Nonprofits Case Study

In an effort to gain perspective on other groups doing similar things and improve ourselves, we perform case studies on various organizations and Instagram accounts. If you'd like to see a case study on a particular organization/Instagram account let us know. If you'd like to participate in the process, we have templates available for each, and as long as you have an account, anyone can edit the pages for greater clarification. If you have comments on the process, reach out! We are always working on ourselves and our organization.

Changemaker Xchange

Lookup.live

Provide funds for youth change-makers who is providing solution to youth mental health crisis

youth change-makers

Provide funds and support, through these programs  

  1. Grants for Innovators,  

  2. Podcast to Amplify, 

    1. Spotify Podcast 

  3. Events, 

  4. Give Youth a Platform 

  1. Timely

    1. Timely is a skill-sharing platform that connects users with others locally based on mutual skills, hobbies, or activities and helps coordinate a time/place to do them together.

    2. https://lookup.live/timely 

  2. Write it Down

    1. Communicating the power of journaling to be an agent of self comprehension and healing.

    2. https://lookup.live/writeitdown 

  3. Ctrl + Z: The Climate Mental Health Podcast 

    1. Winners of the exposure labs storytelling grant 

    2. Youth are carrying the burden of the world’s future and being asked to fix it. Ctrl+Z: The Mental Health podcast takes a deep dive into the intersecting issues that youth are grappling with and centers stories about youth resilience in the face of the climate crisis.

    3. https://lookup.live/ctrlzpodcast 

  4. GoYogi

    1. We aim to increase access to proactive, mindfulness-based mental health education. Utilizing technology, GoYogi works to integrate custom stress management techniques, breathing exercises, and mindfulness practices directly into the school’s culture and curriculum.

    2. https://lookup.live/goyogi 

  5. Growing Digital with Jules Terpak

    1. Winners of the exposure labs storytelling grant 

    2. Growing Digital with Jules Terpak is a media platform that helps people understand how human-computer interaction is evolving. 

  6. Highlight Reel 

    1. Who's behind the highlight reel? Highlight Reel is an exhibit exploring how the perfected versions of ourselves that we post on social media are only a fraction of the picture.

    2. https://lookup.live/highlightreel 

  7. Impact Playground 

    1. Winners of the exposure labs storytelling grant 

    2. Impact Playground aims to develop personalized and comprehensive social-justice education that empowers and equips youth to pursue diverse pathways to social impact.

    3. https://lookup.live/impactplayground 

  8. Know The System 

    1. We are a collective of activists that utilize the power of storytelling to shift the narrative on mental health and advance real solutions through policy, culture, and communication.

    2. https://lookup.live/knowthesystem 

  9. Others 


https://www.instagram.com/lookup_live/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/lookup-live/

Force Of Nature

Organization Name: Force Of Nature

Organization Country: UK, with a student network spanning 50+ countries 

They “help their community channel climate anxiety into agency; develop the skills to make a difference; and inspire change at the systemic level.”

Their audience is youth, but they also work on “intergenerational exchange,” connecting youth with (old people) policymakers. “This means bringing together the energy of youth, with the knowledge of experience.”

3 pronged approach: 


Climate Cafes, youth can host cafes to discuss climate change related issues. They have a micro grant program for people who want to host but can’t afford to.

#ClimateConfessions: basically like halfthestory but the videos and posts are focused around climate change anxiety


Business-like, very structured within the organization. Everyone has specific roles and works underneath someone(s) else. Not sure if they’re a nonprofit, but they are always looking to work with nonprofits. They were founded in 2019 and seem to have come a long way since then.

Multiple Fortune 500 companies, including P&G, Pepsico, and Unilever, as well as government funding and donations.

They, like many other organizations that have been analyzed, have a “2022 impact report” detailing what they did in 2022 to further their mission. Website is weird and sometimes hard to navigate.

GenZ Talks

Organization Country: U.S. 

