Maggie Schell

Background

About Maggie Schell

Impact Grants Chicago connects, engages, and empowers women to improve our community by collectively funding grants to Chicago nonprofits that are dedicated to addressing the challenges facing our city. Impact Grants Chicago is one of more than seventy Impact 100 chapters worldwide and joins its sister chapters in embracing the local collective giving model. The model is simple. At least 100 women each give a tax-deductible donation, and together they collectively award grants in increments of to local nonprofits Our members are often amazed to learn about the many nonprofits that are confronting our city's biggest problems. More than half of our members choose to participate on committees that review grant applications and select our impressive finalists. However, we believe in designing your own experience so members can participate as little or as much as they want. Whether you just donate and vote, join a grant review committee, or attend an educational event, you still get an equal vote for the final grant recipients. In our first eight years, we have awarded over $3.9 million to deserving Chicago nonprofits. For our 2024/25 cycle, we had 442 women join, and we awarded four Impact Grants and three Merit Grants to our seven finalists at our Grant Award Ceremony on May 28, 2025. Impact Grants Chicago is a member of Impact100 Global, which has over 70 sister organizations, all using the Impact model. We are actively recruiting new members, so please visit our website and sign up for an event or a prospective member information session. ImpactGrantsChicago.org #ImpactGrantsChicago #womentransformingcommunities