ABOUT US

Our mission

As members of Girls Giving Grants, we will make decisions using our heads and our hearts as we fund projects benefiting youth in the greater Austin area. We will educate ourselves on the needs in our community, while developing critical-thinking skills that will make us lifelong philanthropists. We will be empowered with the knowledge that we can make a difference

Our beliefs and values

We believe simple is better

We have total ownership of the process and decision making

We want to make a difference on a local level

How we work

Each member of Girls Giving Grants contributes an annual donation of $100. We then combine all of our donations and award that sum in the form of a grant to a local nonprofit that we select. The only membership requirements are to be female, in grades 8th-12th and to donate $100 each year. All of the $100 donations go to the grant. Separate funds are raised to cover administrative expenses. We are committed to running Girls Giving Grants like a business by keeping our total overhead costs to 10% or less of annual members’ donations. According to a recent study, average marketing costs alone in the nonprofit sector are 18%.

Through our cooperative giving model, we are able to give more as a group than we could as individuals. Together, we can really make a big difference. Our grants will go to fund specific programs that directly touch and benefit the youth of our community.

Our grant application due diligence process is designed to help us learn about needs in our community and the nonprofits that serve those needs. As we review grant applications, we learn how to assess the capabilities and credibility of nonprofits, and how to evaluate proposed projects for feasibility, sustainability and importance to the community. After we have conducted our due diligence review and conducted site visits of our finalists, each Girls Giving Grant member gets one vote in choosing which charity will receive our grant each year. We will extend our grant to the charity receiving the most votes.