This year, voters and NIA judges chose 14 nonprofits — of all missions, sizes, and locations — to win cash prize donations! Congratulations to everyone! Winners were not required to be members of NIA.
Winners are listed below, or you can view a page with all the photos submitted here.
Best of Show • $1,000 winner
The Big Easy in Buffalo
Buffalo, NY • thebigeasyinbuffalo.com
Since 2007, this nonprofit has brought the sights and sounds of New Orleans to Western New York, connecting Louisiana performers with the Greater Buffalo community through live performances and community engagement.
They do this by bringing bands from Louisiana to town for free or affordable concerts that are open to the public.
While these bands are in town, they also provide mentoring, professional development, or music education sessions to local professional or student musicians.
Standing Ovation (1 of 2) • $500 winner
African Voices Communications
Brooklyn, NY • africanvoices.com
Founded in 1992, this nonprofit arts organization is dedicated to fostering cultural understanding through art, literature, and film.
This mission is carried out through public programs, arts appreciation, and the publication of “African Voices” magazine, which plays a pivotal role in helping writers and visual artists establish careers in art and publishing.
Over the past 30 years, African Voices has published the works of over 4,500+ emerging artists of color and presented more than 10,500 community programs to expand access to the arts.
Each year, African Voices provides artistic services to 5,000 artists of color and young people throughout New York City and the tri-state area.
Standing Ovation (2 of 2) • $500 winner
Hope Services
Bakersfield, CA • www.hopeservices.org
Their mission is to foster inclusive communities where individuals and families affected by intellectual or developmental disabilities and mental health challenges can find opportunities for growth, connection, and lifelong success.
They serve approximately 3,700 people and their families in nine Bay Area counties and provide a broad spectrum of services.
Hope also operates a number of businesses to raise funds and provide employment for people with developmental disabilities, including a recycle/reuse business for clothing and household goods, auto donations, HopeTHRIFT stores, and staffing solutions for businesses.
Spotlight (1 of 10) • $100 winner
Torn Space Theater
Buffalo, NY • www.tornspacetheater.com
This performing arts nonprofit is committed to bringing innovative performance to both their community and to the world.
They aim to create original, aesthetically innovative performances, introduce internationally renowned, contemporary performance to Western New York, and to cultivate the collaboration of actors, composers, sculptors, video artists, and designers within their productions.
Offering both original drama and new interpretations of existing plays, Torn Space Theater fully incorporates other arts disciplines — media, music, and the visual arts — into their design aesthetic to create vivid imagery that both entertains and challenges audiences.
Spotlight (2 of 10) • $100 winner
Sones de México Ensemble
Chicago, IL • sonesdemexico.com
Their mission is to promote greater appreciation of Mexican folk and traditional music and culture through innovative performance, education, and dissemination.
Sones de México Ensemble educates, researches, preserves, arranges, presents, performs, and disseminates Mexican folk and traditional music and dance to children and adults of all nationalities, physical abilities, and cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
The ensemble has developed and popularized many original arrangements of Mexican traditional tunes through touring, both within the United States and internationally.
With Mexican culture and heritage interwoven into every performance and program, the organization offers a number of educational and outreach programs, including music lessons, elementary and college residencies, children’s programs, workshops, lectures and songwriting classes.
Spotlight (3 of 10) • $100 winner
Running for a Better Oakland
Oakland, CA • www.rboakland.org
Their mission is to empower Oakland children of all ages and abilities to develop healthy lifestyles and go the extra mile — in running and in life — by providing access to meaningful running programs.
By providing training and encouragement, they help students build confidence and set goals, giving them tools for achievement and hard work they can draw on in all areas of their lives.
Through the discipline and rigor of a structured running program, Running for a Better Oakland’s goal is to create new relationships, establish trust, build self-esteem, and empower students, parents, and volunteers.
Spotlight (4 of 10) • $100 winner
Salmon Valley Stewardship
Salmon, ID • www.salmonvalley.org
Their mission is to promote a sustainable economy and productive working landscapes in the Salmon River region of Central Idaho. Through collaboration with landowners, tribes, universities, and families, this nonprofit works to build relationships between people, restore the land and water, increase living-wage jobs, and foster awareness of rural issues.
