Insight Impact: November 2021
News Highlights
Announcing our 2021 Impact Grant Semi-Finalists. Read below to learn about our 10 semi-finalists and the grant review process. And, Save the Date! Our Annual Awards Meeting is January 25.
What's up with Grant Recipients and Finalists. Catch up with some of our prior year grant recipients and finalists including 2018 grant recipient Schools That Can and 2019 grant recipient MEND; 2020 finalists Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris and the New Jersey Community Research Institute.
Application now available for our new Equity Grants. We are funding three $15,000 unrestricted Equity Grants for Essex County nonprofits led by BIPOC individuals in direct response to ensuring greater equity in grantmaking.
Learn about Essex County demographics. The 2020 census illustrates the diversity of Essex County.
Changes coming to our Steering Committee. We’ve updated our Governance Principles and you’ll soon be voting on 4 new Steering Committee members.
What’s up with Our Grant Recipient and Finalists
Schools That Can Newark, 2018 Impact Grant Recipient
Schools That Can Newark (STC) has expanded its programs throughout Newark to all public high schools and beyond. STC has been working with the Newark Board of Education to support all of their Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. Ashaki Goodal, Director of Programs, is working directly with administrators, coordinators, and teachers at over 20 Newark CTE programs in nearly a dozen high schools to help them launch their new Career and Technical Student Organization chapters this fall. She also is supporting all of them with organizing their industry and higher education community partners through use of a new platform called Seamless WBL, which the district had STC set up to prepare for this school year.
Erin Sweeney, Executive Director of STC Newark, describes the impact of the Impact100 Grant on young people in Newark in this video.
After receiving the Impact grant to expand their pilot to three schools, STC expanded their capacity enabling them to build a strong partnership with the Newark school district. Hundreds of Newark students are now participating in robust, strengthening CTE programs, preparing them for future careers.
Meeting Essential Needs with Dignity (MEND), 2019 Impact Grant Recipient
MEND has continued its work of supporting its growing network of food pantries through the Fresh Food Hub funded by the 2019 Impact100 Essex grant award. It recently added a new food pantry to its network: pantryRun, the college pantry on-site for students and staff at Rutgers Newark. It also expanded its programming to include a pilot program known as "MEND on the Move," designed in collaboration with four community partners to extend food access beyond the pantry walls to Essex County residents through mobile food deliveries and free mobile markets. Volunteers are always welcome, and current opportunities are regularly updated through the MEND website.
Between May and October 2021, MEND partnered with six organizations to pilot home deliveries made possible by Amazon in the Community, as well as free farmers’ markets at select locations. To date, 3,333 families (representing 7,888 individuals) have received food through this program.
Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris, Inc, 2020 Impact Grant Finalist
The Intensive Family Support Services team of Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris (MHAEM) applied their Leverage Grant from Impact100 Essex towards their pilot project. They recognized an overlooked population – children of loved ones with mental illness – and understood they would benefit from a combination of psychoeducation and art therapy. A curriculum was created for three 90-minute psychoeducational workshops utilizing art therapy activities to promote learning, reduce isolation, and encourage expression. A 6-week follow-up art therapy group was offered so that participants could further explore topics. Eight individuals between the ages of 10 and 13 registered for the pilot program, called The Cloud Club for Kids, Every Cloud has a Silver Lining. Individual art packets were sent to each registrant and a completed student art project titled “Mental Illness Monster” is pictured here.
The pilot showed the approach was successful! A survey was administered to those who attended all nine weeks of the program. 75% of the respondents report that they felt less alone, and more open to speaking with a trusted adult about their problems. All respondents said they would like to participate in future workshops and groups. This innovative program provided a space for the participants to talk openly about their experiences, thus eliminating feelings of stigma and isolation. It enabled sharing of information about signs and symptoms of mental illness, what happens during crisis, and coping with difficult feelings. A Clouds Club for Kids Chapter with a focus on teens is being conceptualized.
New Jersey Community Research Institute, 2020 Impact Grant Finalist
NJCRI used their Leverage Grant from Impact100 Essex as operating support for their Vaccination Task Force (VTF), a mobile, clinical team that is out in the field providing COVID-19 vaccinations to some of NJ’s most vulnerable, hard to reach populations. To date NJCRI’s VTF has vaccinated over 4,000 individuals enabling NJCRI to conduct this critical work to keep our community safe and healthy.
