10,000 Degrees program gets $100,000 grant

Impact100 Sonoma recently awarded its $100,000 Impact Grant to the 10,000 Degrees program to expand its college-access program for under-served students in Sonoma Valley.

The women’s philanthropic group awarded more than $280,000 in grants to Sonoma Valley nonprofits during its seventh annual grants awards celebration.

Impact Grant finalists received $20,000 each: Becoming Independent for its Pioneering Innovative Model to Benefit Sonoma Valley program; Pets Lifeline for its mobile pet adoption program; and Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance for its THRIVE program - The Heart’s Resilience is a Victorious Experience.

Community Grants of $15,000 each were awarded to Ceres Community Project, Friends in Sonoma Helping (FISH), La Luz Center, Pets Lifeline, Redwood Empire Food Bank, Teen Services Sonoma and Vintage House. Sonoma Community Center received a $10,000 Community Grant and $2,316 each went to Sonoma Ecology Center, Sonoma Valley Education Foundation and Verity.

Impact100 Sonoma members Amy Rassen, Cathy Gorham, Diana Sanson and Lynne Lancaster spent five months reviewing grant applications and narrowing the field to 22 finalists for Community Grants and the four Impact Grant finalists.

They were aided by more than 90 committee members, chaired by Karen Roche, Ann Iverson, Cameron McKinley, Robin Layton, Kathleen Leonard, Lisa Lilienthal, Claudia Sims, Meg Sokoloski and Judith Walsh.

The grants represent $1,000 donations from each of the 276 Impact100 Sonoma members. Unspent grant funds from last year added to the total; the recipients were decided by a vote of the membership.

The organization has raised $1,468,000 for Sonoma Valley nonprofits since it was founded in 2009.

New members are welcome.

For more information, visit impact100sonoma.org or call 939-5007.