Non Profit NewsPod: Impact 100 to Award $452,000!

Jeff Holden: [00:00:00] Welcome to this nonprofit podcast News pod. I'm speaking with Sarina Paulson, president of Impact 100, about some very special upcoming information regarding their $100,000 grant awards. Sarina, welcome. 

Sarina Paulsen: Thank 

Jeff Holden: you, Jeff. Before we get into the details of the program. Please give us a little background on the grants and how they've come to be over the past few years.

I think this is now your third annual grant award program, and I'm sure there's still a lot of organizations that don't even know it exists. So give us a little background. 

Sarina Paulsen: Sure. So the premise of Impact 100 is that for every 100 women that join, we, each of them donate a thousand dollars, which builds a hundred thousand dollars grant.

So, you know, it's essentially 100 women each donating a thousand dollars [00:01:00] equals a hundred thousand dollars grant. So the first year. We had 217 members and therefore had $217,000 that we awarded. Last year we had 275 members and awarded $275,000, and this year we have 392 members. But we had a member that challenged our membership to do a matching campaign.

So we actually have $452,000 that will we, we will be a award in September. 

Jeff Holden: That is an incredible amount of money. You know that that is certainly transformative and creates sustainability for a nonprofit if you were to get a hundred thousand dollars award. But let's step back just for a second because what we're actually talking about today is the annual event that takes place on the 25th of September where you recognize the awardees and there's just still a bit of a competition.

It's not over yet. Tell us a little bit about that. I think it's [00:02:00] Diamonds and Dreams, the brilliance of making an impact. 

Sarina Paulsen: So that is our theme this year. So essentially what happens is the nonprofit community applies for our, for our grant app grants, and we had 186 applicants this year. And our members join one of five focus groups, which are.

Environment, education, health and wellness. Family and arts and culture. And so when a nonprofit applies, they'll apply under one of those. And so our, our teams, um, our committees are our members. They vet each of those applications and narrow it down to five finalists. So we will have a finalist in one of those focus groups that I've mentioned.

And so our members will come to our, um, event in September and the finalist will be able to do about a five minute pitch, um, as to what their project is and why the impact 100 grant will transform their [00:03:00] organizations and impact their constituents. And then our members will vote and determine how we award those grants.

Jeff Holden: So. If I'm doing my math correctly, everybody that's showing up gets an award and four people will get a $100,000 award and one organization will get 52,000. 

Sarina Paulsen: Yes, that is correct. 

Jeff Holden: So the stakes are high on this presentation. It's you're talking about the difference between 50 $48,000 from 52 to 100. So you definitely wanna be on the a hundred thousand dollars camp.

Sarina Paulsen: Yes. And you know, I would imagine that some of those projects, if not all of them, are going to be, you know, highly reliant on whether or not they received the a hundred thousand dollars grant or not. So 52,000 is a lot of money and obviously a lot of good can be done with that, but may not be enough to execute that full plan that they outlined in their proposal.

So really communicating that to the our members is important [00:04:00] because, you know, they'll obviously wanna be awarded that a hundred thousand dollars grant. 

Jeff Holden: How exciting that evening will be as it has been in the past. I've attended the others and it really is nerve wracking as an observer because I can't vote, but just to see what goes on and how those presentations are made is, is, it's fun.

It's exciting. You can see the anxiety on the performance, so to speak, of those who are presenting. You don't leave them hanging because there's a lot more support that goes into this evening than just getting to the finalist. I mean, you have training for the presentation, which is obviously valuable in so many other ways, but you also have training for grant writing, general information about simply being a better nonprofit.

Tell us a little bit about what goes into leading up to the event. 

Sarina Paulsen: Sure. So at the beginning of the year we hosted two treat grant writing training workshops, and we do [00:05:00] those each year. And you know, it is focused on how to effectively fill out an impact 100 grant application. But we do dive into. From a reader's perspective, what you're looking for from someone who's applying, and I've heard from so many nonprofits that the information that they, you know, garner in those workshops have actually helped them be more effective in the other applications that they complete for other, for other grant opportunities, funding opportunities, and they've found increased success rates by that.

So I, I'd love to hear that. So we spend a lot of time doing that. We also, um, for those that are selected as our finalist, we have a former grant recipient, Michelle from NorCal School of the Arts, come and she works with them on what that presentation should look like. You know, the, the fine line between giving enough about the organization, but making sure you spend enough time on what the actual project is and how it's transformative and how it's sustainable in [00:06:00] nature so that it really reaches our members.

Jeff Holden: If I'm not mistaking, when I was doing the math on the last couple of years, the total contribution to the community since the organization has started is nearly a million dollars, $944,000 into our nonprofit ecosystem. I mean, that is a huge amount of money for an organization that's so young. 

Sarina Paulsen: Yes. It's, it's surreal.

