Impact Grants Chicago will begin its sixth year with the upcoming 2022/23 grant cycle; however, our story actually began in 2012 when Georgy Ann Peluchiwski and Allison Bacon collaborated to create a women’s collective giving group based on the national Impact model originated in Cincinnati, Ohio. They began that same year by forming a City Chapter within the already existing Impact 100 Chicago that operated out of the northwest suburbs and served Chicago and the suburbs.

In June of 2017, the City Chapter leadership decided to concentrate all of their giving in the city of Chicago and founded Impact Grants Chicago to continue their work of awarding annual $100,000 grants to Chicago nonprofits.

We are proud to say that in our first five years as Impact Grants Chicago, we have awarded nearly $2,500,000! This includes TWENTY-ONE $100,000 Impact Grants along with $380,000 in Merit Grants. We are excited to continue our journey and hope you will join us this year..