This report offers a look into the Open for Business Fund Asset Ownership Program’s localized models, aggregate impact, and key program takeaways.
The total impact of the $100 million Open for Business Fund Asset Ownership Program demonstrates that the program did more than keep storefront lights on—it moved small businesses from chasing stability to a clear pathway for job creation, scale, and building wealth, while driving a ripple effect of impact across community partners, local small business ecosystems, and communities at large.
It did this through a targeted yet flexible overarching strategy that was laser-focused on helping business owners acquire tangible business assets like property, and equipment. In each of the five markets, local community partners designed tailored capital interventions to fit the needs of small businesses in their community, ranging from grants to acquire equipment, forgivable down payment assistance, 0% interest loans, grants for commercial property improvements, and more.
Insights across five markets describe business owners who have added production lines, hired staff, and negotiated larger contracts after securing critical assets: property, equipment, and technology. At the same time, community partners report stronger balance sheets of their own and a web of newly forged relationships that continue to pay dividends beyond any single grant.
In short, the combination of market-specific, targeted strategies, and flexible capital, plus hands-on support and ecosystem development has proven to be a scalable engine of broadly shared growth.
In many cities, the homeownership gap reflects not a shortage of aspiring buyers, but the long erosion of affordable homes for sale. In communities shaped by redlining, population loss, and decades of systemic neglect, the problem is often twofold: homeownership remains financially out of reach for many families, and the supply of high-quality, affordable homes has been hollowed out. In some neighborhoods, that dysfunction is compounded by hypervacancy, where abandoned or uninhabitable properties sit empty for years, dragging down surrounding values even as would-be buyers struggle to find homes they can realistically purchase.
NationSwell’s Solution Spotlight series is designed to surface the most innovative and promising (or proven!) initiatives and approaches that are creating results. Each installment offers a closer look at a unique, impact-driven model — how it works in practice, how it was brought to bear, and what it reveals about building durable change. Sourced from within the NationSwell community, the series aims to surface what’s working, why it matters, and how it can be adapted or scaled.
This feature spotlights two models that both show how reinvestment in overlooked areas can unlock exciting new opportunities for homeownership (and avoid the displacement of communities who have lived in those neighborhoods for decades.)
Parity Homes — created and run by Bree Jones in West Baltimore — has stepped in to fill that gap by rebuilding not just individual homes, but also by rethinking the conditions that make ownership possible in the first place.
And in Springfield, Massachusetts, the City of Homes Initiative — led by Way Finders and supported by MassMutual Foundation — is advancing a policy-driven pathway that transforms long-blighted properties into affordable homeownership opportunities for working families.
More on both below…
Parity Homes: Rebuilding homes and markets in West Baltimore
“What we do in simple terms is we create both the supply and the demand to jumpstart housing activity in collapsed markets through social capital.— Bree Jones, Founder & CEO, Parity Homes
The Problem: Dysfunctional housing markets In historically Black neighborhoods like those in West Baltimore, homeownership barriers aren’t driven by overheated demand, but by long-term market disinvestment. Thousands of homes sit vacant or uninhabitable due to decades of redlining, urban renewal, and predatory lending that displaced residents and restricted the flow of capital into Black neighborhoods. Legacy residents are often left with devalued homes and overdue maintenance, while new buyers have few affordable and livable options. Traditional housing markets — and financing systems — struggle to operate effectively in this context.
For individual buyers, the perceived risk of being “first” — moving onto a block without confidence that neighbors, services, or investment will follow — further suppresses demand, even where interest in homeownership exists.
The Solution: Community building for market revival Founded in 2020, Parity is a development company and community-building model designed to address both sides of this problem at once. The organization acquires clusters of vacant properties, renovates them to a high standard, and pre-sells homes to cohorts of buyers — often friends, family members, or existing social networks — who move onto a block together.
By anchoring demand in trusted relationships rather than isolated individual buyers, Parity reduces the social and financial risk of moving into disinvested neighborhoods, helping buyers feel confident that they are not entering a block — or market — alone. Rather than treating homeownership as an individual leap of faith, Parity treats it as a coordinated act of collective entry which contributes to stronger community relations and richer social capital.
