5 Favorite Charities of 2025
Updated: Sep 21
Some smaller organizations making big impact.
2025 has been, in many ways, a disheartening year. But that’s precisely what makes organizations doing meaningful work shine all the brighter. You know the big names—American Cancer Society, Make-A-Wish Foundation—and they do vital work. But I want to use this platform to highlight smaller organizations that are no less important or impressive in their impact. Continue reading to hear more about my favorite charities of 2025!
1. Journey Home
Apply sustainable solutions to the barriers that create cycles of homelessness. We are proud to be a lead agency within the Greater Hartford and Central Coordinated Access Network, developer of the Career Pathways Employment Program, and creator of A Hand Up.
Journey Home works each day:
To prevent as many people as possible from losing their housing
To increase the speed at which we find housing for anyone who is already experiencing homelessness
To help folks move into their homes and provide furnishings and household items
To help them gain the income and services they need to never become homeless again
The Innocence Project works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions, and create fair, compassionate, and equitable systems of justice for everyone. In 2025, they secured the exoneration of their 250th wrongfully convicted person, representing decades of stolen lives returned to innocent people. I support them because our justice system’s legitimacy depends on its accuracy, and every person freed represents not just one life saved but a systemic failure corrected.
The American Indian College Fund provides scholarships and support to Native American students attending tribal colleges and universities, institutions that serve as anchors of cultural preservation and economic opportunity in their communities. In 2025, they awarded over $10 million in scholarships to more than 5,000 Native students, directly addressing the significant educational attainment gap facing Native communities. I support them because investing in education at tribal colleges isn’t just about individual opportunity—it’s about supporting Indigenous self-determination and cultural sovereignty.
Jazz Power Initiative uses jazz education as a vehicle for youth development, providing free music instruction, instruments, and mentorship to underserved young people in New Orleans. This year, they celebrated 100% of their high school seniors graduating and continuing to college or vocational training, a remarkable achievement in a city where educational inequality remains stark. I support them because music education provides more than technical skills—it builds discipline, creativity, collaboration, and the kind of confidence that transforms lives.
5. First Book
First Book provides new books and educational resources to educators and programs serving children in need, addressing the book desert that exists in many low-income communities. In 2025, they distributed over 20 million books and educational resources to children and families across the country, ensuring that financial barriers don’t determine who gets access to reading material. I support them because literacy is foundational to everything else—economic mobility, civic participation, and the simple joy of losing yourself in a story—and no child should be denied books because of their zip code.
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