It’s our privilege to announce the 2023 Classy Award winners. Today, we invite you to join us in celebrating nonprofit organizations leveraging innovative ideas and creative solutions to drive lasting impact.
The Classy Awards 10-Year Anniversary
Classy is dedicated to helping nonprofits raise more by providing innovative, secure technology and trusted fundraising insights grounded in comprehensive research and data analysis. We also take time every June to elevate the accomplishments of the sector we serve.
The Classy Awards has grown to become one of the largest social impact awards in the world, celebrating nonprofits tackling fundamental challenges, like food insecurity, human rights, disaster relief, access to quality education, and public health. This year is particularly special, marking the Classy Awards’ 10th anniversary.
Each of this year’s 11 Classy Awards winners left a lasting impression in 2022 with nearly 1.5 million people and animals served in 34 countries.
A Look Into the Winner Selection Process
Selected by our Leadership Council, this year’s Classy Awards winners include 10 organizations honored for social innovation. Additionally, we honor one organization with the People’s Choice Award, determined by public vote.
The 2023 Leadership Council features 26 distinguished social sector leaders and nonprofit executives. This year’s Leadership Council hosts an impressive collection of top minds, representing the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Doctors Without Borders, Shriners Hospitals for Children, GlobalGiving, and Direct Relief.
Meet the 2023 Classy Award Winners
People’s Choice Award
The People’s Choice award, determined by public vote, highlights the innovation and impact of a nonprofit making incredible contributions to our society.
Winner: Days for Girls International
Program: Menstrual Health Teacher Training, Education, and Products in Cambodia
Days for Girls works with the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS) to eliminate gaps in Cambodia’s menstrual health (MH) education. The project aims to increase access to timely, culturally appropriate MH and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education among students.
By equipping teachers with the training they need, the program helps them teach students comprehensive MH and SRH education. Days for Girls also provides washable, locally produced menstrual pad kits to meet students’ MH management needs.
Following the success of a pilot project in 2022, the project looks forward to equipping 600 teachers with the skills and knowledge necessary to deliver MH education to 15,000 fifth and eighth grade students across several provinces by 2025.
Social Innovation Award
Winner: 412 Food Rescue
Program: Food Rescue Hero
Food Rescue Hero is a people-powered technology platform that effectively redirects surplus food from landfills to those in need. The app alerts volunteer drivers about excess food nearby and guides them to the assigned delivery destinations.
Since 2016, the program has empowered 49,000 volunteer drivers to redirect more than 137 million pounds of excellent food from the waste stream to those who need it.
Food Rescue Hero, based in Pittsburgh, measurably impacts food insecurity with 15 partner organizations across North America. In support of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 2, 12, and 13, the nonprofit strives to scale food recovery in 100 cities by 2030.
Winner: Animal Rescue League of Boston
Program: Wellness Waggin’
The Wellness Waggin’ is a mobile veterinary clinic that provides low-cost wellness exams for owned pets. It operates at four sites hosted by our partner, Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD)—a human service organization that assists people living at the poverty level.
Designed for people and animals, this program aims to serve those who may not otherwise have access to a veterinarian due to location, cost, inflexible work schedules, limited/low English proficiency, or other factors. The Animal Rescue League of Boston also provides animals with preventative care to improve their health and decrease the need for emergency visits (which could lead to surrender or euthanasia).
Winner: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Program: BIG Futures
Big Futures is a college and career readiness initiative to equip young people for post-secondary success through mentorship, education, and access to critical opportunities.
This nationwide movement comprises a network of programs delivered by 122 local Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies. The goal is to empower every kid on the path to graduation with a plan for their future and mentorship opportunities with lifelong impact.
It provides young people with life skills by engaging them in resume writing, mock interviews, career panels, college visits, workplace visits, job shadowing, and aptitude exploration. Many Big Futures participants can access scholarship and internship opportunities through innovative corporate partnerships.
