Cambodian Child's Dream Organization Develops Sustainable Villages in Rural Siem Reap

Cambodian Child's Dream Organization (CCDO) is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in rural areas of Siem Reap. CCDO was originally founded in 2003 by a local tour guide to build water wells.

American Jenni Lipa, who visited Cambodia and donated a water well, realized that the children hold the key to the country's future. After leading many new programs and initiatives, she founded Cambodian Children's Dream Organization as a US-based non-profit in early 2009. Two years later, Margaret Jarman started Friends of CCDO, UK due to strong support for the charity in the United Kingdom.

CCDO is currently sponsoring education for 2,000 children at 4 schools, providing school supplies, English teachers, and supplementing the meager salary of the teachers. CCDO also runs a Clean Village initiative, a Women's Health & Education Center, and Travel with Purpose programs. Previously, the organization built playgrounds, volley ball courts, soccer fields, and libraries in schools.

Maddie's Fund: A Large Foundation Inspired By a Little Dog

Maddie's Fund is a charitable foundation with a mission to “revolutionize the status and well-being of companion animals.” Maddie's Fund is named after Maddie, a beloved Miniature Schnauzer whose unconditional love, loyalty, and spirit inspired her caregivers to start a foundation in her name.

Maddie's Fund was started by billionaire entrepreneur and the founder of Workday and PeopleSoft, Dave Duffield, and his wife, Cheryl, who both fell in love with Maddie when she was just less than 2 weeks old. Maddie shared 10 happy and memorable years with Dave and Cheryl before she passed away in 1997. During the formation of PeopleSoft, Dave promised Maddie that if his company made money, he will give it back to companion animals in need so that they too can be as happy as Dave and Maddie were on that day.

Today, Dave and Cheryl are fulfilling that promise, having endowed Maddie's Fund with over $300 million. From 2012 to 2013 (fiscal year), Maddie's Fund has awarded nearly $136 million to animal welfare organizations and universities to save dog and cat lives. The foundation is working towards a no-kill nation by providing solutions to the most challenging issues the animal welfare community faces and supplying strategic funding to organizations and communities that are dedicated to saving healthy and treatable shelter animals.

One of Maddie's Fund's numerous programs is Maddie's Pet Adoption Days, the biggest free shelter pet adoption event in America. The event helps shelter dogs and cats find loving homes as well as raises public awareness of shelter animals and recognizes the efforts of rescue organizations. Meanwhile, Maddie's Institute provides the most innovative animal welfare information to shelter staff, veterinarians, rescue groups, and concerned citizens through a blog, articles, videos, webcasts, and other educational materials. Maddie's Fund also awards grants to US colleges of veterinary medicine that are developing shelter medicine programs.

Project Safe: Putting an End to Domestic Violence

Based in Athens, Georgia, Project Safe is a non-profit organization dedicated to ending domestic violence through crisis intervention, ongoing supportive services, systems change advocacy, and prevention and education programs in the community.

Project Safe was originally founded as a network of safe houses and later evolved into a confidentially located emergency shelter and hotline. The organization has expanded over the years to meet the needs of domestic violence survivors and their children. Today, Project Safe's services range from short-term crisis phone counseling to long-term support through its follow-up and transitional housing programs. While Project Safe mostly serves clients from Athens and the surrounding area, it also functions as a routing point for a national hotline and assists women and children from across Georgia and outside the state.

Project Safe's approach to combating domestic violence combines energy of the heart with a commitment to operational efficiency. For every dollar contributed to Project Safe, 90 cents goes to programs and services that benefit abused women and children directly.

The Children's Inn: A Place Where Seriously Ill Kids Can Be Kids Again

The Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a private, non-profit residence for children and families receiving medical treatment from the NIH's Clinical Center. The Inn provides a free “place like home” that reduces the burdens of illness through a supportive environment. Patients and their families from all over the world come to The Children's Inn in Bethesda, Maryland to receive healing for the body, heart, and soul.

Located within walking distance of the NIH Clinical Center, The Children's Inn opened its doors in June 1990 to provide a place where pediatric patients and their families could stay together and not have to face the isolation, expense, and difficulties of living in a hotel. The Inn has been in continuous operation since then, welcoming more than 12,000 seriously ill children and families to date.

