A Face to the Name: 6 Under the Radar Local Nonprofits
by Taylor Costello
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“Many hands make light work,” as the saying goes to describe a high-functioning group.
But it’s an entirely different metric for a nonprofit when a small number of employees take on the work of multiple people to further their organization. When the final result of that work ethic looks effortless, it’s due to a team’s resourcefulness and continuity.
For Saturday, August 17, National Nonprofit Day, Phoenix Community Alliance (PCA) recognizes the work of nonprofit Members with less than ten employees performing the work of a team double that.
Join us as we highlight six of our local nonprofits and a handful of the professionals doing unsung work to accomplish hard things. Allow us to introduce you to a handful of these Members and the goals driving them.
Meet the Nonprofit: Think of the name Nourish Phoenix as a catch-all for the services provided to vulnerable populations. Since 1983, they have functioned as a food and clothing pantry and a Job and Resource Center (JRC), where a customized assistance program helps clients bypass employment barriers.
Assistance ranges from paying for work boots to rental assistance and transportation needs. Their operations ensure homes have full refrigerators, closets, and other basic living staples.
Meet Mary: No single day is identical for Mary Wolf-Francis. As Nourish Phoenix’s Director of Development, the last six years have tested her abilities in her position, including grant writing, donor outreach, and community engagement. But that’s also why she loves her job.
She says the best part of her day is directly interacting with the community she supports. During a two-and-a-half hour shift at the front desk, she learns the life stories of people at their most vulnerable, assesses what they need most, and how the nonprofit can assist:
For a client single-handedly providing for his toddler son, Nourish Phoenix acts as a “life source” at a time when it might feel like there is no support elsewhere. Food and quality work clothes come from their shelves, and the Nourish team treats them both like family. Every day, he moves closer to steady employment and a safe neighborhood for his son.
Of course, the nonprofit gathers numbers to compile success rates to evangelize for fundraising, but to Mary, each data point is someone she’s gotten to know. And that’s the real reward.
Meet the Nonprofit: You’ve probably heard of Arizona Educational Foundation’s signature initiatives before, such as Arizona Teacher of the Year, the Arizona Spelling Bee, and A+ Schools of Excellence. These are educational programs and spotlights that the foundation coordinates year-round.
But this only hints at the foundation’s standard of excellence. Over time, the nonprofit has built a robust program of diverse courses, from addressing teacher shortages to lawmakers shadowing teachers, cultivating a new generation of excelling public schools and educators.
Meet Kim: Kim Graham entered a well-oiled machine when she joined after a stint at a New Orleans nonprofit in 2018. When the position popped up on the ASU Lodestar Center Nonprofit Job Board, the excitement to spotlight the best in public education spoke for itself. And a desire to return to Arizona to live closer to her mother sealed the deal.
A few months later, her first day as the new CEO involved meeting AEF’s Teacher of the Year selection committee. She was immediately amazed by the passion of the committee members and nominees.
Despite their pedigree as people recognized as the best teachers in Arizona’s school system, the nominees sometimes have a nagging sense of imposter syndrome. Yet journaling about their careers flips a switch when they’re filling out the application form. The effort causes reflection on the opportunities they’ve given students and ultimately reinvigorates why they became teachers in the first place.
Meet the Nonprofit: Creative expression inspired Skye’s the Limit’s Foundation namesake and continues to influence the youth interacting with its initiatives. The inception of the foundation came from Skye Pilato, who lost her life from an overdose in 2014. Her creativity now inspires all its programming.
Now, her mother, Keiko, operates a safe space to empower youths against trauma through art and community. Much of the creative programming gives voice to youth and develops a language to articulate emotions. In Downtown Phoenix, these footprints are visible through her storefront at the Arizona Center, where it’s an open art studio or a space to create a Zen Garden. A visit to the top floor of the parking garage reveals a mural called “Expressing Ourselves,” a community effort contributing images around the themes of identity, diversity, and thriving in adversity.
Meet Keiko: Until recently, Keiko Ratcliffe did this all alone. As the sole employee running the day-to-day operations of her nonprofit for the last five years, she had to be flexible and wear many hats, from programs manager to communications director to chief fundraiser.
Yet, she recently reached a seminal moment by hiring another full-time staff member apart from herself. Furthermore, the former art teacher sees her sweat equity beginning to pay off, helping other families to navigate trauma.
Recently, she held a workshop for youths, a demographic known to experience social isolation, to satisfy their court-mandated community service. At the beginning of the session, a youth made a painting that hinted at sadness. After two hours of sharing stories in a group setting, they were asked to share a positive lesson on the back of that same canvas: a succinct “Love is Powerful.”
