Our Mission
Empower purpose-driven organizations with the tools and resources to scale their impact and drive system change.
Our Story
Our journey began more than 70 years ago, but it was just over a decade ago that everything changed.
When Traci Donnelly and her longtime colleague Steve Donowitz joined The Child Center of NY, they found an organization beloved by its community but struggling for survival. With operations running out of a basement beneath a dollar store and bankruptcy looming, the future looked uncertain. The potential loss of vital services would have devastated thousands of New Yorkers.
That’s when Traci, Steve, and the incredible staff at The Child Center got to work.
Today, The Child Center is a $115 million organization serving over 60,000 New Yorkers each year. Under Traci’s bold, visionary leadership, the organization transformed—proving that nonprofits can and should operate with the same innovation, strategic thinking, and agility as the best-run businesses.
From “twinkles to wrinkles,” The Child Center embraced a full continuum of care—supporting individuals from infancy through older adulthood. And in 2020, in response to the global pandemic, they once again pushed the boundaries. They launched a bold pilot inspired by universal basic income—centered around peer-driven change and trust in communities. The results were extraordinary.
That success sparked a realization: the challenges The Child Center faced weren’t unique—and the solutions they discovered had the power to create systemic change far beyond their own footprint.
That’s how Make An Impact was born.
Backed by a landmark investment from The Child Center of NY, Make An Impact was created to bring together the brightest minds in the nonprofit sector—sharing resources, leveraging new technologies, harnessing the power of storytelling, and reimagining what’s possible when we innovate together.
No one could have predicted the seismic shifts of 2025. As public funding evaporated and the nonprofit sector was left to navigate a crisis without a safety net, Make An Impact rose to the moment—uniting purpose-driven organizations, private sector allies, visionary funders, and creative storytellers into a movement of movements.
Today, we are a network of over 700 nonprofit partners—and we’re just getting started.
We believe that with innovation, creativity, and above all, collaboration, we will not only weather this moment—we will emerge from it stronger, more united, and more impactful than ever before.
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We’re at a turning point.
Across the country, purpose-driven organizations are facing an impossible choice:
Close their doors. Scale back their services.
Or dare to think differently.
If you’re feeling helpless in the face of today’s challenges, you ’re not alone.
You want to help. You just need a place to start.
That’s where Make An Impact comes in.
Born from one of New York’s most transformative nonprofits, Make An Impact is a new kind of force in the social sector. We connect everyday people with the causes they care about—and power a network of hundreds of grassroots organizations doing the hard work to keep our communities moving forward.
Your donation doesn’t just go to one nonprofit.
It fuels hundreds, providing them with shared resources, innovative tools, creative storytelling, and strategic support. We reduce their costs, help improve their services, and elevate their voices—so they can focus on what they do best: helping people.
This isn’t charity. It’s not performative. It’s a movement of movements.
Because when we come together—with creativity, innovation, and purpose…that’s how you Make An Impact.