On the buyer side, Parity guides participants through a readiness program that prepares them financially, emotionally, and mentally for homeownership. On the community side, it supports legacy residents through key partnerships with organizations like the SOS Fund which connects residents with anti-displacement resources that help them address deferred maintenance and lock in property taxes as values rise.
Why it’s Different: Parity treats social capital as the primary catalyst for market revival. Rather than marketing homes to individual buyers in isolation, the organization intentionally assembles cohorts of prospective homeowners from existing social networks, guiding them through the buying process together.
Parity recruits buyers through referrals, community outreach, and trusted relationships, then moves cohorts through a shared readiness process that builds financial preparedness alongside mutual commitment. And by pre-selling homes before construction and anchoring demand in groups that already trust one another, Parity reduces uncertainty for buyers, lenders, and the surrounding market. Parity’s core process of repurposing vacant houses also contributes to more sustainable construction, because it creates a much smaller ecological footprint than a new construction site would.
“We pre-sell all of our homes. The buyer goes through the entire construction process — they choose finishes, they’re invested. It’s not ‘build it and list it on Zillow.”
— Bree Jones, Founder & CEO, Parity Homes
Impact Highlights: In just a few years, Parity has moved from proof of concept to measurable, neighborhood-level impact, accelerating renovation timelines while demonstrating that coordinated reinvestment can revive disinvested blocks.
What began as a vision to cluster buyers and rebuild vacant homes has translated into measurable production and faster delivery, signaling that the model can scale:
60+ properties acquired
13 units completed on the first block; 20 more under development
Renovation timelines reduced from ~12 months to ~6 months
Key Enabler: Catalytic capital that de-risks early stage innovation
“Without JPMorgan Chase’s catalytic funding, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this.”
— Bree Jones, Founder & CEO, Parity Homes
Parity launched with a $2M catalytic grant from JPMorgan Chase, enabling early proof of concept at a moment when traditional lenders were unlikely to back a market-revitalization model. That early capital helped to demonstrate viability, which in turn helped to attract additional partners.
The organization has since expanded through blended capital, including a $1M, 1% program-related investment (PRI) from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and a $2M revolving construction loan from Baltimore Community Lending – increasingly leveraging debt to scale production.
Future Plans: Parity’s model is uniquely designed for housing markets experiencing hypervacancy like Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, East Cleveland, and Kansas City. Parity has proven the ability to convert the most entrenched dilapidation and vacancy into ownership, rebuilding intergenerational wealth, and strengthening civic power at the block, neighborhood, and city level.
Lessons & applications for other leaders:
Design for community building, not just individual sales. Pre-selling homes to buyer cohorts before construction reduces risk for purchasers and lenders alike. By leveraging existing relationships to assemble and support buyers, Parity demonstrates that social capital can function as a form of investable capital when intentionally organized.
Build ownership pathways for a range of buyer profiles. Designing financing and readiness processes around actual lived circumstances expands access while strengthening long-term stability.
Fix underlying structural misalignment, not just the symptoms. Markets don’t fail accidentally — they fail when systems are misaligned. Pairing social driven demand with institutional lending, national philanthropy, policy, and construction innovation restores market function (rather than temporarily masking dysfunction).
“Our long-term theory of change is about building power—neighbors who know how to advocate for themselves and shape the systems that serve them.”
— Bree Jones, Founder & CEO, Parity Homes
City of Homes: Turning blight into pathways to ownership in Springfield
“We’re creating a new pathway for properties to go from being blighted to being assets for the community — and for families that didn’t have that opportunity before.”
— Keith Fairey, President & CEO, Way Finders
The Problem: Blight, disinvestment, and lost ownership opportunities Springfield, Massachusetts is historically known as the “City of Homes,” but decades of disinvestment have left many single- and two-family properties abandoned or in severe disrepair. In turn, those properties depress surrounding home values, destabilize neighborhoods, and often cycle through the court-appointed receivership process where they are rehabilitated and often converted into rental units rather than preserved as ownership opportunities.