Giving the youth voice a seat at the table, through Live Events, Reverse Mentoring and Content Production.

Youth entrepreneur and corporation 

To collaborate with organisations to deliver the most fun, engaging and impactful events that bring together Gen Z talent and companies in a 50/50. split audience.

Connect 10,000 entrepreneurially minded Gen Zs to forward thinking companies, to increase innovation, skills and intrapreneurship in the workplace.

Help SME and corporate companies better engage and retain the younger generation and become a youth friendly employer.

Conference, talks, 

There is no information on the youth start ups 

Real founders not on website 

Company sponsorship 

We can learn from their website structure 

The Empathy Alliance

Organization Country: United States

Make education safer and more inclusive for LGBTQ+ youth

Educators, students, LGBTQ+ youth

The founder partners with various organizations (like the white house) to spread awareness, and the founder often does speeches/talk shows/interviews to further spread awareness, and ensure that nobody else has to go through what he did. Their three approaches are: spreading awareness, educating educators, and transforming communities.

Speaking at events geared towards educators and youth-serving professionals.

Seems like one leader (Sameer Jha) and a host of unnamed donors and supporters. The group partners with many other organizations to spread the message of LBGTQ+ acceptance and identity.

Likely CA based donations, and certainly federal grants.

Seems like the website hasn’t been updated since 2022. Much of this work seems awareness focused, and they mention that they have “reached over 1 million people” through their work. It’s hard to measure the success of this organization, but they’re doing something right if Biden invited Sameer to the White House to “advise on the needs of trans youth.”

The Climate Initiative

Organization Country: United States

Provide education and tools for engagement towards the end of transitioning regular communities to climate resilient communities. Education and empowerment initiatives are community based.

“Young climate champions” – People who care about the planet and its people, and are young.

They educate and engage communities with their programs/resources

There are nine programs:

Staff made up mostly of youth, with a few adults (leaders, maybe)

Advisory Board made up of middle aged to old people

Board of directors that mostly dinosaurs with a smattering of younger people


Likely the dinosaurs on the board of directors, with some donations

They partner with a lot of corporations, have a “join the movement” link in the footer of every page, and have about 45 people within the organization, between the three different levels of the organizational structure.


Their main deliverable:  “TCI aims to educate, empower and activate 1 million youth to reach this goal by 2025.”



All of these questions were easily answered in about 10 minutes of going through their page. We need to be similar.

The Steve Fund

Support the mental health and emotional well-being of young people of color by promoting programs and strategies

Our Goals

Our goals are: A robust national dialogue; adoption of effective programs by colleges and universities; greater knowledge and utilization of campus mental health services; and the increased competency of families and mental health organizations serving our demographic.

Young people of color

The Fund holds an annual conference series, Young, Gifted & @Risk, and offers a Knowledge Center with curated expert information. With multicultural mental health experts it delivers on-campus and on-site programs and services for colleges and non-profits, and through tech partnerships it provides direct services to young people of color.

1. Building knowledge and thought leadership

2. Creating programs and strategic partnerships

3. Promoting awareness and dialogue

4. Producing immediate impact for students through tech innovations

United We Dream

Organization Country: United States

They are the largest immigrant youth-led network in the country, and they fight for the dignity and respect of all immigrants

Immigrant youth, people who are passionate about their cause, and policymakers.

They organize rallies, demonstrations, legal campaigns, and social media campaigns to stop people from getting deported and give them a future in the United States.

Undeniable! campaign, pushing for policymakers to write legislation that would:


Grassroots movement with millions of roots and a central leadership who holds the legal powerhouse

Regular people, donations

These guys are very effective and quite large. We should include immigration resources on the wiki.

We R Native

Organization Country: United States

We R Native is a resource page for native youth, by native youth. It’s literally us but specifically for native youth.

Native youth


They offer lots of online resources available to anyone, and do outreach via community projects, sending ambassadors to conferences, and inviting any native youth to contribute as much or as little as they like on the website. There are mental health resources, career resources, and more.


