Community Financial Resources (CFR) is a national nonprofit economic justice organization with a mission to provide a pathway to financial well-being through products, tools and education that improve financial stability, protect assets and establish a foundation to build wealth for low-income, low-wealth households, with a focus on communities of color.   Community Financial Resources (CFR) was founded in 2003 by a financial industry veteran who worked in commercial banking for more than 20 years. She established CFR after recognizing the disproportionate gap in access to safe and afford ..read more

In 2012, Meg Barnhart, Founder/Co-Creator of Zen of Slow Cooking, wanted to create a business that could employ individuals with learning challenges – adults like her son, Doug. When she started slow cooking in 2006, she never imagined her slow cooker would be a vehicle for change. With a vision in place, she began looking for a partner to help turn her dream into a reality. Jane McKay had just moved to Chicago from the UK with her young family and was developing recipes and writing for a local food artisan. When they met a few weeks later it was clear that they were meant to build Zen of Slow ..read more

HHPLIFT is an award-winning, nonprofit social enterprise that curates, crafts, and sells sustainable social impact products and services for discerning consumers and socially conscious businesses looking to align their values with their procurement choices. Their social impact products are handmade by artisans and crafters overcoming barriers to fair wage employment in the U.S. and abroad, and produced by social enterprises.   Michael Arkes (former President and owner of Hinda Incentives, a major incentive company in the U.S.) founded Helping Hand Rewards (now HHPLIFT) in 2007, to combine ..read more

Piece by Piece is a nonprofit mosaic art program and social enterprise, serving the neighborhoods of Skid Row and South Los Angeles and their surrounding areas. The program provides a safe space for arts wellness with opportunities to earn supplemental income through the sale of individual artwork as well as participation in making large-scale public art. The value of Piece by Piece’s social enterprise is two-fold: it provides purpose and creativity for the artists and provides opportunities for much-needed supplemental income. From skill-building to team-building, from individual expression t ..read more

Primavera Works is part of the Primavera Foundation, which provides a continuum of services for people who are experiencing poverty and homelessness. The Primavera Foundation was founded in 1983 by Nancy Bissell and Gordon Packard. Primavera Works evolved as a result of concerns expressed about the day labor industry by individuals staying at the Primavera Men’s Emergency Shelter and drop-in center in Tuscon, Arizona.  Workers were arriving at the day labor halls as early as 4:00 a.m. on foot, as public transportation was not available at the early hour.  Once they arrived, they endu ..read more

Beaudin was founded in 2013 by a mother-daughter team looking to make an impact beyond the corporate world. Shirley and Meredith quickly came to realize the best way to accomplish this was to create their own product line. From the first product to the last, each Beaudin bag is designed to last a lifetime. Over the years, Shirley and Meredith recognized there was a greater purpose to the design work they had begun. Beaudin now dedicates its walls to the liberation of women from all walks of life. Ultimately, the duo found that Beaudin was Made to Free the Captive.   With their new mi ..read more

A few years ago, after running a successful tech company in the publishing space, Doug Lessing was motivated to do something more, something that would make a strong positive impact on the world. His three Gen Z daughters had inspired him to think differently about the world and how he wanted to leave his mark. That was the spark for Phin, short for “philanthropy,” a Certified B Corp that helps companies unite their employees and customers with causes they are passionate about.    The social good platform helps companies build great teams and engage customers through social impact. D ..read more

Care2Rock is an easy and affordable way to learn music from anywhere, with provided instruments and live online lessons on an award-winning custom platform. They’re working to make music more accessible to all. Traditional music lessons pose several barriers to beginners – people may struggle to learn, parents hassle to drive children to lessons and students don’t know where to find vetted teaches. Furthermore, the American education system is leaving music behind, with most schools cutting music programs, and those who are disenfranchised from the arts – such as the disabled or foster childre ..read more

Lumos Transforms was founded in 2015 by Nkem Ndefo to shepherd individuals, communities and organizations through positive change programming. By empowering people to access wellness, grow resilience and cultivate beneficial behaviors, the Lumos team initiates a transformation process that ripples outward. A commitment to responsive solutions means Lumos meets clients exactly where they are, regardless of their personal backgrounds or organizations’ size and budget. The ultimate goal? Creating socio-cultural systems that are healthy, balanced, interdependent, sustainable and equitable. T ..read more

Benevolence Farm is a North Carolina social enterprise that cultivates leadership and catalyzes structural change among women impacted by the criminal justice system through living-wage, eco-conscious employment. Tayna Jisa had recently moved to North Carolina and was rethinking her career when she stumbled upon a NYTimes article on incarceration. She was stunned to learn that 1 in every 100 people were currently behind bars in the United States, and she wondered what could be done to change that statistic. Concurrently, she’d been attending farming conferences and learning more about local f ..read more