At the same time, hundreds of local residents complete first-time homebuyer education programs each year. Upon graduation, and with access to down payment assistance programs, they still struggle to uncover adequate, affordable inventory to purchase. This imbalance results in a glut of blighted homes creating liabilities for neighborhoods while scores of aspiring homeowners remain locked out.
The Solution: Connecting policy reform, redevelopment, and first-time buyers Observing this disconnect, Way Finders created its “City of Homes” initiative (named for the city it serves), which relies on three coinciding solutions in order to create a new, equity-focused pathway for prospective homeowners:
First, Way Finders works effectively within recent reforms to Massachusetts’ Affordable Homes Act — shaped by Way Finders’ own on-the-ground innovation in both process and partnerships — to appoint what are known as “special attorney receivers” to interrupt the automatic conversion of distressed properties into permanent rental stock. Traditionally, when properties entered into receivership proceedings, the assigned court-appointed receivers were private contractors or developers. But thanks to recent reforms, the law now allows for the appointment of “special attorney receivers,” who transfer the properties specifically to nonprofit developers like Way Finders for rehabilitation and resale as an affordable homeownership opportunity.
In addition to strengthening ownership pipelines, Way Finders simultaneously leverages its developmental capacity by working to acquire, rehabilitate, or rebuild the blighted homes themselves — often using local, BIPOC-owned contractors to do so.
Finally, Way Finders taps into an extant first-time homebuyer education pipeline that it already uses to train 700–800 prospective buyers annually in order to connect that demand directly to newly restored inventory. Homes are then sold affordably to buyers earning roughly 80–100% of area median income, with mechanisms such as lotteries used when city-owned funding is involved.
Why it’s Different: By recognizing and slightly modifying how receivership works under Massachusetts state law, the model creates a durable pathway for blighted properties to return to community ownership rather than speculative rental properties.
“This is such a slight tweak to an existing process that has such strong ripple effects… reminding us that innovation doesn’t always have to mean looking for a big flashy unicorn. It can be as simple as a shift in the way that we think about something that already exists.” – Dennis Duquette, President & CEO, MassMutual Foundation
Impact Highlights: While still early in its implementation (the Massachusetts Affordable Homes Act was signed into law in August of 2024), properties are currently being rehabilitated in concentrated clusters, creating a multiplier stabilization effect within targeted neighborhoods. The special attorney receiver pathway is now codified statewide through Massachusetts’ Affordable Homes Act, expanding the model beyond Springfield, and early implementation demonstrates that long-blighted ownership properties can return to productive, affordable homeownership rather than converting to rental stock.
Keith Fairey, President & CEO, Way Finders, shared one recent anecdote from a blighted home’s former owner upon learning that it would be rehabilitated into a family home:
“We had a public event at a two-family home that had seen much better days… it was boarded up. The special attorney who helped convey that property brought the owner — someone who grew up in the home but couldn’t keep up with it.
I didn’t know how that would go… but he felt really bad that it was pulling down the neighborhood. He was glad to see that it was going to be somebody’s home again rather than sitting there in a very blighted and abandoned state.”
— Keith Fairey, President & CEO, Way Finders
Key Enabler: Patient, flexible capital and systems-oriented philanthropy
“We don’t hold the solutions… we are a connector. We use our resources to bring folks together, to experiment, and advance ideas into action.”
– Dennis Duquette, President & CEO, MassMutual Foundation MassMutual Foundation has played a catalytic role in bringing the City of Homes model to life. Over several years, the Foundation funded research by a retired housing court judge to prove viability, pressure-tested the concept with stakeholders across the city, and provided early, flexible capital to de-risk the pilot before other funders joined.
Beyond funding, MassMutual also convened stakeholder groups, supported statewide policy adoption, and aligned complimentary investments — including down payment assistance resources for Western Massachusetts — to strengthen existing ownership pipelines.
Future Plans: Scalable pathways for gateway cities The legislative framework that underpins the City of Homes Initiative is now active statewide, with interest emerging from other “gateway cities” across Massachusetts — former industrial centers facing similar cycles of abandonment and disinvestment.