I, I, well, even hearing you say that, never, even though I know that it's, it, it gives you pause because that is a lot of money that is being injected into our communities. We know that the need continues to, to rise, and we wanna be able to. Help our neighbors in need as much as we can. And so every year we are very focused on increasing our membership because as I mentioned at the beginning, our, the number of members is directly tied to the amount of money that we're able to award.

But I'm very proud of what. We've accomplished, you know, I [00:07:00] should mention our founder, Evelyn Jensen, who brought Impact 100 to Sacramento and the work that she did in the early days, along with the rest of our board of directors. Um, we have a very committed group of women and members that are very dedicated to continuing to Greg this organization.

Jeff Holden: And I know the consensus would be, boy, what is it gonna take to get five, $100,000 grand? So certainly that's in the equation as well. How about a, an example of a couple of past recipients, just so we know what they might have done or what they might have looked like as they came through the process.

Sarina Paulsen: Sure. So our first year, river City Food Bank was awarded a hundred thousand dollars grant and I actually was fortunate enough to attend the site visit, which is one of the steps of our vetting process. And I remember hearing the team there talk about the fact that they were receiving food. You know, they, they obviously are, they're a food bank, and so they give food more of like a kind of a farm farmer's [00:08:00] market type situation to those in that are in need.

And I remember them saying that they had food coming to them, or they had other, you know, large grocery companies that were willing to donate food, but they didn't have the capacity to store the food. So the need is there. They actually had access to the food to give to people, but they didn't have the storage capabilities to be able to house that food.

And that's so unfortunate that that was the gap. And so, so they, they've used that a hundred thousand dollars grant that they were awarded from Impact 100 to be able to change their space so they can double their perishable food storage capacity. And then, you know, as you can imagine, the immediate impact and transformation that that grant had.

For their constituents was, was realized pretty quickly. So it's things like that that are so powerful in hearing those stories. You know, another was Music Land, Andrea, who was awarded a hundred thousand dollars last year, and their executive [00:09:00] director shared a story about this space where people can drop off, you know, musical instruments that they no longer need.

And there was a little girl that came in there looking for a specific musical instrument that her family couldn't afford and. She has like a natural born talent and there that that instrument was sitting on the shelf, that she was able to get at no charge and be able to really use her talents that she has to be able to play music, which is great for her and for those that are listening to it.

So those are two examples of where money that our members have collectively, you know, put together to create these grants or making real change in the lives of our neighbors 

Jeff Holden: and had the privilege. Having both buddy Hail on for Music Landry as one of our nonprofit podcast episodes, and Amanda McCarthy from the Food Bank.

So if anybody wants to go back and hear their stories, they are really, really wonderful, wonderful nonprofits doing such, such good in the community, [00:10:00] very uniquely. How will we be able to find out who the finalists are when they're recognized? 

Sarina Paulsen: Sure. So mid August, mid this month, can't believe it's August, we will be posting that information on our so social media pages as well as on our website.

And then we will actually dedicate a social media post each day to the five finalists so you can learn more about them at that time as well. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. So would you give us that website please, Sarina? Just so everybody knows. And I will put it in the show notes as well. 'cause that's, that's kind of the big reveal for these people, right?

Sarina Paulsen: Yes it is. You're right. It's Impact 100 greater sacramento.org. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. And I will have that in show notes. Congratulations on what your organization is doing, and thanks for the update because I really encourage every organization to consider applying. Next year, as I know you're gonna get to that number of 500, so there's gonna be five $100,000 awards before [00:11:00] we do the details of the event.

Again, September 25th it is correct. 

Sarina Paulsen: Yes, it's on September 25th. 

Jeff Holden: Any, any more details you can share at this point? 

Sarina Paulsen: Sure. So it is a member's member only event, and it is going to be at Hagan Oaks and Pavilion of Hagan Oaks in the evening of that I, I believe it's a Thursday. 

Jeff Holden: Okay. So if you are a member of Impact 100, or you want to be a member of Impact 100, now would be the time to join because this is a limited.

Attendance event. It's not open to the public to the degree that we might have in some of the other organizations fundraising opportunities. So this one's very specific. I would encourage any women out there that are listening to, please, please, please join because this is such an incredible organization doing such, such good work.

The one thing we didn't talk about Sarina is you raise a hundred thousand dollars from the thousand dollars per each member. [00:12:00] But you give it all back. So what you're saying is everything you raise goes right back into the community? 

Sarina Paulsen: Yes. So the $1,000 membership, you know, due that each woman donates 100% of that is used to build the grant.

So we do not use any of that for operating expenses. We give a hundred percent of that back to the community. So we, you know, we have donors and raise funds in other ways to cover the operating expenses for our organization. 

Jeff Holden: That's amazing. So impact one hundred's grant awards September 25th by finalist.

Five huge awards and an exciting opportunity to see storytelling in action that earns each nonprofit transformative and sustainable results. Sarina, thank you so much. Thanks for what you're doing. Thanks for what the organization is doing, and I cannot wait to see the five finalists. 

Sarina Paulsen: Thank you, Jeff, for your support.

We really appreciate [00:13:00] it.