Happy Summer! I was lucky enough to kick off my summer with an energizing trip to Detroit for the Global Impact Conference in June! Denise, Riffi and I returned filled with ideas of ways to improve and grow our chapter. Attendees from across the US (and Australia), established chapters alongside newly forming chapters, shared great practices, and networked with likeminded philanthropic women – wonderful! One very inspiring group of US women Veterans just started an Impact Chapter to support Veterans focused non-profits – what amazing and very necessary work (impact100globalveterans.org)! With the support of the Board, you will be seeing our ideas put to actions over the next few months.

A key take-away from the conference for me is telling our story of why WE Impact…..and then
telling your friends and neighbors. My “why” is simple – I Impact because I want to help my
neighbors – from providing access to mental health support, filling literacy and STEM education gaps, providing job skills training, eliminating food insecurity, funding free dental care and funding business consulting to minority owned small businesses – our East Bay Impact Chapter stands ready to support innovative solutions to the current issues facing our diverse community. Investing in our local Non-profits is the most tangible way I know of to leave a lasting Impact. At the core, are the stories of the people we have lifted in the process and the real POWER we can provide when we all work together!

Speaking of working together, the Grant Committee poured over applications, financial
statements and attended site visits to identify our 2023 grant finalists. The team identified
three well deserving non-profits poised to make an Impact once again on our community. We
now invite the entire Impact membership to learn more about each organization at “Meet the
Finalists” on September 12 via zoom, then casting your vote to determine what size grant each
organization will receive. Our Grant Celebration is Sunday October 1. I hope to see you there
(and bring a friend) to celebrate with the winners and learn about the impact our prior award
winners are having on our community – it is the most inspiring event of our year!

Enjoy your last weeks of summer and see you in September!
Jane

Ps – one more date to put on your calendar – we are teaming up with McGee Womens
Research Institute on October 24 to present a free Health Seminar -  Your Health, Your
Neighbors: Placing Women’s Health at the Center of your Community – More details to follow
for this compelling seminar from experts in women’s health!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Meet the Finalists
September 12, 2023, 5:30 – 7:00 PM
Virtual Meeting via Zoom - Click to Register
Hear from our 2023 Grant Finalists before voting for our Grant Recipients. Learn about our
finalists’ organizations and the projects they hope to fund through our grant.

Virtual Voting
Starting September 12 until end of day September 29 you will be able to vote for our Grant
Finalists via our online voting tool.

Grant Celebration
October 1, 2023, Noon – 2:00 PM
Roundhill Country Club, 3169 Roundhill Road,Alamo, CA 94507
We will announce and celebrate our Grant Award Recipients for 2023. Bring a friend to share
in the celebration and enjoy lunch.

MEET YOUR 2023 GRANT FINALISTS

Our Grant Committee has put in a lot of hard work that led us to our
decision as to which nonprofits should advance to the finalist stage.  We are
so excited about this year's finalists! We are recommending:

• BioTech Partners:  BP have a 30 year successful track record.  98% of BP participants go on to college or community college. The proposed project will encourage Black, LatinX and female students to enter Robotics and Engineering Pathways and will provide them with academic and wrap-around support to persist in the face of school and life challenges.  BP will develop internships for summer 2024. Beyond the grant period, BP will use the template they develop to affect many more students.

• Justice at Last:  Set up the Pro Bono Academy; to provide a dedicated pro bono coordinator/staff attorney to engage with law firms and other legal departments to train and supervise attorneys interested in doing pro bono work for trafficked persons. This will expand their services to assist trafficked people to clear their records so they can move into mainstream employment.  The Grant will enable them to set up training for other lawyers who are not aware of changes to the legal system and assist with immigration and other issues.

• White Pony Express:  WPE is one of the largest food recovery organizations in the state.  The grant would be used to hire a designated Food Rescue Hero dispatcher, volunteer coordinator, and a part time marketing contractor to expand the use of a uber-like food rescue app which has already been tested in a successful pilot.  The app will allow individual volunteers to pick up food from smaller groceries, restaurants and caterers and deliver it where it is needed. SB1383 requires food purveyors to recover 20% of edible food currently being thrown away, and this project can help make that possible.

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

Our 2023 Grant Year - Final Member Count! We finalized our 2023 Grant year membership count and drum roll please….We have 137 members this year.

This brings our total Grant Donations for this year to $187,000!

Why is the number higher than our actual membership count?
This is due to several members’ generous donations to use in our grantmaking with these
comments: “We greatly appreciate the vetting process by which local charities are reviewed and selected in the Impact100 process. We are including these additional donations and calling it our Changemaker Grant.
Our 3 grant donations this year will now be:

1. Our Impact Grant of $100,000

2. Our Changemaker Grant of $50,000

3. Our Community Grant of $37,000 (our membership count over 100 x 37 = $37,000)

Thank YOU all for making this another growth year in both members and total grants!

Do you have a friend(s) you want to Introduce to Impact100 East Bay?
We had a very successful June 24th to attend a “Taste of” Event! We had 30 women comprised
of guests, first year members and longer-term members wanting to learn and discuss our community issues, unfunded projects and how Impact100 East Bay. Our sincere thanks to our 3 Co-Hosts: Shabnam Farzaneh, Terri Khonsari, and Niosha Nafei-Jamali.

We also want to welcome our 5 new members that joined after this event! Yasaman Helmi,
Kathy Jones, Neda Oromchian, Mitra Reynoso, and Cheryl Sendaydiego.

Interested in hosting a future event? Contact Stephanie Shaw at membership@impact100eastbay.org.

Upcoming Member Meetup in Berkeley

Join us and bring a friend for a happy hour and mix and mingle with intelligent women interested in making an impact. Light appetizers and no-host bar. Details to come with date and exact time and location. Keep an eye on your inbox for more. 

It’s here – our new Member Directory. Let’s Connect with Each Other!
We want each of us as members to have the ability to connect with each other, so we have
created our first member directory! We over 105 members so far that have agreed to share
their contact information.

If you are a 2023 member, you can access the latest member directory at this link (using the
email you used when you joined): Member Directory 2023

If you have trouble accessing the directory or have an update for your information, please email
membership@impact100eastbay.org.

WE ARE MAKING AN IMPACT:

Community Resources for Science (CRS) is happy to share a quick update about their Amazing Math & Science Explorations (AMASE) project. They began their second 3-day session for a new cohort of teachers today, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Deputy Superintendent Cheryl Cotton came by to learn about this amazing work!

The Superintendent had heard about the innovative and thoughtful work the peer coaches are doing engaging fellow teachers in exploring effective ways to integrate math into science, and to foster student belonging – so he asked to come see it for himself! With a last-minute scramble, CRS was excited to have the opportunity to host the Superintendent, and Deputy Superintendent.  He spoke with the teachers, sat in on some of their discussions, and invited them to give him some “homework” that could help them in science teaching. It was a glorious morning in the Blake Garden. Teachers loved having these VIPs take note of their efforts!

Your support is empowering so many teachers, who will in turn bring this new confidence and skill to their schools to share with even more teachers!