Announcing our 2021 Impact Grant Semi Finalists!
The semi-finalists for our $100,000 Impact Grant have been chosen! Sixty members participated in Application Review Teams in mid-October and selected the following ten organizations:
Bridges
Butterfly Dreamz
La Casa de Don Pedro
Salvation Army
South Ward Promise Neighborhood
Trust for Public Land
Urban League
Volunteer Lawyers for Justice
Write On Sports
Wynona’s House Child Advocacy Center
As we began this process, we asked both past and new reviewers to engage in a discussion of implicit bias in our ongoing effort to be conscious about the mindset we bring to reading, evaluating, discussing and making decisions about the applications.
Our finance team carefully reviewed the semi-finalists’ financial documentation. A few members from each Application Review Team will meet with these organizations during virtual site visits scheduled for the first two weeks of November. In early December, members who participated in these site visits will gather for our Summit meeting and will advance four non-profits as finalists.
All members will be provided with summaries of the finalists’ projects leading up to our Annual Awards Meeting on January 25th.
Announcing our new Equity Grants
New this year are three $15,000 unrestricted Equity Grants, available to Essex County non-profit organizations led by BIPOC individuals (Black, Indigenous and other People of Color).
The application went live last week, so help us get the word out by sharing this information with individuals and non-profits in your networks! Information on eligibility criteria and the link to the application form can be found on the DEI tab of our website. Applications are due December 5th, with funding decisions in January 2022.
Membership Participation through Equity Grants Roundtable
Last month, all members were invited to join our Equity Grants Roundtable-- a learning roundtable with a “book club” feel. Our goal is to increase our understanding of the BIPOC experience in philanthropy, and why change is overdue.
It’s not too late to jump in -- the learning is self-paced! Here’s how it works: every other week, we send out an updated syllabus with brief articles or videos. The four part “course” totals about two hours and culminates in a mid-December meeting at which we’ll have the opportunity to dig deeper together.
The learning is open to all. Members who have participated in the Equity Grants Roundtable and the December group discussion are welcome to participate in the Equity Grant review process. We want our review, discussion and decision-making to be informed by our learning. If interested, email dei@impact100essex.org.
We hope you’ll join the conversation!
Essex County Demographics
The 2020 Census recently released information and here are a few highlights for Essex County:
Black (not Hispanic) is the largest share of the population at 42%, while White (not Hispanic) is 30%, Hispanic/Latino is 24% and Asian 6%
$61.5K is the median average income
14% of persons are at the poverty level
36% speak a language other than English at home
For more information on Essex County compared to New Jersey overall, see U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts.
Membership Events
Connections and Conversation: Creating a Family Culture of Giving (Monday, November 15 at 7:00pm)
Save-the-date for a Zoom discussion with our own Margarethe Laurenzi on "how to nurture habits of generosity." Margarethe is the new executive director of the Maher Charitable Foundation and previously spent a number of years at the Community Foundation of NewJersey, most recently as its chief philanthropic officer. We are fortunate to have Margarethe as an active member of Impact100 Essex and look forward to this discussion with her.
Changes Coming to the Steering Committee
As we approach our fifth grant cycle, the Steering Committee reviewed and updated our governance principles to reflect our goals as an organization. A "staggered" board structure with term limits for members of the Steering Committee means that a few members will roll off the Steering Committee each year, allowing more opportunities for members to get involved in leadership roles, and bringing new voices, faces and ideas to our team.
This is our first year running the nomination process to fill vacancies for members who will be rolling off the Steering Committee in 2022. We are excited and gratified to report that we received multiple nominations to fill four open Steering Committee opportunities! In addition, one existing member of our Steering Committee will stand for re-election. The slate will be circulated to all members on or before December 14, 2021 for a final vote, so that the new Steering Committee members can be announced at our annual member meeting. Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in these openings, and please be on the lookout for emails soliciting your vote on the slate over the next few weeks.
Many thanks to our 2021 sponsors
We welcome your suggestions on what you’d like to see. Please send your feedback to communications@impact100essex.org. Contributing writers and editors: Mayuri Chandra, Sunita Chaudhuri, Kate Clark, Jill Edinburg, Sara Ann Erichson, Margo Greenfield, Helen Mazarakis, Mindy Propper, Renee Reso.
