The Lehrman Foundation is increasingly aware of the many programmatic and financial challenges non-profits face as they evolve. In that spirit, in 2001 the Foundation created the $25,000 annual Impact Award to support an outstanding emerging non-profit organization that is making an extraordinary difference in the city.
- 2009 Impact Award – Words Beats & Life
The Ninth Annual Impact Award recipient is Words Beats & Life. Words Beats & Life (WBL) is a youth-development organization that transforms individual lives and whole communities through the elements of hip-hop culture. The DC Urban Arts Academy is WBL's anchor program. It provides comprehensive arts-based educational activities for hundreds of DC underserved youth and their families during after school hours and during the summer. WBL serves kids city-wide, with an emphasis on Ward 7 (at Benning Park Recreation Center) and Ward 1 (at St. Stephens Church in Columbia Heights). WBL helps youth connect Hip-Hop to real-life skills: emceeing helps with public speaking, building vocabulary and presentation skills; DJing is connected to technology and engineering; and, visual arts are used to paint murals and beautify the neighborhood. 
- 2008 Impact Award – Interstages
The Eighth Annual Impact Award recipient is Interstages, a community youth organization, founded in 2005. Interstages provides opportunities for early adolescent girls in low-income neighborhoods to discover talents, develop and strengthen skills, and heighten self awareness, setting the stage for a successful transition into young adulthood. To fulfill this mission, Interstages operates a small and very intensive daily afterschool youth development program for middle school girls. Using a unique educational coaching curriculum which allows students to take ownership of their learning, Interstages helps each student create and implement detailed academic plans. With a maximum ratio of seven students per adult, Interstages ensures that each girl receives personalized assistance as she works toward her vision of success. In addition, at Interstages, students study music in historical and cultural context so they begin to connect to history and view music as both a social indicator and a tool for social change. Each unique curriculum unit integrates a wide range of academic content and incorporates music skills and experiences, including vocal technique, performing, guest artist workshops, reading music, composition, ear training and interactive field trips. 
- 2007 Impact Award – Kid Power DC
The Seventh Annual Impact Award recipient is Kid Power DC (KPDC), a community youth organization, founded in 2003. KPDC explores local history through academic, artistic and civic engagement programs. KPDC began direct educational programs at Miner Elementary School in Northeast DC in October 2003, and currently organizes educational activities at several sites around the city for 120 students. Working with an eight-member program team, a variety of long-term partners, and over 200 volunteers, the students explore local history through comprehensive programs which include: advanced reading and civics instruction; performing and visual art activities; inter-generational and neighborhood service projects; a youth leadership and social entrepreneurship program; a full-service summer camp; and regional and international service trips. KPDC is expanding the scope of its projects, most notably in the area of middle school education. KPDC has established many strong community partnerships, including unique and successful relationships with Edmund Burke and Georgetown Day School. 
Kid Power DC receiving
the 2007 Impact Award - 2006 Impact Award – Facilitating Youth in Leadership
The Sixth Annual Impact Award recipient is Facilitating Youth in Leadership (FLY) a youth development organization which began in 1999. At that time, three American University (AU) students got to know young people from the Barry Farms public housing community, a very distressed neighborhood in Southeast DC. Incorporated in 2002, FLY is the only long-term, free, youth-led program working in Southeast. FLY serves its students in three distinct but related areas: academic achievement, youth development, and leadership. FLY has a unique and extremely strong partnership with AU, whereby each FLY student receives free one-on-one tutoring with an AU student during the school year as well as participation in a seven-week summer camp and teen leadership program held on AU's campus. In addition, each FLY participant and his/her family receives assistance with education decisions and opportunities, as well as extracurricular after-school programs. FLY has demonstrated success by creating a support network and facilitating communication among parents, teachers, volunteers and youth. 
- 2005 Impact Award – Brainfood
The Fifth Annual Impact Award recipient is Brainfood a youth development organization founded in 1999 that uses food creatively to teach life skills to low-income DC public high school students. Through fun, culinary-related activities, in addition to acquiring critical knowledge about food preparation, budgeting and nutrition, Brainfood participants gain self-esteem and a real sense of empowerment and control over their circumstances and community. While providing a safe, stimulating and nurturing environment for all the participants (who come primarily from Mr. Pleasant, Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan and Shaw neighborhoods), the positive impact Brainfood has had on some of the youth is immeasurable, raising their level of expectations and consequently, enabling them to make sound decisions and pursue opportunities they otherwise would have viewed as beyond their reach. 
- 2004 Impact Award – DC Writers Corps
The Fourth Annual Impact Award recipient is DC Writers Corps a city-wide literary arts program that helps participants develop their expressive powers, build literacy skills and widen their cultural horizons. Beginning in 1994 as a collaboration between the National Endowment for the Humanities and AmeriCorps, DC Writers Corps formally incorporated in 2002 and now works with all twelve public middle and junior high schools in the District. The Corps empowers young people through in-school workshops, a Youth Poetry Slam League, 2kNation Radio project, and the Youth Development Corps. Recognizing that not everyone will be a great writer, but all youth can use writing as a tool to greatly enhance their opportunity for academic, professional and personal success, DC Writers Corps strengthens the voices of kids and evokes them to the power and passion of their own words. 
- 2003 Impact Award – Life Pieces to Masterpieces
The Third Annual Impact Award recipient is Life Pieces to Masterpieces (LPTM), an organization located in Southeast DC which provides artistic inspiration to young African American males living in public housing projects. At Life Pieces, 40 "apprentices" use paint, storytelling, rap and poetry to make something of great beauty our of their lives, which are often plagued by poverty, extremely difficult home-lives, and substance abuse. Founded in 1996, the group took its name from the unique style of art its members collectively create – painting canvas, cutting it into various shapes, and sewing the pieces together to tell real life stories, building self-esteem and leadership in the process. Combining arts instructions with human development, LPTM's energy is contagious, its art work stunning, and its accomplishments extraordinary. 
- 2002 Impact Award – Sitar Arts Center
The Second Annual Impact Award recipient is the Sitar Arts Center, an organization based in the heart of Adams Morgan that focuses on programs and activities for at-risk children, youth and their families, but also reaches out to all community members through shared experiences in the arts. By providing a safe, structured and nurturing environment for exploring music, dance, drama, writing and visual arts, the Sitar Center serves as a catalyst not only for the imagination, but for increasing the cognitive and life-skills of all participating DC members. 
Sitar Arts Center
receiving the 2002 Impact Award - 2001 Impact Award – Operation Understanding D.C.
The First Annual Impact Award recipient is Operation Understanding D.C. (OUDC), an organization based in the District of Columbia that rebuilds the historic and once-effective alliance between African Americans and Jews. By working directly with the youth – tomorrow's leaders in both communities – Operation Understanding is achieving its goals of dispelling stereotypes and promoting mutual respect, dialogue, cooperation and understanding. OUDC is building a future generation of Jews and Blacks working together to fight racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination. 
Operation Understanding D.C.
receiving the 2001 Impact Award