This year our members donated a total of $159,465, meaning our 2025 grants for these amazing organizations will be $38,000 for Impact Grants, and $15,155 for Investment Grants. Thank you all for your generosity in 2025!
We are excited to share the six finalists selected by our three grant committees for our 2025 grant cycle. As it is each year, the visits to the twelve semi-finalists were incredibly moving and made selection of finalists very difficult, but we believe that as you learn about our finalists you will see why they rose to the top.
This year our get-to-know the finalists will happen in two parts. Pre-recorded three- to five-minute videos will describe each organization’s overall mission and impact on the community. These videos will be distributed to all 2025 members by mid-February so that members can get familiar with the organizations before the March voting event.
At our Annual Dinner–this year the first Saturday of March at the San Jose Woman’s Club–each organization will give a live five-minute presentation that will be focused on the project or program for which they applied for a grant, and will detail how our grant monies would be used. Voting will be available, both live at the event or online, after the presentations.
Our six finalists, in alphabetical order, are:
Ada’s Cafe – Ada’s Cafe is a 501(c)(3) non-profit cafe that creates daily training and career opportunities for adults with disabilities and the neurodiverse. Working alongside chefs, managers, and line cooks, mission-based employees play critical roles in Ada’s highly-rated social enterprise while gaining experience in food and coffee service and retail best practices. With an unemployment and underemployment rate estimated at nearly 80% for adults with intellectual disabilities, Ada’s Cafe demonstrates what this population is capable of achieving when high standards are set and proper support is in place.
Ada’s Café is opening a second location at the Los Altos Community Center on Hillview Drive, with an anticipated launch in spring 2026. Modeled on Ada’s Mitchell Park Community Center cafe in Palo Alto—where 35 adults with disabilities are currently employed—this expansion will create opportunities for new employees, provide additional hours to existing staff, and engage local high school students as paid employees or interns.
Grant Impact
A grant from the 100 Women Charitable Foundation will help fund equipment, furnishings, and start-up operating expenses for the Los Altos cafe. As a community-supported non-profit with no endowment but a strong local following since 2008, Ada’s Cafe is relying entirely on charitable contributions to develop and launch their new location.
Elevate Tutoring – Since 2011, Elevate Tutoring’s Fellowship Program has been accelerating social mobility for low-income, first-generation college students and underserved K-12 students. The Elevate Tutoring Fellowship Program bridges economic and achievement gaps on the path to-and-through college by providing training, work experience, career development, and scholarships to low-income, first-generation college students. These Tutor Fellows volunteer as mentors and tutors for students in local K-12 schools, addressing the growing need for targeted, high impact STEM instruction for K–12 students attending under-resourced schools. Elevate’s unique model equips students from disadvantaged backgrounds to excel academically, strengthen mentoring relationships, enhance their leadership capabilities and pursue meaningful careers.
Grant Impact:
A grant from 100 Women will allow Elevate to expand the Tutoring Fellowship Program by providing financial scholarships, mentoring, professional development, coaching, and employment support to additional low-income, first generation students. Additionally, this grant will support expanded STEM tutoring for socioeconomically disadvantaged K–12 students attending under-resourced schools, providing more students with the tools to discover their potential, transform their futures, and inspire the next generation.
Family Supportive Housing – Family Supportive Housing (FSH) began in 1986 with a mission to keep families experiencing homelessness together while providing food, shelter, employment support, and education. The organization addresses homelessness through prevention, interim and permanent housing, and ongoing supportive services that reduce the risk of returning to homelessness. Each program offers coordinated support that breaks down the cycle of homelessness: Sense of Community/Belonging; Social and Emotional Support; Self-Sufficiency Knowledge; Access to Holistic Care; Safe Space. These elements help families move from crisis toward long-term stability and self-sufficiency.
Many families arrive with unaddressed trauma, anxiety, and depression, and children often struggle with behavior and concentration in school. While the Healthy Families Program offers health referrals and wellness planning, urgent mental health needs persist.
Grant Impact
A grant from the 100 Women Foundation would fund an onsite licensed therapist four times a month for targeted individual adult therapy, youth-specific sessions for children/teens, and monthly therapeutic group sessions for parents. This service would remove transportation and stigma barriers, offer timely, trauma-informed counseling, and strengthen the families’ emotional resilience.
Heart of the Valley Services for Seniors – For 38 years, Heart of the Valley has stood beside some of the most vulnerable seniors in Santa Clara County—people who want nothing more than to remain in the homes where they built their lives yet now face aging largely alone. Half of the seniors they serve are over 80; most are women, widowed, and without family support. Heart of the Valley’s deeply human mission is simple: to protect the independence, well-being, and quality of life of disadvantaged seniors who want to remain in their homes.
Heart of the Valley’s volunteers—neighbors helping neighbors— ensure no senior feels forgotten. They do the work seniors may not be able to alone and provide the kind of unhurried conversation that restores companionship and dignity. Every volunteer is thoroughly vetted and matched to meaningful tasks, creating trust and real human connection.
Grant Impact:
A 100 women grant will allow Heart of the Valley to hire a Volunteer Coordinator to transform and strengthen their outreach, education, and data tracking of volunteer’s efforts, and help address their backlog of client requests. In turn, this will allow Heart of the Valley to connect more volunteers with seniors who urgently need help; respond more quickly to critical requests; and expand reach to elders who are slipping through the cracks.
Hope’s Corner – Since 2011, Hope’s Corner has been a lifeline for unhoused and food-insecure individuals, providing not just a meal but hope, connection and dignity. Anyone in need can access nutritious meals, warm showers, and laundry services in a welcoming environment where everyone is treated with respect. Hope’s Corner, located at the corner of Hope and Mercy Streets in Mountain View, also distributes and repairs bicycles and partners with local agencies to provide flu shots, free haircuts, and housing assistance.
More than 1,000 volunteers contribute 12,500 hours of service annually. On Saturdays, volunteers sit and eat with guests — a simple act that breaks down social barriers and restores dignity. Thirty-four percent of guests are over the age of 60, underscoring the growing crisis of food insecurity among older adults in Silicon Valley.
Grant Impact
A grant from 100 Women will directly support Hope’s Corner’s Healthy Food for Hope program, which provides hot breakfasts and nutritious lunches. Every dollar contributed helps Hope’s Corner fill empty stomachs, lift spirits, and rebuild lives. Supporting this program helps ensure that everyone — especially vulnerable seniors and people living without shelter — has access not just to food, but to hope, compassion, and community.
San Jose Public Library Foundation – The mission of the San José Public Library Foundation (SJPLF) is to support free educational programs and resources through the public library, schools, and community-based organizations, to create an educated, equitable, empowered, and engaged community.
The Resilience Corps program was created in 2021 to serve low-income adults (ages 18-30) by providing opportunities to address economic and equity challenges. The program, administered by the San José Public Library and the San José Public Library Foundation, empowers young adults with meaningful, career-building experiences in direct service roles at the SJ Public Library and partner community organizations. To date, 309 young adults have participated in the program with a 99% completion rate.
Grant Impact A grant from 100 Women will support the expansion of this program to computer science, information technology, and digital skills – an urgently needed focus in our area. It will give the young adults the full potential looking to enter a thriving industry in our region. This effort will strengthen pathways into STEAM fields while increasing diversity and inclusion in high-demand industries.
