Leave Your Mark 2023 Winners Update

As IMG’s eighth annual Leave Your Mark initiative kicks off for 2024, the 2023 winners are excited to share how they put their winnings to use throughout the year to further their global outreach efforts.

IMG’s Leave Your Mark Grant is an annual grant opportunity for mission or social good organizations and individuals participating in a mission, volunteer, or service trip.

Applicants are asked to describe how they're working to overcome current obstacles facing the world and how this grant will help support their global outreach efforts. The applications are then judged and scored, and IMG awards the top-scoring organizations and individuals with funds to use toward their programs and projects.

We caught up with two winning organizations and several individual winners from 2023 to see how the funds from Leave Your Mark benefited their organization and the people they serve.

Village to Village

Village to Village is an organization that helps increase self-sufficiency in communities of Guatemala, Moldova, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Paraguay, and various parts of the United States. This is accomplished through a variety of initiatives such as job training, cooking classes, providing access to clean water, English classes, and more.

Village to Village’s Marketing Manager and Sponsorship Coordinator, Gentry Washburn, said a majority of their winnings from the Leave Your Mark Grant were put toward a camp they hosted in May 2024 in the U.S. for 60 newly arrived refugee children. The camp was completely free to attend, and the children were able to participate in art, cooking, and sports clinics while connecting with others.

Helping Children Worldwide

Helping Children Worldwide works to strengthen and empower children, their families, and their communities throughout the world, and one of the ways they do this is by addressing the causes of maternal mortality. In 2024, Helping Children Worldwide used their winnings from the Leave Your Mark Grant to host a training conference for nearly 100 midwives in Sierra Leone to improve the quality of services offered in maternal and newborn health.

Yasmine Vaughan, Helping Children Worldwide’s Technical Advisor for Global Health and Missions, said the conference was a tremendous success, bringing together experts, healthcare professionals, and community leaders to discuss and address the pressing issues surrounding maternal health in the region.

“On behalf of Helping Children Worldwide, I want to express our deepest gratitude for making us the recipient of the Leave Your Mark Grant you provided to support our maternal health conference in Sierra Leone,” said Vaughan. “This grant has made a significant impact on the training of healthcare professionals who will go on to impact the lives of countless mothers and their children.”

Individual Winners

Jake Nagy used his winnings toward a mission trip to Santiago de Cuba in early 2024.

“The Leave Your Mark Grant was a huge blessing to me!” said Nagy. “This trip allowed me to experience the beauty of the culture in Santiago de Cuba and the amazing work God is doing through the local churches there to serve physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.”

Richard Hayden used his winnings to give back to one of the families in the community he and his family serves in Guatemala.

“The grant that we received was used to build an addition for a family and install a stove, as this family lives in a single room house and had previously been cooking on a gas camping stove in their home,” said Hayden. “We were also able to buy them cooking pots and food. It was a true blessing to the family.”

Matt Crawford used his winnings for a service trip to Liberia in early 2024 with Hope in the Harvest Missions International. On the trip, Crawford helped teach farming courses and helped facilitate various clinics for dog vaccinations, livestock health, and eyesight where they prescribed and provided free eyeglasses to residents in nearby towns and villages.

“The Leave Your Mark Grant money from IMG aided in making a number of agriculture and humanitarian efforts happen on the trip,” said Crawford. “Thanks for partnering with me and Hope in the Harvest Missions International!”

2024 Leave Your Mark Grant

IMG is accepting both written essay or video applications for the 2024 Leave Your Mark Grant, where two organizations will be granted $3,500 each and three individuals will be granted $1,000 each. Essays should be approximately 500 words, and videos should be approximately three minutes in length.

Submissions should answer the following questions:

• Organizations: How is your organization working to overcome the current obstacles impacting the world? How would this grant support your continued global outreach efforts?
• Individuals: Explain why this mission, volunteer, or service trip is important to you. How will this grant support you and your global outreach efforts?

IMG has insured mission and social good organizations since the early 1990s, providing key benefits and assistance services for thousands of members who travel or live internationally with the purpose of serving others. The company launched its Leave Your Mark program on June 1, 2017, as a way to give back to organizations serving charitable missions.

To learn more about the grant and to apply, please visit the Leave Your Mark page.