“Ask your relative,” and a few different programs/articles for LGBTQ native youth, a group which is doubly more likely to commit suicide than being part of either single group.



A central group that runs the website and provides “incentives” (money) to anybody who wants to be an ambassador for We R Native. Again, very similar to us.

“funds from the Indian Health Service and the Minority AIDS Initiative Fund, and by a GLS suicide prevention grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration.”

What else stands out?

Website is kinda chunky, but overall the organization is REMARKABLY similar to what we want to do.

Youth Climate Lab

Provide youth with skills, financial support, and policy knowledge in order to aid in the fight against climate change.


Young stem people looking to help with climate change and create a climate-resilient future

Radical collaboration, providing youth with the 3 things they believe are necessary to creating just, climate-resilient futures: policy knowledge, financial support, and necessary skills.

https://www.youthclimatelab.org/impact

Two programs: Cohorts and Collectives

Cohorts: Four to eight-month fellowship-style programs for participants to build the skills, knowledge and relationships they need to become lifelong climate leaders.

Collectives: Large-scale, multi-partner initiatives focused on creating the enabling conditions, such as finance, connections, and knowledge, to scale youth-led climate action.

One executive, 6 managers. A board of directors who likely has significant influence on their actions, as well as a group of “associates” that are likely companies/scientists that they partner with. There seem to be no people older than 40 anywhere in their organizational structure.

Hard to say, likely some crowdfunding and the majority is a mix of government grants and private donations

They have an excellent “Impact” page, which shows everything that they’ve done in a way that inflates their sense of success to the viewer. It’s very flattering and well done/persuasive. They also have a blog page that is similar to our wiki page but not as cool.


This is present at the bottom of every page.

Overall, YCl is a great example of what we should try to emulate. They have three core approaches to their mission of teaching policy knowledge, skills, and providing financial support/knowledge. They involve the community as much as they can, and essentially do the same as us, break down barriers to human flourishing, but their flourishing is a future where the planet doesn’t hate us.

The Cybersmile Foundation

Organization Name:

The Cybersmile Foundation

Organization Country:

U.S. and U.K. 

 https://www.cybersmile.org 

What do they do?

digital wellbeing and tackling all forms of bullying and abuse online

image.png

image.png

Who’s their audience?

youth 

What are their approaches?

advocacy through influencers 

use testimonies to drive their donations 

What’s their current program/project?

companies can find them to make a one-off awareness campaign https://www.cybersmile.org/what-we-do/corporate 

STOP CYBERBULLYING DAY 2023

What’s their organizational structure?


ADVISORY PANEL
Our panel of world renowned experts ensure that we are always leading the way through innovation and expertise.

AMBASSADORS (famous people)
Our growing team of Cybersmile Ambassadors work together to promote our campaigns and initiatives to millions of people around the world.

PARTNERS
We work alongside some of the worlds leading brands to make the internet truly inclusive for users of all ages.

PATRONS
Our network of Patrons and Vice-Patrons play an integral part in the year-round activities of Cybersmile.

TESTIMONIALS
We love hearing from people that we have helped! See what people from all over the world are saying about the impact Cybersmile has had on their lives.

Who funds them? (can be hard to track down, make an educated guess)

Unknown

What else stands out?

Celebrity and influencer driven 

Championing Youth Minds

Organization Name:

Championing Youth Minds

Organization Country:

U.K. 

https://www.championingyouthminds.com 

What do they do?

We aim to provide a platform through which young people can help other young people care for their mental wellbeing. 

Through free online resources accessible to all schools, parents and youth, workshops and social media, we help our youth understand mental health and effective strategies that work best for them. 

Who’s their audience?