If scaled, the model offers:
A durable mechanism for transforming blight into ownership
Expanded pathways to household wealth-building
Stabilized neighborhoods where property value growth benefits working families rather than external investors
For MassMutual Foundation, the long-term goal aligns with its broader mission of strengthening financial resilience:
“Homeownership is such a key lever in building financial resilience and capability. It’s also foundational to establishing generational wealth over time.”
– Dennis Duquette, President & CEO, MassMutual Foundation
Lessons & applications for other leaders:
Slight policy shifts can unlock outsized impact. A targeted change to receivership rules created a new pathway without having to dismantle the entire system.
Pair systems change with tactical investment. Supporting first-time homebuyer programs and down payment assistance in tandem with reforms to structural barriers accelerates impact.
Patient capital matters. The City of Homes Initiative required years of dialogue, research, and early stage risk tolerance before it could be implemented.
Innovation doesn’t have to be “disruptive” to be transformative. Sometimes the most durable change comes from adjusting existing infrastructure rather than inventing something new.
How Cisco Networking Academy is transforming the lives of learners
The idea for Cisco Networking Academy was born in 1997. Cisco employees returned to an under-resourced school where they had donated state-of-the-art networking equipment. They were excited to see how students and educators were being empowered by the technology. Instead, they found the equipment sitting unused. The lesson learned that day was that technology alone is not enough; without the knowledge and skills to use it, even the best equipment’s potential will go untapped.
Cisco recognized that for networking technology to truly expand and thrive, there needed to be a workforce capable of installing, configuring, and maintaining those networks. There was a critical skills gap: educators and students lacked the training to leverage the new technology, and there was no established pathway to build that expertise at scale.
Beyond just technical skills, Cisco also saw an opportunity to transform lives by providing inclusive access to technology education. Cisco sought to use its own technology and vast networking expertise to create clear pathways for both new learners and those reskilling or upskilling, ensuring they become prepared for the jobs of today and tomorrow. Thus, Networking Academy was launched.
How Chobani’s Super Milk is redefining disaster relief and food security
Chobani’s idea for Super Milk came out of two urgent challenges: the growing number of climate-related disasters and a steep rise in food insecurity across the U.S. Today, billion-dollar disasters are hitting every couple of weeks, displacing families and driving up demand for shelf-stable, nutrient-dense food. At the same time, in 2023 food insecurity affected approximately 20% of households, putting even more strain on food banks. While milk is one of the most requested items, it’s also one of the hardest to get out quickly—it needs refrigeration and doesn’t last long, often arriving just before it expires.
To overcome these challenges, Chobani marshaled its in-house expertise in dairy innovation, supply chain management, and community impact to create a shelf-stable, nutrient-dense milk specifically designed for disaster relief and hunger alleviation. Produced at Chobani’s Idaho plant, Chobani Super Milk is made with a blend of real milk and ultrafiltered milk to achieve an excellent source of high-quality protein, with less sugar than traditional milk. An enzyme naturally converts sugars into galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), a high-quality prebiotic fiber, that contributes to gut health and digestion. Chobani Super Milk is aseptically processed, which allows for a 9-month shelf life without refrigeration and without any added preservatives, resulting in a product that is accessible, nutritious, and highly transportable to the communities who need it most.
Globally, small and micro-businesses make up over 90% of all enterprises, yet they remain among the most vulnerable segments of the economy — especially those owned by women. Women-owned businesses account for about one-third of all small enterprises, and more than 70% lack adequate access to financial services. This persistent gender gap is compounded by structural inequities in access to capital, networks, and resources, leaving many of these enterprises unable to fully participate in or benefit from the global economy.
These inequities are further magnified by the economic fragility of small and micro-businesses, two-thirds of which face ongoing struggles for survival, with limited financial buffers and restricted opportunities for growth. Together, these conditions form a pressing need for targeted strategies — like Visa Foundation’s financial inclusion efforts — that aim to expand access, build capacity, and foster long-term resilience for the most underserved business owners.
