From Impact 100 Essex:
Impact100 Essex is announcing two updates to its grant application process as it kicks-off the 2020 grant cycle. This is the fourth grant cycle for Impact100 Essex, a women’s collective giving group founded to support innovative, transformative projects managed by nonprofits in Essex County.
The first change to this year’s process is to add a Letter of Intent (LOI) as the first step in the application. The LOI will provide contact information, a brief description of the proposed project and its goals, a budget, and measurable outcomes. All LOIs will be reviewed by the Impact100 grant review team. In July, a subset of applicants will be invited to submit the full application for a grant of at least $100,000. “We recognize that many of our applicants are spreading their time and staff resources thinly and, by implementing an LOI, we hope to reduce the amount of time that the entire pool of applicants is spending on our full application,” said Kate Shoemaker, Grants Committee Co-Chair.
The second update is to open the 2020 grant eligibility to nonprofits with projects responding to challenges presented by COVID-19. These projects will be considered alongside the transformational projects submitted for the 2020 grant. “We want to acknowledge that COVID-19 is creating uncertainty and new challenges in our community. We want to support the nonprofits rising to this challenge,” said Mayuri Chandra, Grants Committee Co-Chair.
Impact100 Essex will kick-off the 2020 grant process with a live, virtual Nonprofit Information Session on Thursday, April 16th from 10:30 am – 11:30 am. The session will review the LOI and application, and provide an opportunity to ask questions. The session will be recorded and posted on Impact100’s website, along with the presentation and an overview of the LOI and application. RSVP to grants@impact100essex.org if you plan to attend the live session.
The high-level timeline for the Impact100 Essex grant application process is as follows:
- Non-Profit Virtual Info Session: April 16th
- LOI Release: April 20th
- LOI Due Date: May 30th
- Invitation for Full Applications Sent: July 10
- Full Applications Due Date (if invited): September 16th
- Semi-Finalists Notification: Early November
- Finalists Notification: Early December
- Grant Award at Impact 100 Essex Annual Meeting: January
