social-impact
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Rudradeb Mitra and the talent the résumé missed
A Cambridge graduate went looking beyond the usual hiring lists. With Omdena, Rudradeb Mitra built a place where people could learn AI by working together - and let the work introduce them.
HelloWorld takes study abroad down the street
An Okinawa company pairs Japanese students with international neighbors and classrooms overseas. Its bet: the distance to a different life can be much shorter than a plane ride.
SMALL makes the idea the main event
A T-shirt that comes with a condo. A film that turns low expectations inside out. Inside the New York agency built around a simple proposition: hire the people with the idea.
Mike Gianoni and the machinery of generosity
From Connecticut engineering classrooms to the leadership of Blackbaud, Mike Gianoni has spent his career making complex systems work. His next challenge is helping more people take part in giving.
Beth Doane and the story sewn into a T-shirt
Before she advised brands and governments, Beth Doane put children’s drawings on T-shirts and tied sales to planting trees. The Main+Rose co-founder has been working on the relationship between a good story and a useful business ever since.
Shane Michael and the art of getting out of the way
The founder of Mittun came to nonprofit websites through design and action sports. His most useful idea asks the person making the website to surrender a little of the spotlight.
Danielle Finck and the business of being heard
She built Elle Communications for people with something at stake. A recession, a Hollywood deal, and a shelf of children’s books help explain her approach to attention.
Tammy Brook Saw a Business in a Toiletry Bag
A basketball player’s everyday accessory became a brand partnership. For FYI Brand Group founder Tammy Brook, paying attention to the person behind the public image has led from music publicity to fashion collaborations and social action.
Durell Coleman and the problem after number 67
A failed wind turbine taught the founder of DC Design to keep listening. His path from laser-cut world maps to social impact design begins with the people an idea is supposed to serve.
Michael Bellavia and the serious business of being playful
A puppet march, an animated sports show, and a bear with something to say. The HelpGood founder’s career follows the curious route from making characters entertaining to making public causes inviting.
Whitney Williams and the Art of Getting People in the Same Room
Before Whitney Williams advised philanthropists or ran for governor, she persuaded a university to offer a class. Her career has kept returning to that same question: who needs to be brought together to make something happen?
Sarah Adolphson and the Homework That Never Quite Ended
A college reporting assignment introduced Sarah Adolphson to West Hollywood. Peace Corps service, Hollywood philanthropy and a city council campaign followed - but the question of how to serve a community kept bringing her back.
Bryan de Lottinville and the problem with good intentions
After helping build iStockphoto, Bryan de Lottinville turned to a less glamorous transaction: the charitable donation. His next company, Benevity, grew from a stubborn belief that people should get to choose how they help.
Steven Levine and the business of getting people to show up
From presidential media events to corporate voter engagement, Meteorite co-founder Steven Levine has built a career around participation. His smallest coalition offers a clue to how he approaches the larger ones.
Guy Battle and the price of a promise
He spent years helping buildings use less. Then Guy Battle turned to a harder calculation: what businesses give back to the people around them.
Ali Briggs Carvalho and the People a Résumé Leaves Out
A childhood among family businesses led to consulting, Google, and a Kellogg class project with Rachele Louis. With LifeWeb 360, Ali Briggs Carvalho gave the people around a person a place to tell the rest of the story.
Televerde puts a second chance on the sales line.
The B2B sales company trains incarcerated women to win customers for enterprise clients. Its more interesting product may be the career that survives the prison gate.
Peter Casey and the value of a seat at the game
A basketball blog brought Peter Robert Casey onto press row. His path through the Knicks, Nike and JDS Sports keeps returning to the same question: what makes people feel they belong?
A$20,000. No equity. A room full of people who ask difficult questions.
Melbourne Accelerator Program gives selected startups cash, coaching and a place to work without taking a stake. The more interesting bargain is what founders owe the community afterwards.
Feira Preta built a market. Then it had to build the machinery.
A São Paulo fair became a network for Black entrepreneurs, linking training, creative spaces and customers. Its most revealing lessons arrived when the festival could no longer pay its own way.
IIM Udaipur Incubation Centre backs the work before the first sale
A recycled brick needs machinery, tests and a willing buyer. In Udaipur, a nonprofit incubator helps founders work through those unglamorous steps - with management expertise, public funding routes and introductions that matter.
iHUB Nairobi: The business of making luck
A foosball table could introduce two founders. Keeping the doors open required a business model. Inside the Nairobi hub that learned to put a price, a partner and a pilot behind a promising idea.
Thrive Causemetics and the $25,000 eyeliner that took its time
Before the teal mascara became familiar, Karissa Bodnar had an apartment full of eyeliner and dwindling savings. Her beauty business grew by solving a small, stubborn problem - then giving each sale a second purpose.
Valarie de la Garza and the business of being heard
Before she led Fenton, Valarie de la Garza made a decision at a student newspaper about whose stories belonged inside. Her career has kept returning to that question, from Los Angeles civic campaigns to the agency boardroom.
Lisa Sherman and the business of being heard
A Philadelphia shoe store, a difficult conversation at Verizon, and a television channel built for an overlooked audience. Lisa Sherman’s route to the Ad Council explains why she puts relationships at the center of public persuasion.
60 Decibels asks the people your impact report forgot
A solar panel sold is easy to count. A customer helped is harder. 60 Decibels turns short conversations into evidence that investors and businesses can actually use.
Beth Silverman and the Business of Turning No Into a Lease
She spent a career learning how cities, developers and nonprofits talk past one another. Then she built a housing model around the useful part of no.
Hamdi Ulukaya Bought the Factory Everyone Else Had Finished With
A junk-mail advertisement led him to a silent yogurt plant in upstate New York. What followed became a food company and a stubborn argument that factories, workers and newcomers deserve another look.
The $5 Promise That Made Healthcare Personal
Watsi turned a stranger's plea on a Costa Rican bus into a radically legible way to fund surgery. The elegant part is the $5 donation; the hard part is everything that must happen behind it.
Kevin Allan Learned Fundraising From Both Sides of the Desk
He has advised fundraisers, run their departments and returned to the consultancy where he started. The result is a career built on knowing that a campaign should leave an institution stronger than it found it.