Impact100 South Jersey Awards Big Brothers Big Sisters with $100,000 Check
VINELAND, NJ: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cumberland and Salem Counties (BBBS) has been awarded a $100,000 Core Mission Grant by Impact100 South Jersey, a women’s collective giving fund at Community Foundation of South Jersey. The Grant will be paid over a two-year funding cycle beginning July 1, 2019 and ending June 30, 2021. BBBS will use the grant to help support their new Mentor2.0 program which utilizes technology-enriched curricula to enable volunteers to mentor students from their home or office. It is perfect for individuals who want to have an impact on the community but find it difficult to do so within their busy schedule.
As part of the Mentor2.0 program, mentors and mentees communicate online through weekly writing activities, discussing important topics such as professionalism, perseverance, self-advocacy, college financial aid, and career choices. In addition to email communication, mentors and mentees meet in-person once per month during the school year at BBBS sponsored activities.
“What fantastic news,” said Donna Bennett, BBBS Cumberland/Salem President and CEO. “We are tremendously thankful to the members of Impact100 for choosing to fund this exciting new program which has produced significant increases in on-time high school graduation, college acceptance, enrollment, and persistence rates in other cities where it has been introduced.”
“This is critically important for today’s youth, particularly those who would become first-generation college students,” Bennett continued. “Education is the ‘gift that keeps on giving’, and those that go to college exponentially increase the chances that their children and their children’s children will also continue this path. By doing so, we can help to change a life, a family, and a community.”
Impact100 South Jersey was established in 2017. The volunteer-run initiative is focused on providing transformative grants to nonprofit organizations in Camden, Burlington, Cumberland, and Gloucester counties. So far, the group has awarded grants totaling $229,000.
The Impact100 Women’s Giving Circle model was founded in Cincinnati in 2001, and since then, over 50 chapters in the United States and Australia have been established. The goal of each is to reach a membership of 100 (or more), each of whom donates $1,000 to yield at least $100,000 annually. They then vote on how to disperse it to recipients that meet the local member’s criteria.
In addition to BBBS, Impact100 South Jersey 2019 grant recipients include:
- A $27,500 General Operating Grant to The Hispanic Family Center of Southern New Jersey in order to transform multi-purpose offices into private counseling spaces exclusively for mental health therapy and substance abuse.
- A $27,500 General Operating Grant to the Ronald McDonald House of Southern New Jersey to install easy to maintain vinyl plank hypoallergenic flooring which will replace carpets currently in the facility.
“There are a lot of tremendous nonprofits hyper-focused on South Jersey’s needs. Our goal is to provide these organizations with resources that are generated and dispersed in a way that addresses the unique needs of our region,” said Kyle Ruffin, a founding member of Impact100 South Jersey. “We owe special thanks to our Grant Review volunteers who worked tirelessly to assess grant proposals, conduct site visits, and present the very best applicants to our membership.”
For more information about the Mentor2.0 program, other volunteer opportunities, or additional ways to support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cumberland & Salem Counties, please contact Tygh Powell at 856.692.0916, or visit our website at www.southjerseybigs.org.
For more information about Impact 100 South Jersey, please email info@impact100sj.org or visit their website at www.impact100sj.org.