Grant Information
Impact 100 Seattle Grantmaking Philosophy
At Impact 100 Seattle, we practice trust-based philanthropy to foster lasting change in the Puget Sound region. Since 2020, we've supported small, community-based nonprofits in Arts and Culture, Health and Wellness, Education, Environment, and Children and Families with unrestricted grants. By cultivating strong partnerships and addressing unhealthy power dynamics in traditional philanthropy, we aim to offer a unique and empowering giving experience.
Our Grantmaking Principles
Partner for Transformative Change
We support community-based organizations that address root causes of social issues and disparities affecting people in the Puget Sound Region.
Trust-Based Philanthropy
We work to move power toward those closest to community needs while reducing their burden.
Embrace Risk
We reward and encourage new ways of thinking and acting to increase resilience and impact.
Listen, Learn and Evolve
We are on a learning journey with each other and our partners.
What We Fund
Impact 100 Seattle recognizes the many needs that exist within our community and values all the work that is being done by local nonprofits to address them. We have chosen to focus our support on organizations that meet the following criteria. Please only apply if you meet these criteria. Our goal is to be as transparent as possible, reducing the burden on potential grant applicants; therefore, if you have questions about your organization’s eligibility, please contact us.
Principle-based Criteria:
- Organizations that seek to reduce inequities that exist in the communities they serve.
- Organizations striving for ‘Transformative Change’ to address the root causes of the problem, not just its symptoms.
- Community-based organizations—those that are created by and run by people from the communities they serve.
- Organizations that have a leadership team and board that reflect the community they are serving.
- Organizations that work with under-served populations.
Operational Criteria:
- Size: Under $2MM in annual revenue
- IRS status: 501(c)3 or fiscally sponsored through a 501(c)3 organization
- Geography: Primarily serve the Puget Sound area
- Areas addressed: Arts and Culture, Health and Wellness, Education, Environment, Children and Families
We do not consider:
- Organizations whose primary purpose is religious or politically partisan in nature
- 501(c)4 organizations
- Organizations that are purely direct service such as food banks and temporary housing assistance
Frequently Asked Questions
At Impact 100 Seattle we practice trust-based philanthropy with the aim of minimizing the work for nonprofits throughout the application process and the grant lifecycle. All of our grants are unrestricted.
We follow the Impact 100 model which makes grants across five broad areas: Arts & Culture, Education, Environment, Family and Health & Wellness. In addition, Impact 100 Seattle is specifically looking for organizations that:
- Serve the Puget Sound: Organizations must operate in the region, and the majority of programs and services must benefit those in the Puget Sound region.
- Focus on underserved populations or address inequities: Population(s) are clearly identified, and programs and services are focused on increasing equity.
- Center community: Organizations identify issues and develop strategies from lived experience with leadership that is representative of the community.
- Address underlying causes of inequities. The organizations address root causes facing their community.
No. Impact 100 Seattle supports organizations with a commitment to addressing underlying causes and affecting long-term changes.
We recognize the importance of organizations providing direct services like housing and food. These are important for meeting people’s basic needs and helping them navigate daily life. However, our focus is not on individual change, but people working collaboratively to change policies, institutions and structures that impact a broader group of people. For example, an organization providing STEM education to young students of color would not address root causes, but if that organization also works to ensure that schools include perspectives of BIPOC students in its curricula, and has instructors that represent these students teaching them, it would.
We understand that some organizations that drive longer term change may also be providing some direct services. This does not disqualify an organization. We are considering the primary focus of the organization.
Impact 100 Seattle is a new organization aiming to address some of the unhealthy power dynamics in traditional philanthropy. One of our first efforts was to streamline the grant application process, respecting the time of all applicants. Once organizations apply:
- The Impact 100 Seattle grant review team will review applications and arrive at a list of 8 to 10 semi-finalist organizations. Applicants will be notified by email at the end of March.
- Members of the grant review team will gather additional information on each of the semi-finalist organizations. We will first seek to obtain publicly available materials to minimize the level of effort for applicants. Two members of the grant leadership team will schedule a short discussion with a few follow-up questions related to leadership/board, financials, additional details on the impact of your organization or other areas.
- Financial review will be conducted. Our team will aim to gather publicly available information including 990 forms, but in addition will also ask the organization to provide current year budget and latest financial statements. All documents can be provided in the format best suited to the organization.
- Through a moderated session with the grants review team, we will recommend a final list of organizations to our Membership in late May. Membership will then vote on the allocation of funds.
- Grants will be announced in June 3, 2025.
- See more detail in the Key Dates section of this page.
Each grant cycle is different as there are different organizations being reviewed, and different women serve on the grant review team each year. The grant review team reads each of the submitted applications to determine how closely the organizations align with our grant criteria. From there, the organizations that most closely align are discussed, and we reach a consensus on which organizations should advance to the next round.
Please understand, the needs in our community are well beyond what our organization can support - we are unable to fund all deserving organizations.
Key Dates for our Grant Cycles
Below are important dates for our 2025 grant cycle. If there are any changes to the dates below, we will communicate them on this website and/or via e-mail. If you have any questions about the process, please don‘t hesitate to contact us at grants@impact100seattle.org.
The 2025 application period has passed. For those that already applied, please use this page as a reference. If you missed the Feb 21 deadline, please return next year. The key dates for 2026 will loosely follow this timeline.
January 9
Application opens.
Please ensure that your organization meets the criteria described on the application before submitting. More information and detail is available in our Grant FAQs above. Applications will be accepted through February 21, 2025.
February 4
Optional Q&A Session from 12pm-1pm via zoom. If you have any questions about the grant process or the application, please feel free to join us. We will post a video of this session after the event.
February 21
Applications close and must be received by end of day.
March 28
All applicants notified of their status via e-mail. Semi-finalists will be asked to provide availability for a 1 hour zoom call.
March 26 - April 22
Financial review and zoom calls with leadership teams. All semi-finalists will be asked to provide current year budget, latest financial information, and 990‘s if they are not publicly available.
May 1
Finalists announced, semi-finalists that did not advance will also be notified. All finalists will receive a grant. We aim for one of the grants to be close to $100,000 given over 1-3 years, with additional smaller grants for the other finalists.
Our grant review team will reach out with requests including photos and a video session of approximately one hour, in a location convenient to the organization.
June 2
Annual meeting and vote on funding allocation. Nonprofits will not need to be present during this meeting.
June 3
Finalists notified of funding amounts. Our finance team will work to transfer the funds as soon as feasible, certainly by end of June.
