Module 9 is all about our community of nonprofits. It’s time to find strong grant applicants and encourage them to apply.
You would think this would be easy, but it takes intentional outreach and effort to consistently receive strong applications across all five of our Impact100 Focus Areas. Just like recruiting members by inviting women to join, it takes the entire team to be sure nonprofits see Impact100 as a viable funding path. This is not something you focus on at start up and then forget, this is a practice you will need to repeat every single grant cycle.
Strong applicants make a Big Impact. Let’s invite them to apply.
With warmest wishes,
Wendy
Impact100 chapters cannot make transformational grants without committed members and strong nonprofits. Every conversation about membership should also be a conversation about nonprofit applicants for our grants. And every conversation about nonprofits should include discussion of membership.
Once area nonprofits realize you are launching your Impact100 group, they will be paying attention. It is never too early to start reaching out to nonprofits in your region to encourage them to dream big about what a grant of $100,000 or more could do for their organization and the clients it serves.
We need strong nonprofits from every Focus Area to apply for our grants each year. Our grant review process is rigorous because we have a fiduciary responsibility to be good stewards of our members' donations and our grants are significant at $100,000. Cultivating a list of area nonprofits and encouraging them to apply for our grants is vital work.
Build an email list that includes the nonprofits on the email lists of your Community Foundation(s), United Way(s), Jewish Federation(s) and family foundations serving your geography.
Search the internet for nonprofits throughout your geography and include them
Make broad announcements through community forums, Radio, newspaper and email lists encouraging every nonprofit to learn about Impact100 and the grant application process.
Ask your members to share the contact information of every nonprofit they support or are familiar with.
Include a nonprofit 'subscribe' button on your website for nonprofits to connect with your Impact100 chapter
Invite nonprofits to come to your website and to your nonprofit training sessions.
Host nonprofit trainings in every part of your geography.
Encourage nonprofits who did not receive a grant from you to re-apply the next year.
In order to select a strong, worthy nonprofit Finalist in each Focus Area year after year, we need to always be recruiting nonprofits. Like membership recruitment, although the leadership for this effort will reside with a few of your board members, every board member must participate in this effort.
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Next Steps
Here are some things you can do right away to begin connecting with nonprofits in your area:
Begin creating a list of nonprofits in your region.
Be intentional about gathering names that fit into each of our five Focus Areas.
Reach out to funders in your area requesting their database of nonprofits or guidance on how to gather that information. Learn their funding priorities and explain the Impact100 Model.
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