2019 Annual Celebration, President Terry Mumford’s Remarks
Malinda Gates has said, “A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.”
Impact 100 Greater Indianapolis gives women a voice – a voice in philanthropy – and with that voice we are strong. As our motto says, Impact 100 is based on The Power of Women Giving as One. ®
A Voice in Philanthropy: As we celebrate our 14th change-maker awards, let’s consider the women that have been given a voice in philanthropy through Impact 100:
- Since our founding, we have given a voice in philanthropy to 870 women. That’s a lot of voices. This year we have 254 members, who are using their collective strength to improve our community.
- We are giving a voice to a diverse group of
women. We have two programs that we’re
very proud of that let us include more women in our giving circle.
- First, we have our shared membership program. It takes $1000 for a full membership in Impact 100. But to allow a broader range of women to join us, we allow up to 4 women to share a membership. This year 105 women came together to form 36 shared memberships.
- Second, we have our scholarship program. Through the generosity of members and supporters (both individuals and businesses), we can fund the membership contribution to women who are new to philanthropy. We help them learn out to use their voices effectively.
- Impact 100 continues to be a source of education for the community. We want to give a voice to the agencies who are addressing some of the most intractable problems facing us. We want them to be strong, too.
Strength in Philanthropy. Now let’s reflect on the strength of our members and the impact they have had on our community.
- Since we made our first grant, and including the grants that we will give tonight, we will have donated $2,326,848 to our community. That’s a powerful impact.
- Including our change-maker grant tonight, we will have awarded seventeen $100,000 change-maker grants. And we have made unrestricted grants to 42 change-maker finalists. That’s 61 grants.
- In January, we announced that our grant pool was $191,000. Since that announcement, donors have come forward to give us additional support for this year – our grant pool is now $194,848! This means that, in addition to the $100,000 Change-Maker grant, our 4 change-maker finalists will each receive $23,712 in unrestricted funds. That is the largest residual grant that we have been able to give our finalists in our history.
Even with these successes, I wish that we could give all our change-maker finalists $100,000. Each of the five has been thoroughly vetted by our focus area committees and each has been found to be worthy of such a grant. But we can only give what we have. I encourage you help us grow our grant pool so that we can have an even stronger voice in improving our community.
Strength of Our Giving Circle. In order for Impact 100 to be effective, our giving circle must also be strong, and we are – through our dedicated Board of Directors, our members who serve on the Focus Area Committees, and the volunteers who help with our events. We are an all-volunteer operation, and we must have this commitment from individuals to be successful.
We also must be strong in terms of our operations. Outside of our grant pool, we maintain a Friends Account to provide operational and program funds. These are the funds that we use for our no-cost events, our community outreach, our newsletter, and our website.
This Annual Celebration is very important in providing the funds for our Friends Account. In that vein, I want to acknowledge our sponsors for this event:
- Our platinum sponsor – Financial Partners Group
- Our Silver sponsors – REI, the Emily Fund, and Bright Ideas
- Our Bronze sponsors – BAF Corp, MCH Commercial, SOAR, and Eskenazi Health Foundation
- Our patrons – Athletic Annex and Nicky Blaine’s Cocktail Lounge
- Our in-kind donors – Alphagraphics and Riggi Italia.
Looking to the Future. My term as President of the Impact 100 Board will end August 31. It has been my great pleasure to add my voice to the work done by our giving circle. Karen Holly will be the new President. Her experience and intelligence will keep us strong.