Small & Gutsy: Nonprofit Stories with Heart

Visionary Women is built on the belief that women do and should empower one another through inspiration, mentorship, leadership and yes, resources; They create opportunities through multiple channels to offer engaging conversations with innovative female leaders, and fund high impact initiatives to lift up women and girls.

Theater is one of those experiences that is enhanced by the audience around us - by the reaction, by the community interaction, by the sheer feeling of having others witness what we ourselves are experiencing - it makes it all that much more real, sometimes, magical, sometimes, devastating…but always human….and always leads to a conversation about the topic of the theater production on so many lev...

The Survivor Mitzvah Project's  goal is that no Holocaust survivor who has experienced the darkest days of human history will ever be cold, hungry, or neglected again. 100% of every dollar donated for survivors goes directly into the hands of a Holocaust survivor in need. As Founder, Executive Director and Awakened Humanitarian, Zane  Buzby shares, "we cannot do anything about the past, but we are...

How many of us as children had dreams of what we'd like to be, what our work might be when we grow up. Some of us knew quite early that we'd like to be doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, teachers, park rangers, pilots, chefs, builders; maybe some of us were involved in family businesses and imagined continuing that legacy, the list of options is vast, but few of us perhaps imagined th...

SparkShare's goal is to empower young people to be the change agents in their own communities as well as in their own lives. Their 3 driving principles that guide their work are: Listening to young people articulate what holds them and their peers back from opportunity, c onnecting youth with the resources and organizations they need, so they can solve the problems they identify, a nd Building par...

StartOut is a community of LGBTQ+ founders, professionals and  their Allies with a national membership of over 17K. StartOut began in 2009 and has been the champion for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, promoting the successes of the LGBTQ community, as well as researching the economic impact of LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.

Recognizing the many challenges older adults face when beginning to experience declining physical and cognitive abilities, Michelle Puzzo and M.D. Birmingham decided to take action and founded UR Community Cares in 2019 in their home state of Connecticut. They built the UR Community Cares digital platform as a way to match those in need with those in the same community who are eager to help. UR Co...

Bright Invention, the genius output of creator, founder and Executive Director, Benjamin Lloyd uses a scenario-based technique as the foundation of this flexible and dynamic performing arts nonprofit which does three things: improvisation, corporate training, and creative work with marginalized communities.  Bright Invention has become the epitome of a growth mindset by using improvisation to empo...

For Land and People, the responsibility is in thinking about the here and now with a clear vision for the future. With an incredible team of experts leading this effort; For Land and People is determined to change the way we engage with each other, the Earth and the next generation of potential stewards, including and focusing on our disenfranchised and marginalized youth. What better way to engag...

The Wish Project's goal is to provide local people in need with basic furniture, home goods and baby items, while helping the planet by recycling used goods. In this way, individuals in pain can focus on getting the social services they need and the Wish Project is reducing our collective waste - a win-win!

Rise, Recover and Live is the mantra of a movement started by Scott Strode and a core group of team members to be a safe, sober active community of peers who support each other every day on the journey to recovery. This peer-driven movement is called the Phoenix, clearly for a reason...the beautiful image of an immortal bird that cyclically renews and rises to become a stronger, better self is an...

What do you get when, during COVID-19, you cross a group of students studying business who need internships, and small businesses who are struggling to survive with 1 really smart, hard-working entrepreneur who knows how to leverage learning with sustainability? REM and Company is a social impact initiative that is becoming an information hub!

Youth Can Change the World or at Least Your World  View In line with a true social movement and long before the days of community, political, or financial support, the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth, known more commonly as BAGLY was founded by LGBTQ+ youth. Since1980, BAGLY has operated as a youth-led, adult-supported social support organization, committed to socia...

What began as the story of one man's family is today the story of many families working together toward a common goal – better treatments and a cure for a disease that threatens our most precious resource – our children. Cooley's Anemia or Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that reduces the production of functional hemoglobin (the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen).

The Boston Bulldogs Running Club is a true success story in every sense of the sentiment. Coach Mike Ferullo began this journey as an 8th-grade dropout, 15-year old drug user, hooked on heroin by age 17, in and out of detox, and sometimes jail until at age 22. From this experience, volunteering, and returning to finish his education, in 2015, he established the Boston Bulldogs Running Club for all...

 Lydia Place's mission is to disrupt the cycle of homelessness and promote sustained independence for current and future generations. Lydia Place has serves anyone experiencing homelessness and offering an array of programs to support the entire family. Their long-term vision is to have this generation be the last to experience homelessness - a truly beautiful vision. In their own words, every fam...

The Five "E" High Fives are Foundational to the Success of BTSNE BTSNE is a groundbreaking Regional Wrestling Powerhouse that utilizes the sport of wrestling to provide opportunities for youth to discover their full potential by building relationships within themselves, their team, and their community. BTSNE focuses on their core values, the five "E" High Fives: Engage, Enrich, Evolve, Educate and...

EmpowHer is the only gender-responsive organization in Los Angeles County that provides a social-emotional learning course during the school day in middle and high schools. Their programs serve to support girls in developing the necessary skills to boldly break ceilings, embrace their voices, engage in social justice, and end generational cycles of poverty.  

Skill-building and an Entrepreneurial Spirit Supports Recovery Having been an early and successful eBay user, Bill Tymoszczuk, AKA Bill T, discovered that eBay could be a great mechanism for making money and wanted to transfer that knowledge to support the men and women in recovery - he soon learned that technology skill-building along with an entrepreneurial spirit was essential in order to great...

Breadrev is committed to helping people bake beautiful, healthy bread and supporting commercializing it as a way of bringing balance to the baking industry in South Africa. Their tagline is Bake it, Build it, Learn it and their 3 Bread Revs are Bread Reverence, Bread Revolution, Bread Revival.  Bread Rev is the answer to socially changing the South African community by literally and figuratively b...

David Richman's incredible journey across the U.S and much more   Our focus is on Cycle of Lives, a nonprofit started in 2013, and its inspiring project that resulted in a recently published book that David authored as a result of his 5,000-mile solo 6-week bike journey across the country, from Los Angeles to Florida to New York, linking 15 people, all impacted by cancer in different ways: patient...

Promoting Dance that Happens in the Public Realm   Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival is devoted to the international genre of screen dance. They are committed to promoting dance that happens in the public realm & alternative sites outside of studios and off traditional stages… dance that explores place and space engages an unsuspecting public and intersects with film. You can listen to the pod...

Video as a medium to share authentic stories of doing good Impact Video Group, a social impact video production company that ideates, creates, and films social impact campaigns that have a positive impact on people, the planet, and the community is Boston Tweet's Tom O'Keefe and his business partner and long-time friend, Jorgy Cruz's latest endeavor. Using video as a medium to share authentic stor...

Two Incredible Nonprofits Founded by One Incredible Tom O'Keefe, AKA Boston Tweet   Tom O'Keefe, not realizing that he is a nonprofit, social impact entrepreneur, began Boston Tweet, an independent Twitter account that highlighted businesses and organizations in the Boston area that needed a boost to rejuvenate them and raise their visibility to keep them in business. So Tom has a history of seein...

Fulfilling the Needs of Children in Boyle Heights Since 1949, the Variety Boys & Girls Club has responded to the needs of children in the Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles community by offering academic and leadership development programs that encompass a myriad of intellectual, social, and physical arenas. You can listen to the podcast at the bottom of this page or wherever you listen to podcasts. E...