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Impact 100 Greater Indianapolis is pleased to announce the five nonprofit organizations who have been selected this year as finalists from our focus area committees. On June 12, 2008, Impact 100 Greater Indianapolis members will hear presentations and vote to determine the two recipients of this year's $104,000 grants. The five finalists and a summary of their programs are highlighted below:

Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA) - Connecting Everyday + Art

iMOCA brings contemporary exhibitions and programs in a wide array of mediums, including video/film, sculpture and canvas to the community. Their Connecting Everyday + Art program is three fold: 1) a collaborative project with Indianapolis Marion County Public Library and Indianapolis Opera to present literary, theatrical and artistic interpretations of Hansel and Gretel at the library for elementary age children; 2) the launch of iMOCA Editions, an online store to help support operations of the museum; and 3) opening of a gallery displaying cutting-edge minority and female contemporary art.

Herron High School - Arts Equipment for Education Excellence

Herron High School is a public Charter School located in downtown Indianapolis providing a classical liberal arts, college preparatory education that integrates the arts into the entire curriculum. The project Arts Equipment for Education Excellence will provide arts equipment to enable Herron HS to foster students’ latent academic potential and cultivate their passion for the arts, creating the next generation of civic leaders. Herron High School has identified specific equipment needs to effectively implement the visual and performing arts components of its curriculum, which its traditional funders are unable to support.

Hoosier Heartland Resource Conservation & Development Council, Inc. - Every Tree Counts

Hoosier Heartland seeks to plant 5,500 native hardwood trees, and install eight demonstrative rain gardens in Marion and surrounding counties through their program Every Tree Counts. The benefits of a greener environment will be shared as both the trees and rain gardens are installed to educate local residents and school-age children. Trees improve the health of the landscape and the health of people by taking in carbon dioxide emissions and giving off oxygen. Rain gardens clean up and manage the ever-increasing amount of storm water entering our drainage systems.

Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic - Helping Hoosier Homeowners

Every time a home goes into foreclosure, the impact is felt in the entire neighborhood by slashing nearby property values and neighborhood safety, and uprooting of a family from its community and schools. The Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic's (NCLC) Helping Hoosier Homeowners project focuses on one of the central crises facing the poor in central Indiana: the risk of losing family homes due to foreclosure. NCLC's paid and volunteer lawyers and housing counselors will work with central Indiana families to prevent foreclosure and save Hoosier homes, through both crisis response and prevention strategies. This program will allow NCLC to accept up to 600 more foreclosure cases and counsel 600 families in the coming year.

Horizon House – Engagement Team Project

Horizon House offers comprehensive services to homeless individuals, including day shelter, mail-pick-up, showers, laundry, employment training, case management, legal counseling and referrals to more than 80 local agencies. Horizon House’s program is designed to restructure their operations to implement a new Engagement Team approach to serve the homeless more effectively and to better align their services with the Indianapolis Blueprint to End Homelessness. The Engagement Team Project would utilize a collaborative, specialized team approach that would give the homeless access to a greater number of services in a more timely manner, thus reducing the length of time they are homeless and increasing their chances for long term success.