How to Build a Nonprofit

He started with the idea of leveraging the growing gaming industry as a pathway out of poverty and towards a creative, meaningful career for youth, and, with Game Heads, has achieved extraordinary success.  In this episode, host Jordan Thierry interviews the visionary behind GameHeads, Damon Packwood, as he shares his journey from growing up in San Francisco to founding a groundbreaking organizati...

When we talk about racial justice organizing, I think we often imagine this work happening in major urban centers with storied movement histories, like Chicago, Oakland, and Jackson, Mississippi. But as cities have changed over the last two decades due to gentrification and shifting job markets, suburbs are now the most diverse areas in the U.S.  So, what does racial justice organizing look like i...

Travel can be more than indulging in plain wanderlust. It can open your eyes to a foreign reality, to see yourself in a different light, and to recognize place-based social constructs that may have been unknowingly influencing your thoughts and beliefs.  For Bianca Nelson, it’s these travel effects that she wants to improve the lives of Baltimore youth. And it’s why she founded her organization, L...

Rachel Johnson-Farias has dedicated her legal career to making the law more accessible to  low-income people and communities of color. Rachel graduated with honors from Occidental College and obtained a B.A. in Critical Theory and Social Justice. She went on to earn her Juris Doctor degree from U.C. Berkeley, School of Law.  But after finishing her law degree, she encountered major roadblocks at t...

Jackson Cooper is making his mark on the world of fundraising and philanthropy. He has been a fundraiser throughout his entire career, starting by sealing mail envelopes with donor acknowledgement letters inside as a volunteer for an organization he loved. Today, he is a well-established leader in philanthropy, arts and culture, and nonprofit leadership. In this episode, we kick off the last of a...

Jackson Cooper is making his mark on the world of fundraising and philanthropy. He has been a fundraiser throughout his entire career, starting by sealing mail envelopes with donor acknowledgement letters inside as a volunteer for an organization he loved. Today, he is a well-established leader in philanthropy, arts and culture, and nonprofit leadership. In this episode, we kick off the first of a...

Meet the man who is leading Africa’s youth movement for land access.  Young people and women are often excluded from accessing land in Africa. This is a huge problem - and an opportunity - for its future, as 60% of Africa’s population is under the age of 25.  Innocent Antoine HOUEDJI attended a mega-conference about land in Africa in 2019, but saw barely any mention of youth. There, he explains, t...

Devon has dedicated his career to helping men who have been controlling and abusive. Finding himself in the San Francisco County Jail many years ago, facing six months of incarceration and multiple charges, he knew he needed to make a change -- and if he didn’t, he could lose everything.  And so begins his journey for taking responsibility for the harm he caused and understanding his past behavior...

MIireya Reith is a force to be reckoned with. Her astounding accomplishments throughout her still-young career are only a hint of the profound devotion she has for upholding immigrant rights, dignity, and inclusion. In this episode, she shares with Jordan how Arkansas United became a movement home for DREAMERs, their families, and the Latino immigrant community across the state. She also shares th...

Dr. Chandler Hoffman is new to the nonprofit game. As a psychologist, he’s spent over three decades helping families, children, and separating parents navigate the changes in their lives and find health and healing along the way. But he knows that difficult times such as these can’t be dealt with in isolation or through weekly appointments with a therapist alone. People need friends. Tribes. A sen...

Patricia Ashanti has a vision that won't quit. After a financial mistake at McDonald's opened her eyes to the economic exploitation happening in her community, she spent over a decade building something powerful in the Arkansas Delta. Since founding Delta Circles in 2013, she's taught financial literacy to hundreds of families, secured a 20-acre school campus for 50 years at no cost, and created a...

Stacey Borden has a lot to say. After years stuck in a cycle of addiction and incarceration as a result of unaddressed childhood trauma, she’s making up for lost time. Since she began on this pathway in 2008, she’s helped people from her community overturn wrongful convictions through participatory defense, created a safe place for them to live and transition back into the community after their in...

Pastor Keith Davis is a man of many passions and talents who just can’t let himself stop working. In this interview, he shares with Jordan some of the early influences that sparked his fascination with technology, his profound faith, and his dedication to social justice. He also reveals the strategies that helped the Camden Dream Center grow from zero staff and no budget to a seven-figure organiza...