The new year for AAWGT means it’s proposal evaluation season. Throughout the late winter and early spring, over 50 of our members are involved in the process of reviewing all the applications for grants that we receive. It’s an exciting job, and one of our most important.

Seasoned reviewers and new committee members are put into teams to look over each application to determine which will end up on our ballot. All members vote in May to determine which applicants will get grants.

Our process this year is new in that applications are being scored to determine how closely they align with our mission and our diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) emphasis. While we invited applications from a wide variety of organizations, we were particularly interested in receiving ones from proposals that prioritized DEI when addressing the underlying causes of hardship, such as childhood hunger, higher mortality rates, educational disparities, homelessness and mental health. We are also prioritizing proposals from organizations with annual gross receipts under $100,000.

The instructions sent to each reviewer might seem daunting. But we want to hear all voices, and be as fair as possible when assessing each application. Thus, there are many meetings and long discussions where we question and learn.

This process is collective giving at its finest! Each member’s dues payment goes into a pool allowing us to award grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. Thus, each member’s dues are multiplied many times over to make a significant impact in the nonprofit’s work.