Patients and their families travel to the NIH to receive treatment for illnesses such as cancer; HIV infection; and mental, heart, lung, bone, blood, and growth disorders. Meanwhile, The Inn offers warmth and camaraderie that cannot be found in a hotel room. Here, children and families can put aside their challenges, and kids can be kids again for a while. At the end of the treatment day, kids leave behind the doctors, nurses, and needles to return to the comforting presence of their families and The Inn's caring staff members.

The Inn's programs and activities, all of which are free, are designed to help families as they deal with the stress of serious illness. Most take place on-site but there are some off-campus field trips every month as well. The programs and activities are led by staff, volunteers, and professional instructors.

At The Children's Inn, it is understood that families make a difference in the lives of sick children; effective treatment entails caring for the child and family as one.

In Other Words: Enriching Portland's Feminist Communities

In Other Words is a non-profit feminist community center in Portland, Oregon. Its storefront on Killingsworth Street serves as a bookstore, lending library, and affordable event venue. In Other Words' mission is to support, enrich, and empower the feminist community through art, literature, educational, and cultural events.

Founded in 1993 by Portland State University professor Johanna Brenner and women's health advocates Kathryn Tetrick and Catherine Sameh, In Other Words was created in response to the closing of A Woman's Place, Portland's only feminist bookstore. When In Other Words first opened, there were more than 200 feminist bookstores in the country. Today, there are less than 30.

As Portland's feminist communities underwent social, demographic, and cultural changes, In Other Words identified new needs and interests that prompted its expansion to become a feminist community center. In Other Words is currently the only feminist bookstore in the US that also functions as a non-profit organization.

Sesame Workshop: Four Decades of Teaching Children Through Television and More

Sesame Workshop is the non-profit educational organization behind the beloved kids' television program Sesame Street, as well as a number of other projects that bring lessons in literacy and numeracy, health and wellness, emotional well-being, and respect and understanding to children in more than 150 countries.

Sesame Workshop's mission is to help children everywhere reach their highest potential by using the educational power of media. What began as a simple yet revolutionary idea to teach kids in the United States through television is now a global educational phenomenon expanding beyond television and reaching millions of children worldwide. Sesame Workshop's international programs are created in collaboration with local educators, puppeteers, and advisors to tailor to the unique needs of children and their culture. The non-profit also carries out several on-the-ground outreach efforts to bring its lessons directly to vulnerable communities. Regardless of location, Sesame Workshop combines a curriculum that addresses children's developmental needs with the sophisticated use of media and plenty of fun.

One of Sesame Workshop's international projects is Galli Galli Sim Sim, the locally produced version of Sesame Street in India. To expand its reach, Galli Galli Sim Sim partners with non-profit child care centers to deliver early childhood education to children from low-income families. Galli Galli Sim Sim also makes house calls using a repurposed vegetable cart outfitted with a television and DVD player so that local teachers can bring the program to kids in urban slums.

In the United States, Sesame Workshop has created Families Stand Together, a bilingual multimedia kit for families facing financial challenges. Designed to bring kids and parents together as they deal with unemployment and economic uncertainty, the kit contains educational DVDs, activities, storybooks, and a caregiver's handbook filled with advice about answering children's questions, practical ways to stay afloat, and spending time as a family.

Pebble Tossers: Matching Young Atlanta Volunteers With Service Project Opportunities

Atlanta moms Jeni Stephens and Jen Guynn quickly became friends after meeting through their children's school. Both women shared a passion for volunteerism and community involvement and went in search of age-appropriate volunteer projects for their young families. The process was time-consuming and left them frustrated and disappointed; finding meaningful service projects for kids turned out to be more challenging than they expected. So they came up with the idea for an online resource that would make it more fun and easier for busy families to make a difference in their community.

In October 2009, after a year of research, Stephens and Guynn launched Pebble Tossers, a non-profit youth service organization and family volunteering resource for kids, teens, and families in Metro Atlanta. The name denotes the far-reaching impact of a tiny pebble, which, when tossed into the water, creates many ripples. Similarly, one child and one act of service can generate far-reaching ripples of giving that span their family, community, and lifetime.

