Social Impact Blog

An organization created for educators, by educators. That’s how Lauren Greenspan describes Youth Yoga Project, a social enterprise created by herself and co-founder Julia Handelman.   After years of working in academia and public school settings, both Greenspan and Handelman stumbled upon a missing piece of the mental health aspect in K-12 education, for both students […]

Growing up, Amanda Caldwell had no idea that her love and talent for baking would lead to immense impact in her community.  In 2018, Caldwell founded Fourteen Twenty Nine, a bakery with a social mission, in the kitchen of her home. But her support and deep desire to help started years prior, when she learned […]

The street is packed with thousands of people. Music is playing from two stages. Food trucks line the curb and vendors are eagerly selling their products to interested customers. And all money goes to support the community. Sound too good to be true? Enter: The Festival for Good.  Originally called the SEA Change Festival, The […]

In 2018, Amber Hammond arrived to Colombia on a girl’s trip with a close friend who is native to the region of La Guajira, where they would be staying. It was there where Hammond had her first experience with Colombian fashion, culture, and the socioeconomic inequity that makes up much of the country. During a […]

In 2017, the doors to Third Way Café opened in the Greater Hilltop area at 3058 W. Broad St., its owner blissfully unaware of the booming social enterprise it would soon become.  “It’s a coffee shop with a different outlook on things,” Owner Tim Rush explains. The café, which was named to represent a “third […]

SocialVentures is proud to announce the 2020 Annual Report: The State of Social Enterprise in Central Ohio. Every year, we showcase the amazing social enterprises that have gone above and beyond to serve their community. This year, we celebrate the resiliency and dispatch of social enterprises and small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. For most, […]

Tyler Bonner never thought he’d be making face shields when he first founded Zero Waste Event Productions in 2011. After working with Rural Action, where Bonner spent two years cleaning illegal dump sites and working with local events to reduce waste sent to the landfill, he eventually took over operations. It was then that the […]

SocialVentures is excited to announce our Series Sponsor for the 2020 RePositioned to Prosper: PtP ReImagined virtual event.  For the last five years, we hosted our annual Positioned to Prosper event in person, celebrating the incredible work of our 104+ social enterprises. This year, we’ve decided to pivot, due to the now uncertain foreseeable future […]

This time last year, we gathered together at the Columbus Museum of Art for Positioned to Prosper 2019 to celebrate the 98+ social enterprises that encompass the SocialVentures family. This year, we’re doing things a little differently.  Just as many of you have had to adjust to new challenges and obstacles, SocialVentures has also had […]

Donor-advised funding, also known as DAFs, is the process by which the money and assets that is intended to go to a non-profit someday, has no payout requirements, and can virtually sit in a “fund” for decades. The controversial method of charitable giving, also known as “zombie philanthropy,” is also one of the most booming, […]