Impact Austin’s Annual Meeting is both business and celebration. We presented the successes of our programs, events, and grantmaking during this turbulent fiscal year from July 1 to June 30, and we also shared exciting plans for the year to come.
If you missed the 2021 Annual Meeting, you can watch our recording - thank you, C2C Media!
The Impact Austin community rallied and thrived
For “FY 2021,” we really need to start with the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown in early 2020. Those realities began to shape this fiscal year - everything that we gathered on June 7 to celebrate. In a series of upcoming essays, learn all about how Impact Austin met the challenges of this past year and check out all that we offered in FY 2021 along with our regular business of grantmaking.
Annual Meeting opened with this powerful video which set the tone of all that we faced and the opportunity around us to create lasting change together.
We heard from and about our members, too. See videos from Rebecca Powers, Susan Palombo, and Meeta Kothare. Three more members – Katie Dochen, Becky Austen, and Lorene Phillips – introduced Impact Austin’s new Strategic Advisory Council (SAC). You can learn more about the SAC by video or blog. And Christina introduced the new Board of Directors for FY 2022. We particularly welcome Katherine Mudge as Impact Austin’s new president and thank outgoing president Susan Palombo, who stays on the board for another year. Many more of our members made Annual Meeting possible through their/their businesses’ event sponsorships. Join us in thanking all those recognized on the Annual Meeting event page.
Celebrating the work of past Community Partners
As is tradition, we celebrated the impacts of past grants: 2019 Education Grant ($100,000) to Austin Bat Cave; 2018 Community Grant ($111,500) to Jeremiah Program Austin; 2018 Education Grant ($111,500) to Communities In Schools of Central Texas; and 2018 Health & Well-Being Grant ($111,500) to Helping Hand Home for Children.
Also profiled were Girls’ Giving Grants 2020 awards to Friends of the Children Austin ($7,725) and Mothers’ Milk Bank Austin ($2,575).
Announcing our newest 2021 Community Partners
Throughout Annual Meeting, excitement built for the announcement of 2021 Spring Grants. We knew our four finalists, but not how the membership would vote specific allotments. As of 2020, Impact Austin opted to split grant monies so that the organization in each focus area with the most member votes receives 80% of total funds; the other finalist receives 20%. Our newest Community Partners were introduced by Dinah Dinwiddie and Elaine Jensen, co-chairs from the two Grant Review Committees.
Community Grants
Austin Tenants’ Council: $78,500
Austin Diaper Bank: $19,600
Education Grants
Mainspring Schools: $78,500
Ecology Action of Texas: $19,600
Detail about the grants can be found in the videos linked to the organizations' names and also on the See Our Impact page.
Throughout the Annual Meeting, Christina offered several calls to action. Support of Impact Austin makes possible everything that we celebrate in an Annual Meeting. Your donations matter. Consider the many ways to support Impact Austin above and beyond membership. Your volunteer efforts matter. Join an Impact Austin committee or volunteer for one of our Signature Events or join a Grant Review Committee; registrations open July 1. But most of all, your membership matters. We accomplish nothing without our members.
If you’re already a member, renew and invite a friend or colleague to join. If you’re new to Impact Austin, learn what it means to be a member, and then #JoinImpactAustin.
Our collective giving is stronger because of you.
Our community impact is stronger because of you.
Christina closed our opening video with a powerful message
that appropriately closes this recap:
“Central Texas is counting on Impact Austin. Central Texas is counting on you.”