As artificial intelligence reshapes how institutions operate, many nonprofits and public-sector leaders are grappling with a pressing question: How can AI be deployed responsibly and equitably in service of the public good?
At IBM, that question isn’t theoretical — it’s central to how the company designs, governs, and advances its AI strategy across sectors. In a new resource developed in collaboration with NationSwell, Responsible Use of AI for Social Impact, IBM outlines a practical roadmap for responsible AI adoption that moves beyond high-level principles and into actionable guidance for organizations navigating capacity constraints, ethical considerations, and rapidly evolving technology. The report emphasizes AI literacy; governance as an enabler instead of a blocker; and a clear focus on augmenting, rather than replacing, human capability.
For this installment of Five Minutes with…., NationSwell spoke with Sara Link — IBM’s Global Head of Employee Impact — about what it takes to operationalize trustworthy AI at scale and why government and social sector leaders must be equipped not just with tools, but with the systems and confidence to use them well.
We asked Sara how IBM is reframing responsible AI from a compliance exercise into a performance advantage, what meaningful AI literacy actually looks like inside an organization, and what wild success for ethical AI adoption could look like five years from now.
Here’s what she had to say:
NationSwell: What do you see as most distinctive about IBM’s approach to responsible AI, particularly for nonprofits and social impact organizations that face capacity constraints?
Sara Link, Global Head of Impact at IBM: It’s encouraging to see so many responsible AI principles circulating right now; that level of focus and intentionality is important. At IBM, our approach centers on making AI practical, understandable, and genuinely useful in everyday work. Our belief is that AI should help people do their jobs better — not replace them, overwhelm them, or create confusion.
One of the key insights in the report is that responsible AI has to be realistic for organizations with limited time, staff, and capacity. Nonprofits don’t have extra resources or margin for error, and in many cases they don’t have deep technical expertise in-house. So responsible AI can’t just live in a policy document — it has to be built in a way that reflects those constraints. That means designing tools and governance structures that are usable, accessible, and practical from the start, so organizations can adopt them confidently and integrate them into their daily work.
NationSwell: Augmenting rather than replacing human capability is central to IBM’s view of AI. Can you share an example of what that looks like in practice, either at IBM or with partners?
Link, IBM: In practice, we think about AI as something that helps bring work to life — whether that’s surfacing information, spotting patterns, or saving time on repetitive tasks. But at the end of the day, people still make the final decisions, especially when judgment, fairness, or context matter.
At IBM, for example, internal tools like AskHR or AskCSR help employees find answers more quickly and efficiently. They streamline the process, but they don’t replace accountability. People are still responsible for what happens next. The goal is to enable better, more informed decisions — not to obscure or complicate them.
NationSwell: The report emphasizes foundational AI literacy. What does “good” AI literacy look like inside an organization, and how does that translate into better outcomes?
Link, IBM: Good AI literacy means people aren’t afraid of the tools, but they also don’t blindly trust them. It shows up when leaders and staff understand what AI can support and where human judgment still needs to step in.
You can hear it in the kinds of questions people feel comfortable asking: Does this actually make sense? Should we double-check this before acting on it? For example, in a nonprofit using AI to screen applications or triage services, literacy shows up when staff know how to review AI recommendations, recognize when something doesn’t feel right, and understand that the final decision rests with them.
That kind of literacy leads to better mission outcomes. It reduces errors, helps guard against bias, and builds trust with the communities being served rather than simply automating decisions without oversight.
NationSwell: How does the report reframe responsible AI governance as an enabler rather than a blocker? What is one practical first step an organization can take?
Link, IBM: When you lay out clear rules, it actually becomes easier to move forward. Clarity helps people understand what’s acceptable and what’s not. Without that clarity, uncertainty can cause hesitation or lead organizations to avoid using AI altogether. One of the strongest findings in the report is that governance doesn’t slow adoption; it accelerates it by removing ambiguity.
A practical first step is to build a simple pause point into an existing workflow — a moment where a human reviews and signs off before an AI-driven decision affects someone. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as straightforward as asking: Does this outcome make sense? Would I be comfortable explaining this decision to the person it impacts?
