Below are some organizations I love. My involvement with each ranges from being an active volunteer to being a donor and general supporter of their missions. Learn more, get involved, or be inspired to give back to a community you care about!
I update this page quarterly to feature different organizations. If you’re involved with an organization aligned with the missions closest to my heart—supporting youth, making education accessible, animal rescue and adoption, and helping individuals find community and social connection, especially in times of crisis—please tell me about it!
ScholarMatch
http://scholarmatch.org/
https://www.facebook.com/ScholarMatch
https://www.instagram.com/scholarmatch_hq
Our mission is to connect under-resourced students with resources, schools, and donors to make college possible. ScholarMatch’s three-pronged program increases college persistence by leading students through the college admission process, securing financial support, and helping them select the right school. We partner with college success organizations to offer continued support to students throughout their college career, all the way to graduation. We also engage our alumni to stay involved and give back.
Donate: https://scholarmatch.org/donate/
Sole Train
https://www.trinityinspires.org/sole-train/
https://www.facebook.com/TrinityBostonFoundation
https://www.instagram.com/trinity_inspires
Sole Train: Boston Runs Together is a free, non-competitive, long distance running program based at Boston Public Schools and Department of Youth Services. In Sole Train, teens from Boston neighborhoods, many of whom have never run before, train for and complete a half marathon or 5-mile race. In the process, they find their place in a supportive community that celebrates them and helps them discover just how far they can go.
The Dinner Party
http://thedinnerparty.org/
https://www.facebook.com/ThisIsTheDinnerParty
https://www.instagram.com/thedinnerparty
Our mission: To transform life after loss from an isolating experience into one marked by community support, candid conversation, and forward movement.
Through beautiful, unstructured dinner parties hosted by friends for friends, we invite those who’ve experienced significant loss - whether a parent, partner, sibling, or friend - to dive into long-tabooed territory, sharing a defining part of ourselves that rarely sees the light of day. Together, we’re pioneering tools and community through which young people who’ve experienced significant loss can use their shared experience as a springboard toward living better, bolder, and more connected lives. We're well aware that combatting the isolation that so often comes with loss can not be done solely behind closed doors. That's why we're also working to tackle widespread cultural taboos, and to create spaces and tools through which those who have yet to undergo the experience can learn to be better friends or partners to those who have.
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
https://bestfriends.org
https://www.facebook.com/bestfriendsanimalsociety
https://www.instagram.com/bestfriendsanimalsociety
I got married at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah! I also trained as a cat adoption counselor while working with Best Friends New York. This is an incredible network of individuals and groups across the U.S. saving lives and helping humans and animals find their perfect companions.
Donate: https://bestfriends.org
Barbershop Books
https://barbershopbooks.org
https://www.facebook.com/barbershopbooks
https://www.instagram.com/barbershopbooks
I learned about this project through my publisher, Penguin Random House, when they raised funds for the group with a walkathon.
Barbershop Books is the debut program of Reading Holiday Project, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit literacy organization in New York City. Developed in Harlem, Barbershop Books is a community-based program that creates child-friendly reading spaces in barbershops and provides early literacy training to barbers across America. We leverage the cultural significance of barbershops in Black communities to increase boys' access to culturally relevant, age appropriate, and gender responsive children's books and to increase out-of-school time reading among young black boys.