As snowflakes drifted gently down around them, the women of Impact 100 Richmond broke symbolic ground for their first project, a major renovation for the Southside Child Development Center.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you," Shelia Pleasants, the center's executive director, told the happy group gathered in the schoolyard Saturday. "What a gift."
Selecting from almost 30 competing proposals, Impact 100 has given Southside Child Development Center $100,000 to renovate its nearly 60-year-old building.
And the grassroots women's group is planning to make two more such grants by this spring.
Impact 100 is accepting applications, due Feb. 15, for grants in the areas of education, family, health and wellness, environment, and arts and culture.
"Our goal this year is to raise $200,000," said Talley Baratka, the group's spokeswoman and co-founder. "We've already secured the first $100,000."
She said they'd like to have all pledges and checks in by Jan. 31 and be able to select two recipients for the grants by May 5.
Using Impact 100's donation, Southside Child Development will get a new roof, doors and windows; improved drainage to stop flooding rains from blocking the building's entrance; a new air-conditioning system; and upgraded heating and electrical systems.
The grant has already paid to put a safety fence around the center, Pleasants said. "Your money is allowing us to put more into the programs, into the children, into the families that we serve."
Impact 100's grant will mean "a warmer environment, a safer environment, a more nurturing environment" for the center's pupils, she said.
Celebrating its 80th year, Southside Child Development Center serves working-class parents in the city's Blackwell and Manchester areas on a budget of $547,000 this year. The center works with nearly 90 children, Pleasants said: 75 preschoolers ages 2 to 5 and 12 school-age children.
"We're educating the children for their next step," she said.
It charges for its educational child-care programs on a sliding-scale. "My families have been hit hard by the economy," Pleasants said.
Working largely through personal contacts, Impact 100's strategy is to have at least 100 women give $1,000 each to create a $100,000 grant for a nonprofit agency that the members themselves select.
"The whole idea behind this is to make a game-changing grant for a local nonprofit," Baratka said.
"It's also a smart investment," the businesswoman said of the grant to the Southside Child Development Center. "It's going to pay dividends for them over many years."
With some pooling their money to create a single $1,000 contribution, over 200 women collaborated to make the $100,000 grant to the Southside Child Development Center in Richmond.
The new women's philanthropy group came together by word of mouth. "Colleague to colleague, neighbor to neighbor," Baratka said, "it's grown interpersonally."
The Community Foundation of Richmond and volunteers provide administrative support for Impact 100's work.
Impact 100 raised $136,000 in total in its first year. From the donations, Impact 100 also made small grants to the three organizations whose proposals were runners-up in the competition, Baratka said, with the remainder carried forward.
Each $1,000 contribution gets a vote in selecting the projects. "It's all about putting your money in and having your say all the way through," Baratka said.
"We have plenty more seats for people who want to make a difference in 2011."
pbacque@timesdispatch.com
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