Winner: Crisis Text Line
Program: Play Everywhere
Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, high-quality, confidential mental health and crisis intervention via text, web chat, and WhatsApp in English and Spanish. Texters send a message to 741741 to connect to a volunteer crisis counselor, who receives 30 hours of comprehensive training that includes de-escalation techniques, active listening, collaborative problem-solving, and safety planning.
The organization uses machine learning and data analytics to triage conversations by severity, not time. All conversations are overseen in real-time by clinically trained supervisors with degrees in mental health-related fields who provide additional support when necessary. Conversations end when the texter is in a safe space and feels empowered to identify and use their coping mechanisms.
Winner: Everyone for Veterans
Program: No-Cost Comprehensive Dental Care Program
Everyone for Veterans (E4V) collaborates with civilians and professionals to provide a no-cost comprehensive dental care program and other services to veterans and their families nationwide. The organization recruits dental professionals to provide pro-bono dental services in the communities where the veterans live.
Veterans often spend a lifetime at low-cost dental clinics but never accomplish a healthy dental state. E4V’s comprehensive care model not only resolves veterans’ current dental issues but sets them up for long-term oral and overall health, breaking the cycle of perpetual urgent care.
Winner: Fistula Foundation
Program: Fistula Foundation
Fistula Foundation employs a dual approach to reach as many women as possible with healing care, as the only cure for fistula is surgery:
Partner directly with in-country hospitals and providers that understand how best to serve women in their communities. Along with funding fistula repair surgery, the program helps build the infrastructure needed to expand fistula care. Create and operate integrated, comprehensive Fistula Foundation Treatment Networks (FFTNs) to eliminate suffering on a national level, increasing access to timely, quality fistula treatment and post-operative care.
Each FFTN achieves this goal by deepening the collaboration between local service partners to form a network that shares responsibility for caring for women with fistula across the country.
Winner: Gravity Water
Program: Gravity Water Systems
Gravity Water systems, from Gravity Water, work in schools in rural communities lacking safe water access. The organization’s technology combines rainwater harvesting, elevated storage, and gravity-fed filtration, providing schools with a source of safe water to rely on.
In addition to providing safe drinking water, Gravity Water’s technology allows schools to run entirely off rain, increasing the school’s climate resilience and water security. Built by local community members using local materials and skill sets, Gravity Water’s systems ensure every project enables community empowerment and is resilient over time.
Winner: Hope Foundation for Women and Children of Bangladesh
Program: Hope Field Hospital for Women
The Hope Field Hospital for Women, established in 2018 by the Hope Foundation, delivers on-site free lifesaving and essential medical care for refugee women and children—including in the surrounding communities of the Rohingya settlements in Bangladesh.
Considered a Safe Haven, the hospital saves lives daily, primarily through its 24/7 obstetric emergency services. This hospital is the only one of its kind open 24/7 to attend obstetric medical emergencies such as C-sections in the refugee camps, where about one million people live in very poor and challenging conditions.
Winner: Refugee Women’s Alliance
Program: Domestic Violence Program
The Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA) Domestic Violence Program caters to all immigrants and refugees. With nearly one in four foreign-born residents of King County, Washington, the culturally and linguistically-responsive services the domestic violence (DV) program offers are crucial.
The program delivers the community with culturally competent, trained providers to support survivors and their children as they seek safety and rebuild their lives. Together, DV Program staff speak 24 languages and dialects—the most of any DV provider in the Pacific Northwest.
Last year, ReWA’s Domestic Violence Program served 700 survivors worldwide, including Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America, and East Africa.
Winner: TACT
Program: Teaching the Autism Community Trades
Teaching the Autism Community Trades (TACT) offers career tracks in carpentry, welding, automotive mechanics, electrical, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Its team also conducts workshops offering introductory lessons in various trades and formats for ages 5-18 and older.
TACT’s programs lead to employable individuals and lasting careers that are fulfilling and suited to each person’s strengths.
Celebrating the Impact of Our 2023 Winners
Congratulations to our 2023 Classy Award winners who join a prestigious group of nonprofits embracing new ideas and illustrating the potential to drive change in our society.