Over time, those small, repeatable checks turn responsible AI from a written policy into a daily habit. And that’s what enables organizations to scale AI safely and confidently.
NationSwell: If you could change one thing about how funders currently approach AI in the social sector, what would it be?
Link, IBM: First, it’s critical for funders to recognize the importance of investing in organizational capacity; that’s the foundation. I would encourage funders to focus not just on funding AI tools, but on supporting people’s ability to use AI well over time.
Investing in technology alone doesn’t create impact if organizations aren’t prepared to work with it. Right now, many nonprofits are expected to figure this out on their own. They may receive funding to pilot AI, but not necessarily the support for training, governance, or long-term learning that makes those tools effective and safe.
Through IBM’s AI for Impact program, which we launched in late 2024, we’ve brought nonprofits together to share how they’re using AI, what questions they have, and where they see opportunity. A recurring theme has been the need for funding that supports both the right tools and the training required to use them responsibly. And research from the IBM Institute for Business Value shows that skills are evolving rapidly — 57% of executives surveyed expect today’s skills to become outdated by 2030. That pressure is even more acute in the social sector, where resources are already stretched.
The funders making the biggest difference are supporting AI readiness, not just adoption — investing in training, shared standards, and giving teams time to learn and adapt, not just deliver. I’d also encourage funders to make their grantees aware of programs like AI for Impact. Many of these resources are free and can help organizations and their leaders build the knowledge and confidence they need to prepare for what’s ahead.
NationSwell: If responsible AI adoption truly takes root, what might wild success look like for the sector five years from now?
Link, IBM: The vision of success, to me, is that AI makes work easier and fairer — not more stressful or confusing. If we can eliminate that sense of overwhelm and instead empower people to use their skills more fully, that would be a meaningful outcome.
In that future, people would understand the tools they’re using and feel confident explaining the decisions those tools inform. AI would help nonprofits do more good without eroding trust or weakening human connection. Most importantly, technology would support organizations in serving communities better — not get in the way.
That’s what wild success looks like: better outcomes for communities, more efficient pathways to get there, and trust and connection preserved throughout the process.
NationSwell: What have you personally learned or found inspiring as you’ve helped lead this work around AI? How has this journey informed your broader leadership in the corporate impact space?
Link, IBM: For a long time, I’ve focused on capacity building for nonprofits and on how the corporate sector and funders can partner more closely with them, providing the right level of support so they can better serve their communities.
What’s been most inspiring lately is the openness I’ve seen when nonprofits come together — the willingness to share ideas, build relationships, and solve challenges collaboratively. There’s a real energy in the room when leaders from across sectors are learning from one another and exploring what’s possible.
I saw that firsthand at a recent conference after speaking on this topic: A healthcare employee approached me and shared that she and her colleagues had been experimenting with AI tools to solve internal challenges, and they were eager to bring leadership into the conversation to explore the potential more formally. She ended up connecting with another healthcare system that was further along, helping to broker a conversation between them.
That kind of openness — being curious about what’s out there and willing to imagine what could be possible — is what excites me most. It’s that spirit of shared learning and forward momentum that will ultimately drive meaningful change.
NationSwell: Is there anything else from the report — or from your leadership perspective — that you’d like to share?
Link, IBM: As someone who doesn’t necessarily have an engineering or a technical background, what’s been especially inspiring to me is realizing that you don’t need deep technical expertise to ask the right questions or to begin this journey of continuous learning. You don’t have to be an engineer to engage meaningfully with AI.
Personally, this experience has shown me how much further we can take our work by building our skills, staying curious, and asking thoughtful questions. When we approach AI as a tool for strengthening connections and building stronger partnerships — rather than something intimidating or purely technical — it becomes incredibly energizing. That mindset has been one of the most exciting parts of this journey for me.
The introduction of the 1% floor on corporate charitable deductions, imposed by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1) for tax years beginning December 31, 2025, has created a range of new considerations for companies to weigh in determining their corporate philanthropy strategy.
To support NationSwell members in navigating this shift, we interviewed a Head of Corporate Impact at a Fortune 500 company who has made several critical moves to set up their resources and programs for long-term sustainability.
