Impact 100 NYC’s next-generation changemakers harness the power of collective giving and collaborative action to make a difference in NYC communities
NEW YORK, NY – May 23, 2023 In its second year of grant-giving, nextgen, Impact 100 NYC’s program for high school students, awarded $7,000 to Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ), a youth-led movement to end food insecurity by building a just food system for all and addressing the devastating cycle of diet related health impacts across lower income communities in New York City.
Jack Mogelof, a nextgen team leader and junior at Manhattan’s Horace Mann High School, attributed the basis for the selection “on where the grant would make the biggest immediate difference.”
TTFJ’s mission is to end food security in one generation through high-capacity, school-based hydroponic farming. It serves student-grown produce in school cafeterias, local food pantries, and student-run markets, increasing access to fresh, healthy food access for low-income communities. TFFJ distributes 45,000 pounds of produce per year grown by students in 19 schools in New York City and Denver and feeds 7,500 students and their local communities.
Modeled on Impact 100 NYC, a women’s philanthropic giving circle dedicated to transforming New York City lives and communities through lasting impact, nextgen gives teens hands-on social impact experience with the aim of them becoming life-long philanthropists.
According to CEO and founder Kathy Soll, Teens for Food Justice, “it is an honor to receive nextgen’s grant. We couldn’t be more thrilled. To see a group of young people come together to support another organization run and driven by their peers is an amazing synergy. I guarantee that we will put it to very good use: growing food, empowering the next generation of leaders for sustainable farming and food security, and really building a movement that can ensure a healthy food future.”
To be a member of nextgen, teens are encouraged to donate or raise up to $100. “Thanks to the support of generous sponsors, any teen interested can join,” said Mogelof. Throughout the year the group participates in community service projects and annually conducts a rigorous grant review process to identify and select a grant recipient. Four nextgen representatives each interview one of four organizations under consideration, which they record and shar with the membership. The representatives lead breakout groups to discuss the merits of the application, which then goes to an all-member vote.
“We’re collectively giving – compiling our money, reading grants, and narrowing them down,” explained Jesse Cavaliero, also a nextgen Team Leader and senior at Poly Prep High School in Brooklyn, about the process to make the selection. “And, instead of 60 kids making individual donations, it’s one whole group giving a big grant of $7,000.”
To learn more or to become a member of nextgen, visit impact100nyc.org/nextgen. Details to apply for a 2024 Impact 100 NYC or nextgen grant are available at impact100nyc.org/apply-for-a-grant.
About nextgen
Open to all eighth through twelfth graders from any New York City high or home school, nextgen members will learn and practice grant-making and fund-raising, participate in community service, and meet like-minded do-gooders from across the city. Each nextgen member can contribute time to grant committees and each step of the start-to-finish grant-making cycle – reviewing applications, selecting finalists, conducting site visits, and voting on the grant recipient – and has the option to join in community service projects. Areas the group are looking to impact include advocacy and social justice; pets and animals; arts and culture; children and family; civic engagement; climate change and environment; community building; education, equity and equality; girls and women; hunger and nutrition; LGBTQ+; social and human services.
About Impact 100 NYC
By harnessing the power of collective giving and collaborative action, Impact 100 NYC unites women across the five boroughs to fund transformative change that helps the people and communities of NYC overcome adversity and thrive. An all-volunteer organization, Impact 100 NYC empowers diverse women to be change-makers by working and giving together to transform NYC communities through lasting impact. By aggregating individual giving into high impact grants, we connect members to each other, to NYC nonprofits and the communities they serve. Together, through collaborative giving, decision-making and volunteering, we each become transformational forces in our own communities and in our own lives.
Made possible by annually aggregating members’ individual $1,000 contributions into $100,000 Innovation Grants to generate transformational change and lasting impact, in 2023 Impact 100 NYC grew to 274 members, amassing $274,000 in high-impact grants to support nonprofits in their work to overcome adversity and inequities and meet unmet needs. In just three years, Impact 100 NYC and nextgen have collectively granted $649,000 to nonprofits.
Founded in 2019, IMPACT 100 NYC is a 501(C)(3) charitable women’s giving circle dedicated to awarding high-impact grants totaling $100,000 or more to at least one nonprofit in the five boroughs of New York City. Impact 100 NYC is a chapter of Impact100, a global organization with chapters in more than 60 cities and four countries. Since 2001, Impact100 chapters have granted more than $123 million globally.
