Jan 2012: The High Impact Program for this year will kick-off in the spring. Please check back here in early March for program dates and important deadlines.

Please note: Due to the devastating Tohoku Earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011, the NVIDIA Foundation has decided to donate funds from the High Impact Grant Program to support children who have been orphaned and displaced by the earthquake. We look forward to receiving High Impact Grant applications in 2012.

What could you do with $50,000? Could you create lasting impact for the people you serve? Could you transform how you run your organization for the better?

Each spring, we ask NVIDIA employees to introduce us to the organizations about which they’re most passionate. A committee of reviewers finds the best submissions and then we invite every employee to vote for the organization he/she believes is having transformative impact in the community.

We are pleased to announce the recipients of NVIDIA’s 2010 High Impact Grant Program:

- Making a Difference for Good – Cambodia
- Breakthrough Silicon Valley – California
- Hrudaya Foundation – India
- Engineers without Borders - Haiti

What is transformative impact?

• Increased and sustainable impact on the recipient
• Transforming the process of how an organization gets to its final goal

Our 2010 program starts March 4 and recipients will be announced in mid-July.

• March 4 - Program starts
• April 22 - Application deadline. Must be received by Silicon Valley Community Foundation by 5:00pm Pacific time. Download the application and budget template.
• May - June - Finalists are selected by employee Review Team and recipients are selected by all-employee voting process
• Mid-July - Recipients announced

How it Works

1. Organization completes the application and budget template and submits it to an NVIDIA employee who will add their testimonial and submit it to Silicon Valley Community Foundation on behalf of the NVIDIA Foundation.

2. NVIDIA employee Review Team will review all applications and measure against a set of criteria. Ten of the strongest applicants from all over the world will be selected as finalists.

Please Note: Preference is given to organizations located in regions where we have a physical office location but applicants outside these locations will be considered.

3. Every NVIDIA employee will have a chance to learn about and vote on the 10 finalists. The four finalists that receive the most votes will receive a grant of $50,000. Grantees will follow up with NVIDIA over the course of the program by completing a mid-year progress and final assessment report.

To Get Started

1. Fill out the application and budget template. Read the submission criteria carefully and please do not submit any documents that we don’t ask for.

2. Ask an NVIDIA employee to submit for you. We’ll only accept applications from employees. Employees will have an opportunity to write a brief paragraph in support of your organization and its impact. Encourage them to complete this section.

3. The NVIDIA employee will submit the application to the NVIDIA Foundation (deadline April 22, 2010) by email to corporategrants@siliconvalleycf.org.

4. You will be notified when we receive your application. Please note we will not be able to provide you with a status report during the review process. All organizations will be notified in July as to whether their application was funded. If you are a finalist, you will be notified in early June.

What types of organizations can submit?
Guided by the annual employee survey, applications from organizations that focus on K-12 (primary, childhood) education, youth programs, medical research, environment and health and human services will be considered. For examples, see a description of last year’s winners below.

The following types of organizations are ineligible and will not be considered:

• Individuals or individual school programs
• Religious organizations (unless they can prove they are serving a secular audience)
• Political organizations
• Military organizations (programs for veterans who are home are accepted)
• Organizations that discriminate based on sex, race, religion, disabilities, or political views

If you have any questions about the program, please contact corporategrants@siliconvalleycf.org

2009 High Impact Grant Program Recipients

• Friends of Hue (Vietnam) – www.friendsofhue.org
• Of a recent sample of 12,000 children in the poor communities of Central Vietnam, nearly 80% had a parasitic disease, and 26% were diagnosed with an infectious eye disease that could eventually cause blindness. These diseases run rampant in school-aged children and it’s been proven that simple education and awareness can radically reduce illness and improve the long term health of these youth. The NVIDIA Foundation grant was to create a peer education program – essentially, educate 30 teenaged children in a specific region about simple disease prevention measures and leverage those children to reach an additional 3,000 – 4,000 youth. Students would be taught about hand washing, personal hygiene, how to handle human waste and trash, and given cleaning supplies and educational literature.

• Philip Hayden Foundation (China) – www.chinaorphans.org
• Children in China who have been abandoned due to special needs are rescued through the Philip Hayden Foundation. The Foundation provides healthcare and education to these children while actively working to find homes for them in China and abroad. They provide surgeries to help with special needs and offer physical and occupational therapy, all within a supportive environment that feels like a real home. NVIDIA Foundation’s investment would support the Foundation’s school near Beijing and provide equipment to improve the classrooms and make teaching materials available.

• Room to Read (India) – www.roomtoread.org
• Given that India’s youth literacy rate is currently at 82%, there is a great opportunity to provide education to impoverished children and empower them to improve socioeconomic conditions for their families, communities, countries, and future generations. Room to Read provides this opportunity through the development of libraries, book publishing, girl-child education and by building schools. The NVIDIA Foundation grant will fund the design and printing of 5,000 copies of two colorful, culturally relevant and age appropriate books in Hindi and English to be distributed to young boys and girls who visit Room to Read libraries in India. Because they’re being placed in a library setting, each of the 10,000 books will be read more than once, allowing greater impact for our grant investment.

• Shared Adventures (US) – www.sharedadventures.org
• Offering opportunities for social and recreational interaction for disabled people encourages their personal growth and self-confidence, while improving their quality of life and level of happiness. Shared Adventures provides life-enriching recreational and social activities such as arts and outdoor recreation, for people with special needs. NVIDIA Foundaton’s investment would support two events: Day on the Beach, an event that allows 200 disabled participants to experiment with kayaking, outrigger canoeing, SCUBA diving, and beach wheelchairs; and Day in the Sky, where 150 challenged and terminally ill young people experience a series of unique aviation experiences, such as receiving a ride in a small plane and taking the aircraft controls for short periods during the flight to experience this sense of empowerment.

• SOAR (China and Taiwan) – www.soaronline.org
• In parts of rural China and Taiwan, children whose parents can’t afford to pay for school are resigned to a life of poverty and manual labor. These poor yet academically deserving students now have an opportunity to stay in school and succeed thanks to the SOAR program. Just $100 will keep a junior high school student in school for one year, and $300 will help a senior high school student. NVIDIA Foundation’s investment would help approximately 150 students achieve academic success and come that much closer to a bright future.