Impact San Antonio is a women's philanthropic giving circle. Women join and donate money that is turned into $100,000 grants each year. This year for the first time ever they're close to reaching $500,000 to turn into five grants, but they need your help.
Lora Watts from Impact San Antonio said, "We are very very close to achieving our vision of having 500 members this year and being able to award a $100,000 grant in each of our focus areas."
Those five focus areas are arts and culture, education, environment recreation and preservation, family, and health and wellness.
Roy Maas Youth Alternatives was the recipient of one of those $100,000 grants, which went to a brand-new heating and air-conditioning system.
"We had kids who were fanning themselves in the classroom and kind of these stuffy small counseling offices, and you are trying to do pretty intensive work and it's kind of hard to do when the temperature is not regulated; it just adds to everybody's angst," Bill Wilkinson, the CEO of Roy Maas Youth Alternatives told us. "Since then, we've built a new emergency shelter. We are renovating our old building. We've increased our counseling center participation rate. We've recently opened a 24-7 drop in center for sex trafficked children."
Joining Impact San Antonio is simple. You just need to want to make a change with some change of your own. "Members donate $1000 and those donations are polled to create $100,000 grants," Watts said. "The deadline is May 15th and we are only 25 members away from achieving that goal."
That means you've got two days to help them reach their $500,000 goal. Wilkinson says it's a great way to celebrate Mother's Day, even for the men. "If you are out there and you can afford a $1000 Mother's Day gift, guys, this is the best gift you could give your wife," said Wilkinson.
But if you can't afford the full thousand, you can still help. "Two to four people can come together and form a membership. It's a nice way for women to start the process if they can't do a membership on their own," Watts said.