By innovating in business, natural resource management, education, and combining local knowledge with local resources, they envision a community where stewardship of the natural resources is at the core of the social, economic and ecological vitality of the region.
Spotlight (5 of 10) • $100 winner
Dreamhaven Ranch
Baker City, OR • www.dreamhavenranch.org
Their mission is to create a peaceful, rural refuge where children and families, regardless of their circumstances, can find hope, faith, healing, and trust through the transformative connection with a horse.
They offer faith-focused equine programming that includes summer camps for younger children and Hope Trail Retreats for older youth who wish to explore their faith.
Spotlight (6 of 10) • $100 winner
Cocker Spaniel Adoption Center
Westminster, MD • www.cockeradoptions.org
Their mission is to rescue cocker spaniels and other small-breed dogs, provide them with the medical, emotional, and behavioral care they need to become great pets, and find them safe, loving, forever homes.
Operating with the belief that all dogs have love to give someone, they accept all cocker spaniels into the rescue — regardless of age or medical condition — not just the young and healthy animals that are easily adoptable and inexpensive to rescue.
This all-volunteer team rescues dogs from local shelters, accepts dogs from owners who need to surrender their pets, and works with organizations that rescue dogs from puppy mills in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Spotlight (7 of 10) • $100 winner
The Dancing Cat
San Jose, CA • www.thedancingcat.org
Their mission is to find homes for at-risk adult cats from the San José Animal Care Center by giving those animals an open, cage-free environment in which they can mingle with people and other felines.
For a small admission fee, guests are able to spend an hour with adoptable cats in a relaxing, living room-like space. All admission fees go toward the continued care and feeding of the adoptable cats.
The organization, run almost entirely by volunteers, also hosts events such as Purr Yoga, craft workshops, and music nights.
Spotlight (8 of 10) • $100 winner
The Sidewalk Project
Los Angeles, CA • www.thesidewalkproject.org
They are an arts and peer-empowerment program that exists to create wellness for those that live outdoors. Through various mediums, including the arts, research, and public health, the group aims to be socially active and to empower houseless communities around the world.
A women and peer-led organization, their mission provides residents of Los Angeles with direct services, including crisis response, system advocacy, wound care, job placement, medication-assisted treatment (MAT), and creative community resources for mental health.
They also provide case-management services, including medical care and housing linkages, as well as system navigation services.
Spotlight (9 of 10) • $100 winner
Peace River Quilters Guild
Punta Gorda, FL • www.peaceriverquilters.org
This nonprofit has a mission to promote the art and education of quilting through classes, retreats, workshops, and lectures.
Their programs are designed to enhance skills in quilting; encourage and inspire others by sharing of ideas, expertise, and fellowship among their members; to further the craft of quilting by presenting related programs and events; and to perpetuate the art of quilting.
Spotlight (10 of 10) • $100 winner
South Bay Parkland Conservancy
Redondo Beach, CA • www.southbayparks.org
Their mission is to inspire and empower communities to protect, tend, and nurture land, water, and life through advocacy, education, and hands-on stewardship.
They envision a biodiverse and thriving planet, connecting communities with nature and each other for the well-being of all life, now and for generations to come.
Through various projects and initiatives, they work to rewild lands in the South Bay and beyond, support native wildlife and pollinators, create opportunities for education and community engagement, and advocate for gardens, parkland, open space, and native habitats.
Best Theme • $100 winner
JONAH
Redondo Beach, CA • jonahjustice.org
Since 2007, JONAH has been working with people, agencies and organizations to help make communities healthier, safer, and better places for everyone to live and work.
An intentionally non-partisan interfaith organization, JONAH’s mission work includes organizing public conversations about things that matter to people that are both civic and civil. They have scored successes or sought significant changes to the criminal justice system, recycling practices, predatory payday lending, and many aspects of faithful economics.
They seek continually to forge new and strengthen relationships with existing public structures like schools, government, public health, and labor, welcoming all people to come to justice work.
