FAQs

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IMPACT100 Sydney North was started by a group of friends living in Sydney’s north. While over 4 million people live in Sydney, the group wanted to draw on the strong community spirit of Sydney’s north. The Impact100 model ticked all the boxes for giving – powerful, rewarding, social, inclusive, collaborative, informed, effective.

No. Our donors can live anywhere, but all grants will be made to charities in Greater Sydney NSW.

All the Australian IMPACT groups follow the key principles of the US  IMPACT100 model. We operate independently but support each other and share information. Our shared vision is to grow collective giving in Australia.

• 100% of the money donated is given away
• Low, affordable minimum donation level
• Agreed mission and shared decision making process
• High impact grants to lesser known charities where $100,000 makes a big difference.

All contributions are tax deductible and you will receive a tax receipt. IMPACT100 Sydney North is a sub-fund of Australian Communities Foundation (ACF), which is a registered Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR). ACF administers all of IMPACT100 Sydney North’s donations. IMPACT100 Sydney North must operate in accordance with the legislative regulations of ACF. Member donations go into the IMPACT100 Sydney North sub-fund and members collectively decide which organisation receives the grant. The $100,000 impact grant is paid directly (in its entirety) by ACF to the chosen organisation.

ACF is a not-for-profit community foundation committed to helping philanthropic individuals and organisations support community causes and initiatives they care about. Community foundations share the following aims:

Each person’s participation depends on their personal situation and can change from year to year. If a member has limited time, they contribute $1,000 and come to the annual Grant Celebration event to help choose the grant recipient/s for that year. If a member has more time, they can join a sub-group to get involved in the many aspects of IMPACT100 Sydney North. This includes for example, grants (evaluating grant applications, including assessment evenings and site visits), events (organising and co-ordinating our various events throughout the year) and communications and marketing (social media, newsletters, promotion, etc). There will also be opportunities to become involved as a volunteer or a board member with our grant applicants, which can lead to deeper ongoing relationships with not-for-profit organisations.

You can join for one year, but we hope you will make a longer commitment.

Your only obligation is the $1,000 donation. Of course, we hope you’ll take the time to make an informed decision when you join us in choosing a grant recipient. You have the option to get more closely involved, but this isn’t obligatory.

IMPACT100 Sydney North will use our website, Facebook, Twitter, newsletters and emails to stay in touch with our members.

We believe this amount ensures member commitment. It also keeps the cost of raising money for our grants low. To raise $100,000 through individual donations of $100 each would mean recruiting 1000 members. It costs more to recruit 1000 people than it does 100. These higher costs would mean less money for the people who need it most — the grant recipients and the people they serve. 

In order to get a vote, you need to contribute $1,000. If you can’t afford that on your own, you can team up with others to form a mini-circle or syndicate. Among our donors are several couples or families contributing $1,000 as a family donation, as well as one group of colleagues making the donation collectively. Please email us on info@impact100sydneynorth.org for further information.

Mini-circles bring together 2 to 5 family or friends who all contribute to make up the $1,000. We ask that you nominate a coordinator who will be responsible for receiving correspondence from us about the grants, managing the total donation and nominating the group’s vote for where they would like the IMPACT100 grant to go. Please note: there is one vote per mini-circle. Each mini circle member does not get a vote.

Donations over $1,000 are of course welcome! However, the policy of ‘one member, one vote’ will still apply when choosing who will receive the $100,000 grant. Why not sign up your individual family members so each gets a chance to vote?

If there are more than 100 members, the grant will be larger and/or more than one grant will be made.

The model is based on the $1,000 donation coming from an individual, however we appreciate all donations and welcome matching gifts. Please advise us if this is possible and we will give you details of how the matching gift can be made. Email us on info@impact100sydneynorth.org

We anticipate our ongoing annual costs will be 3-5% of the total donated. We ask members to consider donating an additional $100 upon joining to go towards these minimal administration costs. The Committee has undertaken to cover the rest, so 100% of member donations go directly to the grant-making. We rely on the generous time and effort of volunteers and we also utilise gifts and sponsorships from individuals, local businesses, Foundations, Private Ancillary Funds and in-kind donations.

Following a survey of members, our current grant focus is ‘children and young people at risk’. We send out a call each year for initial Expression of Interest Applications (EOIs). Any member can join our grant review sub-group to evaluate these EOIs, selecting eight to submit full applications. This is not meant to be onerous but there are clear parameters including the size of the organisation, the impact and the sustainability of the grant. These are then evaluated by researching and visiting applicants to arrive at four finalists, a process that is open to all members to particulate in. The information on the four finalists is sent to each IMPACT100 Sydney North member for review. At the annual Awards Celebration event the finalists give a short presentation, after which all members are invited to vote for their choice. The organisation with the most votes receives the $100,000 Primary Grant. We hope to also give smaller grants to the other finalists, assuming we have more than 100 members.

One of our goals is high-impact giving. We want to make a significant gift. By collectively funding a big grant we can have a larger impact in a selected area. Also when a not-for-profit organisation pieces together $100,000 from as many as 10 different sources, the not-for-profit has reporting requirements and related administrative expenses from each grantor, as well as its fundraising costs. An increased cost in the ‘chain’ means less money ultimately goes to solve the problem. By giving one large grant, we have more impact and keep costs lower for the grant recipient and for ourselves. If IMPACT100 raises more than $100,000, one or more smaller grants can be made.

We made our inaugural Primary Grant in 2017 and will be giving our second Primary Grant in 2018. Please see Grants for further information.

We are committed to acting with integrity in all of our relationships and in selecting grant recipients through an honest and fair process. In support of this commitment, our conflict of interest policy requires disclosure of relationships between our committee members with any grant applicant or potential grant applicant. We also require committee members to excuse themselves from the discussion and/or collective choosing on any topic where an issue or conflict arises. We require only those members serving on a committee to disclose conflicts of interest. However, IMPACT100 Sydney North expects all members to act in an objective and fair manner and to refrain from any attempt to gain an unfair advantage for a particular grant applicant by, among other things, disclosing confidential information and/or attempting to influence the choice of another IMPACT100 Sydney North member.