Friends of Farmworkers was awarded a $100,000 Project Grant by Impact100 Philadelphia at the conclusion of their sixth annual meeting on June 3. The organization awared a total of $328,000 in project and operating grants at that time.

At the Crystal Tea Room in the legendary John Wanamaker building, Impact100 members heard short presentations from the five grant finalists and cast votes to determine which organizations would receive full project grants and which would receive unrestricted funds. At stake were three $100,000 project grants and two $14,000 grants. With these grants, the combined giving of 328 women, Impact100 has awarded a total of $1.268 to Philadelphia nonprofits since 2009.

Friends of Farmworkers (FOF) works to improve the living and working conditions of Pennsylvania’s vulnerable low-wage agricultural, landscaping and food processing workers and their families through the provision of legal services, education and advocacy.  

With Impact100 funding, FOF will launch Voces de Trabajadoras/Voices of Women at Work (Voces) to address the needs of a growing number of women working in the Philadelphia agricultural sector, most of whom are Latina immigrants, who suffer disproportionately from wage theft, discrimination, sexual harassment and assault in the workplace and are unlikely to take action.  

Migrant and immigrant workers often incorrectly assume that U.S. laws do not protect them, and are unlikely to seek legal help because of language barriers, geographic isolation, and fear of employer retaliation. With FOF’s fully bilingual staff, Voces will use specialized outreach methods (pláticas, “chats” or small meetings) to create an environment of trust to bring information about legal options to women in their own communities and in their own language. This new initiative will empower women to resolve problems in the workplace, resulting in improved employment prospects and economic stability, as well as potentially producing far-reaching changes in the workplace.

Impact100 brings together individual women donors who pool their $1,000 contributions to provide high-impact grants to lesser-known organizations that ordinarily do not have access to funding on a large scale. Representing the combined giving of 328 women, the $328,000 total grant funding in 2014 is a 15% increase over 2013.

This year, an initial pool of 154 nonprofit applicants submitted letters of inquiry and 49 of these were invited to submit full proposals. Following a detailed review of the proposals, including site visits to 25 organizations, committee volunteers selected a finalist for each focus area. “We are so pleased with the quality and commitment of each of our five finalists” said Co-President Sue Dubow. “This is the first year, our sixth grant cycle, where we are able to award three $100,000 grants. Our impact on the region is growing each year as our grantees continue to do outstanding work in the Philadelphia area.”

In addition to collectively funding grants to charitable initiatives, Impact100 aims to both educate and engage women in grassroots philanthropy. According to Co- President Jacquie Stern, “Impact100 helps donors feel connected to their giving in a meaningful way. Our process engages women in the issues facing our community and helps them stay informed and educated in order to leverage their donations most effectively.”

Last year, Impact100 Philadelphia members selected five area nonprofits to receive $284,000 in funding: two $100,000 project grants to the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia and Urban Tree Connections as well as $4,500 in operating grants to both organizations. Operating grants of $25,000 each went to Commonwealth YouthChoirs, Community Learning Center and Rebuilding Together Philadelphia.

The full list of this year's grant recipients included:

$100,000 Project Grant Recipients

• ArtWell, Art of Growing Leaders  (Arts and Culture),  www.theartwell.org
• Friends of Farmworkers, Voces de Trabajadoras/Voices of Women at Work (Family), www.friendsfw.org
• Neighborhood Bike Works, Freedom to Ride (Environment), www.neighborhoodbikeworks.org

$14,000 Unrestricted Grant Recipients

• HAIS Pennsylvania (Education), www.hiaspa.org
• Women’s Therapy Center (Health and Wellness), www.womenstherapycenter.org.

More information about all five grant recipients can be found on the Impact100 Philadelphia website.