PRIMARY, SECONDARY,  Higher education, All other ages, experiences and backgrounds

What are their approaches?

 education 

What’s their current program/project?

podcast, workshop 

What’s their organizational structure?

image.png

Who funds them? (can be hard to track down, make an educated guess)

no idea 

What else stands out?

last Instagram post 23 weeks ago 

not 501 c 3 

Youth Mental Health Project

Organization Name: Youth Mental Health Project

Organization Country: United States 

1. EVENTS AND SUPPORT https://ymhproject.org/screenings-and-events/ 

2. EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS 

3. FILM

NO LETTING GO
A compelling film about one family’s journey to understand and seek help for their son’s emotional instability and erratic behavior.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3438208/

4. THE PARENT SUPPORT NETWORK

https://ymhproject.org/parent-support-network/ 

parents 

advocacy 

none

Program Director, Interim Executive Director, Administrative Manager, Founder --> Board of Directors

https://ymhproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/YMHP-AnnualReport-FINAL_3.21.22.pdf

image.png

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not active in 2023? last post in Instagram is 8 weeks ago https://www.instagram.com/ymhproject/?hl=en 

AmeriCorps

Organization Country: United States

Americorps connects both youth and older folks with opportunities around the US where they can contribute to local community growth and development. They spawned out of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), created during the Great Depression by FDR, in order to provide jobs for the jobless and build necessary infrastructure at the same time. Their listed goal is to “make service to others an indispensable part of the American experience.”

Their audience is all Americans, but especially youth.

They have 6 focuses: Disaster services, education, economic opportunity, environmental stewardship, healthy futures, and veterans and military families.

There are 10s of programs within each of their 6 approaches. Each program is locally focused, and Americorps connects them.

They are a government program that both directly connects with youth and with other, more local organizations. An example of this is Kupu, a program in Hawaii focused on environmental stewardship. Kupu has 6 month and one-year programs that are essentially paid internships, and Americorps provides the funding that pays the interns, and Kupu provides the direction. 

Government funding + private sector donations.

Americorps does much of what we aim to do, but for more than youth, and they largely only work with other organizations to provide them with people. The biggest difference is that Americorps is a government program, whereas we are not.


https://thewowfoundation.com/young-leaders-directory-2022

Instagram Page of @bymariandrew

Organization/Individual: Mari Andrew, Author of "AM I THERE YET" and "MY INNER SKY"

IG Handle: @bymariandrew

Followers: ~925k

Engagement (% of followers liking average post): Unknown, like counts hidden

How often they post slides/photos:

1-2 per month

How often they post reels:

N/A, no reels posted

What kind of content?

Personal photos and writings, each with a form of personal meditation attached

What ratio of content?

Roughly 1:1 ratio of Personal : Writing posts

Other notable features:

She has a newsletter, and seems to have such a large following by virtue of her writing, rather than her social media presence.

Instagram Page of @gemmacorrell

Organization/Individual: Gemma Correll, an artist who does comics on mental health (and pugs)

IG Handle: @gemmacorrell

Followers: 950k

Engagement (% of followers liking average post): 1-10%

How often they post slides/photos: Once per week

How often they post reels:

No reels posted since 2022.

What kind of content?

Almost all mental health comics, with very rare personal posts

What ratio of content?

No ratio needed, generally only one kind of content

Other notable features:

Lots of story highlights, as well as an Instagram guide. An Instagram guide for each region that we operate in would be a good addition to our page, with each guide containing local resources. One guide with resources that are available in most US locales would be a good place to start.

Color of Change

What do they do?/What are their primary activities?

What are opportunities for young people to participate in the organization/in the field?
    - if there are specific opportunities who is the point of contact?

Who’s their audience?
What are their approaches?
What’s their current program/project/work?
What’s their organizational structure?
Who funds them? (can be hard to track down, make an educated guess)
What else stands out?


Instagram Page of @brenebrown

Organization: “Unlocking Us” podcast and a few books, the page is the author’s personal page and showcases their various projects, as well as awareness for a few different social causes.

