Walking into GiGi’s Playhouse you are immediately met with a wave of smiles, giggles and most of all, an exuberant energy. Such a spirited atmosphere, however, stands in stark contrast to the sterile room Nancy Gianni first attended following her daughter’s Down syndrome diagnosis. “There were great support groups but they always took place in […]
Most recently updated: December 2020 It all starts with a knock on the door and brief question, “Do you want to make art today?” At Snow City Arts (SCA), teaching artists aim to educate and inspire children and youth in hospitals through one-on-one instruction in the visual arts, creative writing, music and film making. To the […]
The Academy for Global Citizenship is a jewel nestled amid urban blight. A nonprofit Chicago public charter school, the Academy for Global Citizenship is making waves in elementary education, working to create a class of scholars that care about their community as much as their grades. Founded in 2008 by Sarah Elizabeth Ippel, a Cambridge graduate and […]
Most recently updated: December 2020 Nicknamed Chiberia for its extreme cold during the winter, Chicago can be a hard place to live, especially for the city’s low-income elderly. With little money to allocate for home maintenance and upkeep, many low-income seniors have a tough time enduring. That’s where Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly […]
Founded more than 30 years ago, the James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy (once the Evanston Community Defender) works to provide low-income Evanston youth and their families with integrated legal and social work services. The school-to-prison pipeline is the biggest worry of those who work at the Center for Youth Advocacy, 4th Annual Philanthropy Awards […]
On Nov. 16, Make It Better staffers surprised six nonprofits to tell them that they won the 2015 Make It Better Foundation Philanthropy Awards. Each year, the Make It Better Philanthropy Awards honor outstanding nonprofits in and around Chicago. The grand prize for each nonprofit is a professionally produced, TV-quality video about their organization, plus significant […]
Susan B. Noyes, publisher at Make It Better Media and founder of the Make It Better Foundation, says she will continue investing in high-quality U.S.-based companies in spite of recent market volatility. On Tuesday, Aug. 25, Noyes appeared on CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” where she discussed the stock market with host Kelly Evans. “The S&P 500 […]
The Better Makers section of our print magazine features photos of guests and honorees from some of the top fundraisers across Chicagoland. We highlight these events in order to shed light on all of the hard work the people of Chicago and the North Shore are doing to raise awareness around important causes and make […]
We founded Make It Better to connect and help our audience amplify their philanthropic efforts. We found this leads to more connections and ideas, a heightened feeling of community, more money raised by good people, and better business for everyone. It’s a virtuous circle. To amplify this feeling of good will, we established our annual Philanthropy […]
Almost everyone likes dogs—the cuddling, the love. SitStayRead, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the love of learning and improving literacy proficiency for at-risk kids, capitalizes on that idea. Dogs allow SitStayRead (SSR) to tackle the sobering issue of childhood literacy with a positive spin: they address reading fluency in a fun way by incorporating reading […]
