2024 will mark Impact100 Traverse City's biggest contribution yet to the northern Michigan community, the organization announced on Wednesday.

Last fall, the local Impact100 chapter distributed $339,000 in grants. This year, the number will leap to $348,000, thanks to the organization’s growing number of members. Actual grant recipients will be announced in the fall.

Formed in 2017, Impact100 Traverse City is a group of 348 local women (and counting) who each donate $1,000 annually to a grant pool and then help select the recipients by way of a ranked choice ballot. Last year, the organization had 339 members. This year, the count is up to 348.

That growth will mean bigger gifts for grant recipients. In 2023, Impact100 Traverse City distributed $113,000 apiece to three area nonprofits: United Way of Northwest Michigan, Freedom Builders of America, and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library GTR. This year, three grants of $116,000 are up for grabs. The application window for those grants is officially open as of April 25, with Impact100 Traverse City accepting funding requests in five focus area: arts and culture, education, environment and recreation, health and wellness, and family. The application window closes on May 24.

According to Lindsay Raymond, president of Impact100 Traverse City, this year’s gifts will “bring our total award given out to nonprofits in this five-county region to over $2.4 million in just eight years.”

Looking beyond this year’s grant cycle, the local Impact100 chapter is eyeing a big goal for next year: growing its membership to at least 400 women “by the 2025 membership deadline.” Per a press release, hitting that 400-person milestone would allow the Traverse City chapter to expand its program to four annual grants rather than three. Membership is open to any woman living in the five-county region, which includes Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau.

Pictured: The women of Impact100 Traverse City announce their 2024 grant total during an event held at the Traverse City Opera House on Wednesday evening.