Impact Austin Launches New Membership Model

September 30, 2025, marks an exciting milestone for Impact Austin: the launch of our new membership model. This evolution reflects our continued commitment to uniting women in collective giving and expanding opportunities to fuel positive change in Central Texas.

Since 2003, Impact Austin has awarded $9.14 million in grants to 103 Central Texas nonprofits, thanks to collective gifts from 3,112 women. This year alone, Impact Austin awarded $300,500 in unrestricted funding to strengthen community nonprofits that, in turn, support our neighbors. Our 2025 Community Partners are creating lasting change—improving healthcare access for the uninsured, supporting Black mothers, sending children from foster care and low-income families to summer camp, training food and beverage workers, providing childcare for children with special needs, and more.

Now, we are broadening the ways women can join this mission and deepen our collective community impact.

A Membership Model That Meets Women Where They Are

Our new structure introduces three distinct ways to give that expand how we come together to fund meaningful, community-led change in Central Texas. Regardless of giving level, every Impact Austin member has:

• An equal vote in determining where grants are awarded.

• A collective voice in shaping the future of Central Texas.

• The opportunity to join a powerful network of women united for good.

  
  

Impact Austin’s membership model invites each new and renewing member to identify the level that is personally meaningful and that aligns with her philanthropic goals. The amount of each member's contribution will not be disclosed and can be updated on an annual basis. Each member chooses the impact she wishes to make. Our collective impact multiplies.

This new structure builds on strategies that Impact Austin has already implemented to welcome more members with diverse voices and lived experiences. These include a monthly payment option; year-round recruitment; sponsored memberships and impactships; and a free membership for our Community Partners.

As Claudia Barlow, President of Impact Austin, explains:

“Impact Austin’s Board of Directors is pleased to launch this expanded membership model, which enables us to welcome more women into the collective giving movement and increase our funding of meaningful change in Central Texas. This evolution of our organization supports our mission, is aligned with our values, and enables our long-term sustainability.”

Why It Matters

"The local nonprofit community is facing unprecedented economic and policy-driven challenges," as reported in an article from One Voice Central Texas. "Continued inflation, declining donations, reduced volunteerism, and the expiration of federal pandemic-related funds have already placed stress on organizations that serve as lifelines for our most vulnerable community members. Recent Executive Orders and proposed federal budget cuts are exacerbating uncertainty for an already strained system." Piper Nelson, Executive Director of I Live Here I Give Here (and an Impact Austin member), summed up the impact as "at least $65M in federal funding is likely to be lost by Central Texas nonprofits."

The good news? Collective giving is transformative. When women come together to pool their resources, their combined impact is far greater than any individual effort. For more than 20 years, Impact Austin has led the collective giving movement in the Greater Austin area.

According to a recent report from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, the collective giving movement that began in earnest in the early 2000s is gaining more momentum each year in the U.S.  "Between 2017 and 2023, nearly 4,000 collective giving groups mobilized approximately 370,000 philanthropists to donate more than $3.1 billion — indicating more than 140% growth in both participation and total monetary donations since the previous landscape survey was published in 2017." The Johnson Center projects that the collective giving movement is on a path to double again in the next five years. What's more, "women's leadership and participation rates dominate the movement."

Join Us and Share the Opportunity

We invite you to become part of this exciting new chapter. Share this news with your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Encourage the women in your network to join Impact Austin. Together, we can drive meaningful change and create a stronger, more vibrant Central Texas.