Impact Austin
- May 5, 2020

Impact Austin Doubles the Number of Nonprofits Supported

$410,300 awarded to ten local nonprofit organizations

AUSTIN, TEXAS – May 4, 2020 – We are thrilled to announce that 440 women of Impact Austin and 95 girls of Girls Giving Grants (g3) are awarding a total of $410,300 to ten Central Texas nonprofit organizations. For the first time ever, 75% of the award in each grant category will go to the applicant with the highest number of votes and the other finalist will receive 25%.

“As a funding partner to Central Texas nonprofits, we recognize the importance of quick and broad financial support during this difficult time,” said Christina Canales Gorczynski, Executive Director of Impact Austin.

Impact Austin normally conducts voting and announces winners during its annual meeting in June. This year, all of the votes were cast remotely and winners were announced today during a Facebook Live event.

“The process was expedited to ensure that our Community Partners received needed funding as soon as possible,” Gorczynski said. “We decided to divide the awards between the finalists for the first time, because we must support each other now more than ever,” she said.

This year’s Impact Austin Community Partners are:

Casa Marianella and BookSpring (Community)
Welcome Table’s Freedom Schools and Kids in a New Groove (Education)
NAMI Central Texas and Family Independence Initiative (Health & Well-Being)
Austin Child Guidance Center and Family Eldercare (Catalyst)
Friends of the Children Austin and Mothers' Milk Bank Austin (g3)

According to a Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) research report released in April, women give more gifts and a greater proportion of total donated dollars on tech platforms. In addition, women’s and girls’ causes receive substantially more online support from women donors, and technology enables women to give according to their preferences.

The report, called “Women Give 2020” also noted that building community and adopting a broader definition of philanthropy are essential to ensure nonprofit organizations appeal to women donors.

The more women who join Impact Austin, the more the organization can collectively award to the community. Membership is open to all women for an annual donation of $1,250. Information is available at https://www.impactaustin.org/membership.

In November, Impact Austin will award the organization’s second Social Innovation Grant, a 1-year grant of $40,000. This will fund a collaborative focused on advancing equity for women and/or girls of color in the Austin area.

About Impact Austin and g3’s 2020 grant recipients:

Casa Marianella

Project: Immigrant Youth

$75,000 Community Grant

Casa Marianella welcomes recently arrived refugees and asylum seekers in Austin and promotes self-sufficiency by providing shelter and support services. Most shelter residents, including children, are asylum seekers, many coming from immigration detention. In addition to housing, Casa Marianella provides food, clothing, case management, access to medical care and counseling, immigration legal services, English classes and more to help these families and individuals leave Casa with the self-sufficiency to thrive.

Casa Marianella will use the Impact Austin funds to support both current and past residents throughout the COVID-19 crisis so they remain healthy and do not become homeless again. The organization will also expand programming and services for teens and youth ages 18-21.

BookSpring

Project: BookSpring Wash & Read

$25,000 Community Grant

BookSpring helps build early literacy in Central Texas’ low-income children and families through increasing home libraries and reading aloud activities for children. BookSpring’s interventions support brain development, family interaction, skill building, and the motivation to read in children from birth through age 12.

This grant will enable BookSpring to continue to receive, sort, and store donated books under approved safety and sanitation guidelines.

Welcome Table, Inc.

Project: Freedom Schools - Austin

$75,000 Education Grant

Welcome Table's Freedom Schools fosters a passion for reading, the wonder of science, and a love of learning among underserved, elementary-aged scholars in East Austin. With the Children’s Defense Fund’s proven model, Freedom Schools brings its unique enrichment program to the organization’s scholars and their working-poor families, so that they can avoid learning loss, build self-confidence as scholars and citizens, and close the achievement gap that too often leads to school dropout.

Welcome Table will use this grant to institute immediate family support mechanisms to bolster at-home and online learning. The funds will also help provide Freedom Schools’ proven enrichment this summer and throughout the 2020-2021 school year.

Kids in a New Groove (KING)

Project: Mentoring through Music

$25,000 Education Grant

Kids in a New Groove (KING) provides Central Texas youth in foster care with free music lessons through mentorship. KING seeks to improve the challenging statistics for youth aging out of foster care, where many children face homelessness or incarceration due to lack of community resources. For the past five years, 100% of Kids In A New Groove students have graduated high school, compared to less than 50% nationwide.

KING will use this grant to prioritize recruitment and retention of students and music mentors in the Austin area to ensure continued success of current programming.

NAMI Central Texas

Project: "Mental Health Mamas" - Wellness Advocates for Families in Crisis

$75,000 Health & Well-Being Grant

NAMI Central Texas is an affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI Central Texas provides education, support, and advocacy programs at no cost for families and individuals impacted by mental health issues as well as community mental health training and workshops.

With this grant, NAMI Central Texas will launch “Mental Health Mamas,” a program to support parents and caregivers of children experiencing a mental health crisis. Mental Health Mamas will connect families to support programs, resources, education and—just as importantly—hope.

Family Independence Initiative

Project: Advancing Economic Mobility through Direct Investment and Social Capital

$25,000 Health & Well-Being Grant

Family Independence Initiative (FII) invests directly in low-income people so they can work individually and collectively to achieve prosperity. Its technology platform, UpTogether, enables people to strengthen existing and create new social networks, access unrestricted financial capital, set goals on their self-determined paths, monitor progress, and support one another in achieving economic and social mobility.

Family Independence Initiative will use this grant to enroll and provide $3,000 unrestricted cash transfers to eight new families in the St. Johns neighborhood—one with the highest rates of poverty and displacement in the city.

Austin Child Guidance Center

Project: ACGC Teletherapy Program

$75,000 Catalyst Grant

Austin Child Guidance Center’s mission is to improve the mental health of children and their families through early intervention, diagnosis, and treatment to help them develop the emotional skills to face life’s challenges.

This grant will support a new teletherapy program to connect clinicians to clients for assessment, intervention, and consultation. Initially planned to start in October 2020, the program launched in early April to remove barriers to service and address mental health needs associated with COVID-19.

Family Eldercare

Project: Catalyst for Excellence - Harnessing Technology to Better Serve Aging Texans

$25,000 Catalyst Grant

Family Eldercare supports older adults and adults with disabilities by focusing on health, social connection, financial security, and protection from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

Funding from Impact Austin will ensure that essential staff members have the technology they need to more quickly respond to crises like COVID-19. The effects of this pandemic will be felt for months or years to come, and Family Eldercare will continue to be on the frontlines protecting, caring for, and maintaining connection with Austin’s older adults and adults with disabilities.

Friends of the Children Austin

Project: Engagement Events for Families Living in Poverty

$7,725 g3 Grant

Friends of the Children Austin is part of a national nonprofit that is breaking the cycle of generational poverty by giving children facing the highest risks the ability to create a new story. They do this by providing these children with a long-term, salaried, professional mentor from kindergarten through high school graduation.

This grant will support activities that build a sense of community and engagement for youth and their families.

Mothers’ Milk Bank Austin

Project: Charitable Care - Providing Life-Saving Solutions for Premature Babies in Foster Care

$2,575 g3 Grant

Mothers’ Milk Bank Austin (MMBA) is a community-based organization that saves the lives of very fragile babies through human milk. MMBA sends prescribed donor human milk to babies in nearly 200 hospitals in Texas and 23 other states, as well as to nearly 140 babies in their homes. Three quarters of the nearly one million ounces dispensed annually stays in Texas, providing care to premature and other sick babies.

This grant will support MMBA’s Charitable Care Program, ensuring life-saving donor human milk will be provided to all infants with a need, regardless of the family’s ability to pay.