensure that we were able to recruit and manage the grant process without the headache of managing our own nonprofit organization.”
The Impact100 goal is simple, he said: to help an organization transform and get it to the next level. According to Ruffin, the initiative can very often see how grants are helping beneficiary organizations build capacity and create new ways to aid others.
The organizations that receive grants are voted on by Impact100 members and must meet certain financial requirements, such as being within a certain range or falling into one of three focus areas for grants: women, children and family, education and/or community health and well-being.
The grant to CASA allowed it to expand services and office space in Camden County. The organization trains volunteers to advocate for children in the foster care system by spending time with them and advocating for their needs in court.
“We are there to make sure the children have everything they need while they are away from their families,” said CASA executive director Lauren Crenshaw.
Those interested in volunteering or learning more can visit https://casaacc.org.
To learn more about Impact100 South Jersey, go to https://impact100global.org/.