Pebble Tossers' mission is to ignite a passion for volunteerism in kids that develops their character and impacts the world. Pebble Tossers helps children who want to help by matching their interests and abilities with the needs of their community. There are now more than 200 fun, age-appropriate volunteer projects with local, pre-screened organizations, covering 12 major cause areas including animals, the arts, the elderly, the environment, education and literacy, families in need, homelessness, hunger, global awareness, philanthropy, sick and special needs children, and US troops and veterans.

Members are notified of new, nearby service project opportunities each month. They can also find volunteer projects themselves by browsing the Pebble Tossers website.

Named “Best Volunteer Matcher” by Malachi's Storehouse, Pebble Tossers currently has 13,000 members from all across Metro Atlanta and counting. In 2013, members served more than 110 local non-profit organizations in need of assistance.

Wildlife SOS Is One of India's Leading Conservation Organizations

Wildlife SOS has been protecting India's wildlife and environment since 1995. A registered non-profit organization in India, the US, and the UK, Wildlife SOS began as a project by Geeta Seshamani and Kartick Satyanarayan to investigate India's “dancing bears” and create a sustainable solution to end the cruel practice that was endangering the country's wild sloth bears. The project went on to become one of Wildlife SOS's flagship programs and successfully put an end to the brutal practice in late 2009, when the last dancing bear was rescued from the streets.

Though mostly known for its work with dancing bears, Wildlife SOS has since evolved to help other animals such as leopards, reptiles, and elephants. The charity also has several projects focusing on environment and biodiversity conservation and carbon footprint reduction.

Now one of the leading conservation organizations in India, Wildlife SOS actively works to protect the country's wildlife, conserve natural habitats, study biodiversity, conduct research, and create sustainable livelihoods for former poacher communities.

Nordoff Robbins Uses the Power of Music to Tranform Lives

Everyone responds to music, and Nordoff Robbins is using it to transform the lives of vulnerable children and adults in the UK. The state's leading provider of music therapy services, Nordoff Robbins delivers more than 50,000 music therapy sessions annually in schools, hospitals, day centers, care homes, and its own facilities. The charity's trained network of music therapists work with people of all ages living with various challenges, including autism, dementia, stroke, depression, brain injury, mental health problems, and cancer. Music affects our minds, bodies, and feelings. It has the ability to improve physical health; address emotional and behavioral difficulties; promote creativity, confidence, and self-esteem; and nurture social and communication skills.

Nordoff Robbins has been educating music therapists since 1947 and its masters training is globally recognized as a gold standard in music therapy training. The charity also offers short courses and workshops that are open to everyone interested in learning more about music and well-being.

The Stuttering Foundation Provides Support for Stutterers

The Stuttering Foundation of America is the world's first and largest non-profit organization working toward the prevention and improved treatment of stuttering, an often misunderstood disability that affects more than 3 million Americans. Based in Memphis, Tennessee, the Stuttering Foundation was founded in 1947 by Malcolm Fraser, who decided to change career paths at the age of 44 so he could help people who stutter. Understanding the disability from personal, often painful experience, Fraser met with Dr. Charles Van Riper, a renowned speech therapist and fellow stutterer, to discuss the idea of a charity dedicated to helping those who stutter.


The Stuttering Foundation's goal is to provide the best and latest tools available to prevent stuttering in young children and treat the disability in teens and adults. The Stuttering Foundation offers free online resources, services, and support to individuals who stutter and their families; delivers training programs on stuttering for professionals; and supports research into the causes of stuttering.

Reaching millions of people each year, the Stuttering Foundation of America manages an extensive public awareness campaign to dispel misconceptions about stuttering and inform people that help is available. The charity's press releases have led to thousands of print stories and broadcast segments in media outlets such as The Today Show, CBS This Morning, NPR, CNN, and AP. The Stuttering Foundation also produces public service announcements and advertisements featuring nationally recognized spokespersons.

In addition, the charity has published 29 books, 27 brochures, and 35 DVDs for people concerned about stuttering, including parents, employers, and professionals. Written by leading experts in the field, these publications have been translated into other languages and many are used in speech pathology departments in universities worldwide.

Malcolm Fraser and the Stuttering Foundation were honored with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's Distinguished Service Award for “dedication and effective contributions to the field of speech pathology.”