IMPACT100 Sydney North is a collective giving circle that is part of the global IMPACT100 movement, the group brings together a community of generous, values-driven members who each contribute annually to fund grassroots organisations.
What sets IMPACT100 Sydney North apart is its strong sense of community and local connection. Members don’t just give together - they learn, celebrate, and build lasting relationships around shared purpose. While the grants themselves have channelled nearly $1.4 million to local organisations, the true impact lies in the quieter ripple effects: deeper engagement with charities, expanded networks of care, and a growing culture of collective generosity across Sydney’s North.
“Every giving circle has its own culture, and ours has a very strong community feel,” says founder Tina Jackson. “I’ve always believed that Sydney, with a population of around 5.5 million, can support many more local giving circles - I’d love to see them flourish.”
Tina Jackson:
IMPACT100 Sydney North is part of a worldwide movement, Impact100, which was founded in 2001 by Wendy Steele in Cincinnati. Wendy had the simple idea of bringing together 100 friends and colleagues and asking them to contribute $1,000 each to support people lacking basic necessities such as healthcare, education, and shelter. This place-based community model caught on and spread across the United States, and then to the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. There are now more than 80 Impact100 chapters around the world, which have collectively given away US$178 million over the past 24 years.
Impact100 came to Australia in 2012, with the first chapter launched in Western Australia before spreading to other states. A group of us kicked off the first Sydney Impact100 group in 2015. I was involved in many local activities — clubs, schools, and community groups — and friends suggested we create an even more localised Impact group. We held an information night at Mosman Art Gallery, our local gallery, and by Christmas 2016 we had 50 members. We officially launched IMPACT100 Sydney North in March 2017 as a sub-fund of the Australian Communities Foundation and haven’t looked back. We’ve just completed our ninth year of collective giving.
Tina Jackson:
IMPACT100 Sydney North is made up of an extraordinary community of passionate, compassionate, and generous like-minded people. Membership involves a minimum donation of $1,000, which is pooled and granted to local grassroots organisations. We also have a Next Gen membership of $500, and everyone gets one vote, regardless of how much they give.
When we started out, our focus was young people at risk. We later expanded to include children and families, and as we head into our 10th year, we’re broadening this further to children, youth, and people at risk. There are two reasons for this: we want to encourage more applications, and we want to shine a light on more local charities. Over the years, we’ve funded causes spanning refugees, domestic violence, women’s shelters, mental health, children’s services, gender diversity, Indigenous issues, food insecurity, homelessness, addiction, and modern-day slavery.
Our funding process has also evolved. Initially, our grants were project-based, but now we trust that our grant recipients know best how to spend the funds. We’ve simplified our processes to minimise the demands placed on applicants. During COVID, we moved to online site visits, which was a game changer. It means an unlimited number of members can attend site visits, while reducing the time required from charities and allowing them to focus on their vital work. Another exciting development is that more members are now involved in shortlisting. As people hear how rewarding the process is, participation has grown, and today around a third of our members are involved in reviewing and evaluating applications.
That said, some things remain the same. Each year we hold a celebration to mark the end of the granting cycle. Our four finalists, selected by the assessment team, present to the full membership, who then vote for the $100,000 primary grant recipient. This tradition has become an integral part of our culture. Importantly, we remain 100% volunteer-run, which means 100% of member donations go directly to grants. We distribute all funds each year and start afresh.
Tina Jackson:
Our membership demographic is mostly local, the majority women, but we also have a lot of good men involved. One thing we didn’t anticipate at the start was how much members on their own philanthropy journeys would value being part of the group — learning about charities they might not otherwise encounter, and in some cases becoming deeply involved with them. Our members give in a lot of different ways, for example volunteering, providing pro bono advice and recently two of our members set up their own giving funds. These ripple effects continue to be far greater than we ever could have imagined – it’s why the ripple symbol features in our logo.
Tina Jackson:
Impact100 Sydney North has given nearly $1.4 million in grants since launching in 2017. In 2025, we set a record with $90,000 in additional donations, allowing our three runner-up finalists to each receive $30,000, in addition to $100,000 for our Primary Grant recipient. While the grants themselves are significant, they are just the tip of the iceberg - the quiet little ripples that follow are often the most impactful.
Tina Jackson:
When people come to me for advice about starting a giving circle, I always say: if you’ve got a group of people who are keen and willing to help, just go for it. Being local and having a hyper-local focus really helps. Many of us live close to each other, we meet in one another’s homes, and everyone pitches in with catering. There are lots of families involved — for example, two of our younger members recently got engaged, and there was a big shout-out and round of applause at our last grant celebration. We have a lot of fun.
People really enjoy the experience of giving together. They want to find their tribe. They want to make a difference, but they also want to learn. One of our mantras, which we adapted from the Australian Communities Foundation, is: Together we can give more, learn more, and change more. Being with like-minded people who share the same values — that’s the glue that holds local giving circles together.
Tina Jackson:
Our immediate ambition is to make our 10th year a big one. We have a small group working on how to mark the milestone, with some innovative ideas alongside practical plans like refreshing the website. We’re using the anniversary as an opportunity to strengthen what we’ve already built. At the same time, our focus remains on continual evolution — making sure our processes work for applicants and genuinely support charities. We’re very conscious that we exist to help organisations doing the real work, and that means being a help, not a hindrance. Keeping things simple is central to that. We want to grow our membership, particularly among younger people, and expand the range of charities and social enterprises we support.
