About Us

Mission
Impact100 Philadelphia's mission is to engage women in philanthropy and collectively to fund grants to charitable initiatives in the Philadelphia region. The goal each year is to make high-impact grants to organizations that would otherwise not have access to funding on this scale.

Impact100 strives to increase women’s philanthropy in Philadelphia. Through proposal review and evaluation, we hope to raise awareness of the many worthwhile charitable opportunities in the region and to inspire our members to become involved with these charities in a more personal way.

Impact100 Philadelphia awarded its inaugural grant in June 2009.

Purpose: Giving As One
The concept behind Impact100 is for at least one hundred women to donate $1,000 a year and pool their contributions, in order to make one or more very large donations to nonprofit organizations in the Philadelphia region that they collectively choose. We award one or more grants of $100,000 each year. This model comes from the original Impact100 group in Cincinnati, which has been in existence since 2001, and to date has donated well over $1 million to its local community. Other Impact100 groups have sprung up successfully in different cities around the country, and Philadelphia has joined this movement.

Every dollar donated by our members goes directly toward the grant. Membership contributions are due by December 1 of each year. Administrative expenses are covered by interest earned on the collective fund, by “Friends”, and by corporate donations.

In May, 2009, the board of Impact100 approved a new grant policy for 2010 and future years, which will cap grants at $100,000, and therefore allow additional grant funds to be distributed to more recipients. For more detail about this modification, please click here to see the Impact100 Grant Amount Policy.

Focus Areas for the grant include Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, Family and Health & Wellness. The grant recipient is selected by membership votes, cast by all members, after a detailed process of reviewing the grant proposals that are received.

Committees are formed annually for each Focus Area and members have the opportunity to fully participate in the grant-making process by reviewing proposals and attending site visits for applicant organizations. Women who do not have the time or opportunity to participate in our Focus Area Committee process can still be involved in other committees and by voting at our annual meeting where a finalist in each Focus Area will make a presentation to our membership.

Founding of Impact100
Impact100 Philadelphia was founded by Beth Margel Dahle and Mary Broach in April, 2008. With the mailing of an introductory letter in May, word spread and we reached the milestone of 100 members by early September, 2008. Impact100 Philadelphia is a certified non-profit corporation in the state of Pennsylvania and has received its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS.

Demographically, we are a diverse group. Members live in areas ranging from New Hope to New Jersey, from Center City to the Main Line and a few participate long-distance from other states and regions in Pennsylvania. Our ages span six decades. Professionally, we are bankers and lawyers, nurses and doctors, artists and educators, nonprofit managers, stay-at-home mothers and business people of all kinds.

Grant History
Impact100 Philadelphia awarded its first grant in June 2009. It is our priority to fund programs or projects for organizations which otherwise would not have access to a grant of this size. As founders of Impact100 Philadelphia, we were inspired by the projects funded by other Impact100 groups, such as: equipment for a dental clinic that serves homeless men, women and children; renovations at a hip-hop after-school dance program for inner-city teenagers; recruitment and outreach efforts of an adoption coalition to promote the adoption of older children out of the foster care system; and building a classroom for an adult literacy program.