IG Handle: @brenebrown

Followers: 4.9 million

Engagement (% of followers liking average post): 1-5% (50k likes average per post)

How often they post slides/photos:

Once every few months, but no posts since February 2023 as of July 2023

How often they post reels:

Very rarely, no reels posted since April 2022

What kind of content?

Most of the content on this page promotes the author and their projects, with some story highlights. THe story highlights are announcements about upcoming projects, her daily life, her dog, and some touring that she did. 

What ratio of content?

No memes, all serious content with relatively low engagement. Every post is about one of her books or a new episode of her podcast dropping. 

Other notable features:

Despite the lack of recent stories and posts, this page is very populated and welcoming. Story highlights add a level of humanity to the account that her posts do not.

 

Instagram Page of @cocktailsandcapitalism

Organization: Cocktails and Capitalism (Podcast)

IG Handle: @cocktailsandcapitalism

Followers: 39k

Engagement: (% of followers liking average post): 2-20%

How often they post slides/photos:

Daily

How often they post reels: 

Daily

What kind of content?

What ratio of content?

Other notable features:

AN array of story highlights promoting podcast episodes, the STOP COP CITY movement, Palestine, and a bunch of other movements, as well as one that is strictly for the page owner's "private" life. 

Instagram page of @allira.potter

Organization: This page is for an individual. They're an author and model. 

IG Handle: @allira.potter

Followers: 49k

Engagement (% of followers liking average post): Unknown, like counts on posts have been removed.

How often they post slides/photos: 

2-3 times per week

How often they post reels:

3-4 times per month

What kind of content?

The content is mostly Allira's daily life, with a few plugs for sponsored products, as well as some mental health focused content, daily affirmations and such.

What ratio of content?

Ratio of personal : sponsored : mental health is roughly 3:1:3

Other notable features:

Not many highlights, but lots of daily stories are posted.

Managing a Nonprofit Organization by Thomas Wolf

Chapter 1 : https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ICQGocT8pXgZVpL-wDjkgdBAs0qsLPyJn0xdegSXndI/edit?usp=sharing

Chapter 3: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JE6cKCvhcXhhQWVez2xoL9jsHLjzHUc99FAi-PsL8I4/edit?usp=sharing

 

Instagram Page of @dearmyanxiety

Organization/Individual: dearmyanxiety is a podcast run by Stefania Rossi, this page is largely focused on the podcast.

IG Handle: @dearmyanxiety

Followers: ~400k

Engagement (% of followers liking average post): 1-5%

How often they post slides/photos:

1-2 times per week

How often they post reels:

Roughly once per month

What kind of content?

Podcast plugs, personal posts, and mental health tips/strategies

What ratio of content?

The ratio of podcast : personal : MH strategies is around 1:1:6

Other notable features:

Many story highlights that started and ended at varying times, with a few that get new things added more regularly. There are a few scattered memes throughout the page, but most of the content is material that Stefania has created to help others with the mental health issues that they have had throughout their life.

Instagram Page of @makedaisychains

Organization/Individual: Hannah Daisy, a queer illustrator and occupational therapist from the UK

IG Handle: @makedaisychains

Followers:  ~155k

Engagement (% of followers liking average post): 1-10%

How often they post slides/photos:

3-4 times per week

How often they post reels:

1-2 times per week

What kind of content?

Mental health, disability, and LBGTQ awareness. Lots of cute cartoons about different social issues, especially surrounding LBGTQ youth. Some twitter screenshots, photos from their life.

What ratio of content?

Almost all comics with a different thing about every 8 posts.

Other notable features:

Lots of story highlights and seemingly daily posts to their story.

July 18 week Instagram Case Studies

Adele 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lLRJQd0zf0jejQybhGB54BYlwKD3U98seVO9cQEYQVY/edit?usp=sharing 

Connor 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14aKlclW2xFCzMf5QMh56atyqcqAU5XH3omCwJ0H4dmM/edit?usp=sharing 

Joanna