In 2021, instead of our usual Community Grants and $100,000 Impact Grant, Impact100 Sonoma implemented a special grants process and offered Impetus Grants in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We have chosen to offer these Impetus Grants again for 2022. Impetus Grants can be for up to $25,000 each. Click here for more information.

The 2022 grants timeline will take place from January through April. This abbreviated cycle is in response to the continuing urgent needs of the Sonoma Valley nonprofit community and ensures that the funds will be available as quickly as possible. To see all dates and deadlines for the current year, click here.

Impact100 has always asked about an organization’s mission, and we trust them to know the needs of, and how to best serve, their clients and constituents.

However, we recognize that, especially given the ongoing effects of COVID-19, in order to best fulfill this mission, the organization’s needs may not conform to a specific program or project, but may be more fundamental. We fund broadly, so we ask each applicant organization to tell us its plan for our grant funds and how our grant funds will allow the organization to become stronger and more resilient in the face of current challenges and into the future.

Impetus Grant Review Committees and the Financial Review Committee are made up of volunteer members of Impact100 Sonoma. We strive to make Grant Review Committees unbiased, and ensure that members involved with a nonprofit organization do not review that organization’s application. The Financial Review Committee reviews all financial documents submitted and makes a report to the Grant Review Committees. Grant Review Committees review and discuss the applications, select site visit candidates and ultimately select finalists to present to the entire Impact100 Membership. The Membership votes to select Impetus Grant recipients. Read more about the process here.

Yes. Impact100 encourages collaborations. One of the collaborating organizations must be the lead, applying on behalf of the collaboration as if it were an individual organization. The lead organization must be willing to take on all the potential rights, responsibilities, restrictions, and liabilities of the entire grant if the grant is awarded. See definitions here.

An organization may only apply for one Impetus Grant unless it applies for one grant individually and for another one as part of a collaborative or partner grant.

Yes. However, our Grant Review Committees may take this fact into account as they determine the best use of Impact100 funds.

Impact100 is in the process of determining what our grant making will look like in 2023, and we'll make updates when we are able.

The fiscal agent acts on behalf of the applicant organization primarily when the organization is too small to have 501(c)3 status. Acting as a pass-through entity, the fiscal agent has financial control over the grant but does not have management control over the project. No fees may be paid to a fiscal agent with the grant funds received from Impact100 Sonoma. Please contact us for more information if you plan to apply with a fiscal sponsor.

Yes. We will fund capital expenditures for an Impetus Grant request that is clearly related to the objectives of the proposal.

Yes. We will fund construction or renovation if it is clearly related to the objectives described in the proposal.

Yes.

Yes.

No, please submit your application online in the manner described in the Application Process. Please note that the application MUST be submitted through Impact100’s on-line portal. However, financial statements must be submitted, in PDF form, to the email address set forth in the Application Process.

No, only submit the materials requested in the Application Process. The applicant will have the opportunity to share more with us if the applicant is selected to have a site visit.

The number of grants depends on how many Impact100 members we have for 2022. We will not be certain of that number until late in January 2022.

Impact100 prides itself on its ability to maintain an objective stance toward all applicants. Therefore, we do not offer feedback on proposals during the grant application cycle. For specific questions regarding grant guidelines, processes or forms, contact:

Impact100 Sonoma oversees distribution of funds through grant agreements and reports.

A nonprofit grant recipient signs a grant agreement letter stipulating that the nonprofit agrees to use the funds in accordance with the grant request and Impact100 Sonoma's procedures. The grant agreement also requires the nonprofit to submit a report when all of the funds are expended on the project. Any substantial change in the plan must be requested and approved by Impact100 Sonoma to ensure that the funds are being spent in accordance with the purpose of the grant. Find report forms here.

Yes, Impetus Grants will be distributed in one lump sum. Grant recipients will have up to two years to spend the funds.

Yes. We will allow for some flexibility, as long as the recipient contacts us and asks for permission to carry out the revised plan.

Please carefully review Impact100 Sonoma’s Grant Guidelines here. Among other things, the applicants must be a tax-exempt organization, be in operation for at least 24 months prior to applying for an Impetus Grant, and expend 100% of funds awarded by Impact100 Sonoma in Sonoma Valley. Organizations may not be a faith-based or political organization. Additionally, we cannot begin review until all pieces of the application are received, including financial documents.

Impact100 Sonoma receives many more applications than we can fund each year. They are all compelling and valuable and we wish that we could fund them all. Each committee discusses applications in depth and selects the ones they believe will have the most benefit to our community as finalists to be voted upon by the entire Impact100 membership. We often speak to applicants if they are not selected as a grant recipient and usually encourage them to reapply the following year.