Since 2019, the IMPACT Grant has pledged thousands of dollars in grant money to higher education institutions. This project, created by TargetX employees, seamlessly integrated into Liaison company culture as an annual employee-funded initiative. With our growing employee base, we’ve now awarded over $145,000 since 2019. All current partners and users of the CAS, Othot, TargetX, and EM solutions are eligible to apply for this grant opportunity each Spring.
To capitalize on the momentum from last year, our founder and CEO George Haddad generously offered a company match for a total of $53,971. This large total coupled with a record number of 42 grant applications allowed the IMPACT Committee to award grants to five separate institutions in 2023! Each of the IMPACT Grant recipients will use these funds to further serve and empower their students through a multitude of impactful projects. Check out their stories below!
Milwaukee School of Engineering
The mission of MSOE is to set the standard for preparing leaders to solve the diverse technical challenges of the 21st century. The Career Connections Center works to ensure all students have the same opportunities for valuable internship and career experiences, regardless of socio-economic background. Last year, the Career Connections Center created a career closet to provide students with professional clothing at no cost.
Career Closet | $5,000
MSOE will use the IMPACT grant to fill their Career Closet with professional attire and enable them to shop for students unable to find a specific size, type, or color to match their own professional items. A broader selection of attire will allow them to serve more students, helping them feel confident and empowered as they take their first professional steps at interviews, career fairs, internships, and senior design presentations.
Bishop State Community College
Bishop State Community College is a historically black college located in Mobile, Alabama, where nearly 20% of the college’s service area lives below the federal poverty level. Additionally, 65% of the Bishop State student community is female, and many of their students are trying to balance both college and parenting.
Lactation Station | $15,200
To alleviate challenges for their parenting students, Bishop State Community College plans to use the IMPACT grant to install a lactation pod, providing a private and dignified space for breastfeeding parents to express/pump their breast milk. They will also use funds to employ a credentialed lactation consultant to provide the college guidance in crafting policies to support lactating students.
SUNY Empire State University
SUNY Empire State University is located in northwestern New York. Their Empire State Office of Opportunity Programs (ESOP) serves historically underserved and/or underrepresented populations, such as first-time college students, low-income students, military and veteran students, and students of color through mentorship/coaching, specialized programming, and academic support.
Office of Opportunity Program | $10,000
SUNY Empire will use the IMPACT funds to expand ESOP offerings to include peer mentorship training and online leadership certifications; an academic success initiative to provide students with guidance accountability, and progress benchmarks; and to establish a reserve fund for student emergencies to help offset costs for materials and equipment needed for students to succeed in their courses.
University of Michigan – Flint
The University of Michigan-Flint established the Emergency Laptop Loan Program in 2020 to assist students struggling with equipment issues related to remote coursework. From November 2020 to present, the program has served nearly 100 students. Currently enrolled students can request a PC laptop, an AT&T hotspot, a headset, or a web camera to help them complete their coursework.
Emergency Laptop Loan Program | $5,771
Laptops are the most in-demand item in the program. Of 193 requests for equipment to date, 70% were for laptops. About 10% of the time, UM-Flint has no available laptops to loan. IMPACT grant funds will allow UM-Flint to purchase five additional laptops, enabling them to help more students in need. Adding these laptops will allow the program to meet all current requests.
Lurleen B. Wallace Community College
Lurleen B. Wallace Community College (LBW) in rural south-central Alabama, serves five counties with poverty rates above the national average. Through research about their students and the community they serve, LBW found psychological distress is an issue across their student body. Rural community colleges, in particular, are facing a crisis, as the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and mood disorders in higher in rural communities.
College-Wide Mental Health Initiative | $18,000
LBW will use the IMPACT grant to offer mental health counseling services to students, both in-person and virtually to remove barriers for those with disabilities of lacking transportation. Funds from this grant will enable them to offer 260 counseling sessions to their student body. Beyond the grant term, LBW plans to grow and sustain the program in partnership with local provider, Southern Counseling Group.
Information about the 2024 IMPACT Grant application cycle will be released on our website and social media in Spring of 2024. We look forward to reading your submissions!
COMING SOON: Check back here to watch the full 2023 IMPACT Grant presentation, complete with video acceptance speeches and live awards from the Liaison CAS Experience in Chicago. Above is a sneak peek of two grant recipients posing with IMPACT Committee Co-Chair, Deborah Erdner and Manager of Events, Nicole Spinosa.