Meet the Nonprofit: Across three decades, Genesis City assisted more than 7,000 at-risk youths to transcend adverse backgrounds to find “new beginnings” and ultimately alter the course of their lives. These “trailblazers,” as they’re called, often come from families where they are the first to graduate from high school.
Even after graduation, former students return to program resources, including Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) assistance, employment assistance (resume writing and interview skills), technology support, and other services that eliminate barriers to additional success.
Meet Shana: Genesis City and Shana Tompa were always a perfect fit. Before joining in 2000, Tompa gained expertise as an educator in Chicago’s public school system. She thrived on working with disadvantaged youth to realize untapped potential. That passion still shines as Genesis’ Director of Development, where she fills the gap of partial state funding.
When the school receives new students, they are disengaged and in danger of falling through the cracks. So, teachers must quickly create a nurturing environment for better attendance and boosted confidence and effort. A sufficient budget makes this possible.
Tompa has stayed with the school long enough to see graduates come back through, but not as troubled youth: A graduate who spent three years with the program recently returned to serve on their executive board in her free time. After graduating as her class valedictorian in 2006, she rose through multiple positions with the City of Phoenix to her current position as a Deputy Housing Director. And there are countless others like her.
Meet the Nonprofit: Each year, the Harmony Project empowers more than 350 students by lowering the financial barriers to pursuing a musical performing career. The children they serve, as young as three years old, often come from underserved communities. For every student in the program, 96 percent of them are first-generation college students. They provide high-quality instruction at no cost to the students.
The nonprofit’s recent inclusionary efforts include a new program called Lotus Ensemble, where music gives children with developmental disabilities a space for development.
Meet Diogo: If Diogo Pereira had to point to a transformative moment in his formative years in Brazil, it was when he performed as a musician in public. He can’t help but relate to kids from similar households who come through the Harmony Project’s doors. He sees the same opportunity to generate pathways of economic mobility through performance.
Before joining as their executive director, he worked as a music teacher. His current role expands on that past career to nurture growth. When students first enter the program, they are asked to articulate their dreams, which many can’t envision or don’t believe college is for them.
However, as Diogo sees them eventually taking the stage and performing live, he sees them actualizing their growth—just as he was as a young musician.
Meet the Nonprofit: To say a childhood cancer diagnosis affects a family’s life is an understatement. Every family takes their own path, and the nonprofit eases the emotional weight of treatment, both for the “warriors” and their parents.
From generating programming (called “Major Distractions”) to care packages, therapeutic services, and financial assistance, Amanda Hope Rainbow Angels supports every contour of a familiar story.
Meet Neve: Neve Aubel is just one of a dedicated team of therapists providing free counseling services for families processing trauma and life-threatening circumstances, which are unfortunately too familiar. She joined the team full-time in August 2023 after transitioning from private practice, where she now works as part of the Comfort and Care Team.
As part of their signature services, Amanda Hope hosts monthly family-friendly activities, such as free movie nights, museum visits, craft days, and other activities that promote self-care practices for caregivers and families.
The Major Distractions are one more place for her to interact with the nonprofit’s clients and recognize that each family’s story is unique. But their stories are not something to be experienced alone. The people she supports inspire her with their bravery, and it’s a privilege to walk alongside them to make an unbearable experience slightly less so.
At the end of every Annual Member Meeting in December, staff encourages PCA Members to donate to our nonprofit Members and schools, many of which are Qualified Charitable Organizations (QCO). This list takes the form of a multiple-page handout.
The organizations mentioned above are only a drop in the bucket of more than 50 nonprofits we proudly count as Members. No two nonprofits are alike, yet they all share a dedicated staff who believe in the mission and the potential to transform lives.
If any of these Members were inspiring, consider looking through the list below of under-the-radar nonprofits as a springboard for additional support:
Other Nonprofit PCA Members (with less than ten employees): Archwood Community Resource & Empowerment Strategies (ACRES), All in Education, Arizona Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ACBVI), Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation, The Arizona Pet Project, Arizona Forward, Artlink Phoenix, Community Food Connections, Digital Equity Institute, Elaine AZ, The Foundation for Female Equity & Inclusion, The Garment League, George Washington Carver Museum & Cultural Center, Global Ties Arizona, Hance Park Conservancy, Harvest Compassion Center, HopeKids, Irish Cultural Center & McClelland Library, Keep Phoenix Beautiful, Million Dollar Teacher Project, Museum of Arizona Artists (MOAZA), Phoenix Art Deco Society, Phoenix Chorale, Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations (PCFR), Phoenix Revitalization Corporation (PRC), The Phoenix Symphony, Sounds of Autism, and Xico.