The following resource outlines the steps taken over the course of approximately three months, each of which required close cross-enterprise collaboration. The processes and decisions described are intended to help leaders frame their own approaches, but should be considered within each organization’s own financial, legal, and tax context.
The steps outlined are:
Step 1: Align internally on the policy landscape
Step 2: Calculate the incremental tax impact to the business
Step 3: Fund philanthropy budget with tax-efficient capital
Step 4: Reclassify some philanthropy as ordinary business expense
Step 5: Take a multi-year view on philanthropic tax strategy
How PepsiCo’s Food for Good is creating a blueprint for global food security
Food for Good — the PepsiCo Foundation initiative for advancing food security — launched in Dallas, Texas, as an exercise in deep listening. Through sustained conversations with trusted community volunteers and leaders, PepsiCo learned that the 19 million school-aged children in the U.S. who depend on free or reduced-price meals at school were facing critical gaps in access to nutritious food during the summer months, when school was not in session.
Beginning in the summer of 2009, PepsiCo leveraged its food production, logistics, and distribution expertise — as well as a partnership with Frito-Lay, the convenient foods business unit of PepsiCo, that allowed for borrowed access to trucks and warehouse space — to prototype a summer meal delivery model. The privately-funded program quickly expanded into new cities, eventually outgrowing its original facility but maintaining its original commitment to staying rooted in community feedback and mission to fight hunger through access and equity.
Food for Good combines large-scale meal distribution, job creation, targeted child nutrition, disaster relief, and impactful storytelling to distribute nutritious meals and address crisis-driven hunger at scale.
How LinkedIn is using its data and platform to help professionals overcome barriers to employment
The world of work is rapidly evolving. According to LinkedIn’s data, 70% of the skills needed for most jobs will have changed by the year 2030, creating an urgent and widening skills gap in today’s workforce. As swift technological advancements continue to reshape entire industries, this transformed landscape will be felt most acutely by those from underserved communities or backgrounds who already face barriers to professional development or upskilling opportunities.
In furtherance of the company’s mission to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce, LinkedIn’s social impact team works with professionals overcoming barriers to provide them with yearlong gratis memberships to LinkedIn Premium, which includes access to LinkedIn Learning’s catalog of nearly 25,000 courses. By focusing on getting LinkedIn Learning into the hands of the communities who most lack access to upskilling opportunities, LinkedIn hopes to close the skills gap and provide professionals with the tools and training they need to level the playing field.
How New York Life is scaling grief support through its agents and expertise
New York Life Foundation’s impact in the childhood bereavement space began more than a decade ago, sparked by a partnership with Comfort Zone Camp. What began as a pilot grant quickly evolved into a larger commitment, driven by the realization that this was a space where New York Life could lead. With a corporate mission to offer peace of mind and financial support, bereavement support is deeply aligned with New York Life’s purpose.
Motivated by the lack of reliable data and practical support tools, the Foundation launched a research partnership with Judi’s House to create the Children’s Bereavement Estimation Model (CBEM) to understand where childhood grief was most concentrated. The Foundation also conducted surveys with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to learn about grief in the classroom. Among its learnings from the initial 2012 survey: over 90% of U.S. educators say childhood grief is a serious problem that deserves more attention from schools, but only 3% had received training on supporting students through their school district. Asked how many students typically need their support due to the loss of a loved one each school year, 87% of educators said at least one, and 25% said six or more.
In 2018, the Foundation launched the Grief-Sensitive Schools Initiative (GSSI), enlisting New York Life’s national agent network to deliver grief education and resources directly to schools. As momentum grew, agents began asking: Can we take this to nonprofits and other youth-serving organizations in addition to schools? The model was expanded to youth-serving nonprofits through GSSI+.
In 2024, the Foundation expanded its bereavement support into workplaces. The Grief-Supportive Workplace Initiative was built around New York Life data that revealed a deep unmet need: although up to 20% of a given workforce might be grieving at one time, about 64% of employees report that their workplaces do not offer any bereavement support or training.
