As a result of the public health crisis and resulting financial disruption, Impact San Antonio is adapting its grant-making and recruiting policies to be responsive to current circumstances.
Impact San Antonio will remain true to funding more strategic medium- and longer-term efforts, knowing that many others are stepping up to assist the community with immediate help. And we will preserve our democratic model of members voting on where the funding goes.
Here are highlights of the decisions the Board of Directors made (April 4, 2020) recently for this year only:
Grant Process Changes
We are modifying the parameters of our grants.
- High Impact grants are $75,000 instead of $100,000 in the hope that we can spread the dollars more broadly, and award multiple significant grants.
- Grant funds can now support existing programs that have proven successful, not just program expansions or new programs and projects.
- Project needs resulting from the current health crisis are eligible for funding.
- A greater proportion of grant funding can go toward general operating expenses.
- Electronic meetings will be used for grant related activities until it is safe to meet in-person.
- For grants awarded in 2020, an initial payment will be accelerated to this fall, before grant work begins.
- We are partnering with prior grantees individually if their circumstances are creating unanticipated challenges in completing their projects.
Membership Recruiting and Engagement
We are also adjusting our outreach and approach as well. Ensuring our members’ safety remains a top priority, and we are abiding by all social distancing rules.
- The deadline to join has been extended to August 31.
- Individual members can elect to pay in installments as long as the entire amount is paid by the August 31 deadline.
- Women who join by May 15, will have the opportunity to participate in the grant review process if they are interested. Reviewer training will occur during the months of May and June and will be done using webinars and/or video teleconferencing
- Joining online is easy. Just click here.
- We will not hold in-person events until it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we will offer “virtual” get-togethers on various topics to keep us connected
