APRIL 30, 2025: After assessing more than 90 applications, Impact100 Garden State, an all-women, all-volunteer collective giving group, has chosen seven nonprofit finalists for its $100,000 grants.
Of the seven, four organizations will receive $100,000 grants and three will receive $10,000 grants. The grants will be awarded at the Big Give event on June 11.
“The finalists serve in a wide range of categories, spanning arts, education, job training, the environment, housing and food security,” says Celeste Campos of Warren, President of Impact100 Garden State. “What they all have in common is that they are doing an incredible job filling needs in our communities.”
The finalists are:
After-School All-Stars New Jersey
Program: Creative Spark: Introducing Arts Programming at ASAS NJ
Category: Arts & Culture
Program: Disrupting the School to Prison Pipeline in Passaic County
Category: Education
Program: The Family Afterward for Mothers and Their Children—Morristown
Category: Housing
Great Swamp Watershed Association
Program: Loantaka Brook Watershed Restoration and Protection Program
Category: Environment
Somerset Hills Learning Institute
Program: Growing Need to Grow
Category: Employment Readiness
Program: Food Distribution Optimization Plan
Category: Food Security
Program: Operation Sisterhood
Category: Mental Health
Impact100 Garden State pools members’ $1,000 contributions to create high-impact grants to nonprofits in five New Jersey counties: Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex and Union. This year the organization achieved a record 426 members. Each member gets to vote on the grant recipients.
With the grant awards in June, Impact100 Garden State will have given more than $4 million to nonprofits in northern New Jersey since 2013.
“Our model is unique and uniquely successful,” Campos says. “We are powered by the energy and passion of women who want to make a difference for the underserved in our communities. Our members get a vote on how their money is spent, and we also inform them of the real-world impact of the grants we give as various initiatives are funded.”
To learn more about joining Impact100 Garden State, donating or becoming a business sponsor, visit the website at www.impact100gardenstate.org or write to info@impact100gardenstate.org.