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Creating, building
and inventing a
better world.
Stanley 1913 Creators Fund
2027 applications are now open
Stanley 1913 is a community of Creators, Builders and Inventors with one thing in common: we want to create in a better way, for a better life and world. It's been that way since William Stanley Jr. built the first all-steel vacuum bottle over 110 years ago — and that same drive to invent still pushes us to show up for our communities. We're better together. And the big problems? They get solved by big ideas, bold moves, and people willing to lead.
That's what the Stanley 1913 Creators Fund is for. We back emerging leaders with the ideas to make their communities stronger — $50,000 to early-stage nonprofits doing the work. Since 2023, we've backed 23 of them across 8 countries, spanning all kinds of causes, people, and ways of making change. So let's create. Let's build. Let's invent a better world.
Accepting applications through Sunday, September 13, 2026.
2026 Stanley 1913 Creators Fund Grantees
Youth Development
Alex Owens
Be Loud Studios
New Orleans, LA, USA
Amplifying youth confidence through radio and digital media production.
Youth Development
Alex Owens
Be Loud Studios
New Orleans, LA, USA
“Through radio, young people connect with peers across the city, interview leaders they admire, and share their full selves on local airwaves. They’re not performing for an algorithm - they’re speaking to a real audience that listens and cares. What drives me is watching teens realize their voices matter.”
Youth Development
Alex Owens
Be Loud Studios
New Orleans, LA, USA
Be Loud helps young people turn screens into tools for self-expression, storytelling, and courageous collaboration. Using radio and digital media production as a positive force for connection and identity-building, Be Loud helps youth move from scrolling to creating.
Working as an educator in New Orleans, Alex Owens co-founded Be Loud after seeing how students felt disconnected from traditional classroom assignments.
“Everything changed when we handed them a microphone. When young people were invited to write, interview, and produce radio, they showed up with energy, honesty, and creativity we hadn’t always seen on the worksheet. That experience led us to create Be Loud.”
Be Loud’s programs create spaces where young people feel safe to be curious and authentic - while also supporting educators who want deeper connection and engagement in their classrooms. Listeners can tune in every Saturday Morning in New Orleans on 102.3FM or at beloudstudios.org.
Community Development
Charlotte Massey
Seattle Chamber of Connection
Seattle, WA, USA
Encouraging trust and connection in communities.
Community Development
Charlotte Massey
Seattle Chamber of Connection
Seattle, WA, USA
“I believe everyone deserves access to belonging, not just those who know where to look. Building systems that make connections easier, more inclusive, and more human is the work that keeps me going.”
Community Development
Charlotte Massey
Seattle Chamber of Connection
Seattle, WA, USA
Seattle Chamber of Connection is taking on the lack of connection in our communities. When co-founder Charlotte Massey moved to Seattle without a network, she struggled to find friendship and belonging. She built a personal system to nurture relationships and began hosting inclusive gatherings for others who felt a similar lack of connection. As her events went viral, Charlotte realized her experience reflected a much larger issue: widespread social isolation. Seeing disconnection as one of the defining challenges of our time, she founded the Seattle Chamber of Connection to ensure no one faces it alone.
“As a patented inventor, I’m drawn to creative, practical solutions to complex problems. Loneliness and disconnection impact everything from mental and physical health to social trust and our democracy.”
This idea has grown into a national movement: the U.S. Chamber of Connection. Through its Six Points of Connection framework, events, and collaborations, the Chamber is building the civic infrastructure of connection for people around the country to thrive.
Mental Health
Rachel Miller
Closegap
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Championing students’ wellbeing with bite-sized mental health resources and real-time support.
Mental Health
Rachel Miller
Closegap
Los Angeles, CA, USA
“Being a Creator is about iteration, learning, and commitment to solving real problems for real people. It’s about building something durable and adaptable at the same time. Some years have been characterized by explosive growth, others by slow and steady infrastructure building. All of it matters.”
Mental Health
Rachel Miller
Closegap
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Closegap is on a mission to improve the wellbeing of students by equipping schools with free mental health services. Founder Rachel Miller drew from her own lived experience and professional expertise to build both a service and a movement: closing the gap between early intervention for the most vulnerable kids and helping educators feel less alone in the work.
“I believe that every young person deserves to be seen and supported, and that the adults in their lives, specifically those at school, deserve tools to help them do so.”
Through a fun, interactive check-in, students answer a series of questions related to their emotions, energy level, and physical needs. School staff see the organized data through an easy-to-use dashboard that enables them to intervene in real time. Driven by Rachel’s belief that healing should be accessible, simple and supportive, Closegap reaches hundreds of thousands of youth around the world with the help they need.
Environmental Advocacy
Agata Meysner
Generation Climate Europe
Brussels, Belgium
Uniting the voices of European youth to influence climate policy.
Environmental Advocacy
Agata Meysner
Generation Climate Europe
Brussels, Belgium
“I believe in the humanity that exists within us and the capacity of people to care for one another and for our home, the planet. That belief drives me: that if we can nurture it, empower it, and connect it across communities, it can become the foundation for meaningful, lasting action.”
Environmental Advocacy
Agata Meysner
Generation Climate Europe
Brussels, Belgium
Generation Climate Europe is the largest climate coalition of youth-led networks in Europe, uniting voices across countries, cultures and movements to shape a just and sustainable future. Co-founder Agata Meysner was driven by the realization that mobilizing wasn’t translating to policy.
“By bringing together groups that might not usually work side by side, we can break down silos, amplify local voices, and foster cross-movement solidarity, ensuring that energy and ideas travel beyond individual organizations and borders.”
Through Generation Climate Europe, Agata is empowering young people and youth organizations to meaningfully engage in European Union decision-making processes – ensuring their perspectives are heard and are reflected in EU climate and environmental policies.
Food Security
Ashley Vernon
The Giving Grove
Kansas City, MO, USA
Helping communities plant and care for "little orchards” that improve food access, strengthen neighborhoods, and restore the urban environment.
Food Security
Ashley Vernon
The Giving Grove
Kansas City, MO, USA
“To me, being a Creator, Builder, and Inventor means designing something that can grow beyond you and trusting others to shape it. At The Giving Grove, that has meant building a model that can take root in many communities while still being led by local voices.”
Food Security
Ashley Vernon
The Giving Grove
Kansas City, MO, USA
The Giving Grove is transforming underutilized land into thriving community orchards that provide free, fresh fruit for neighborhoods across the United States. The organization is co-led by Ashley Vernon, a food justice advocate who believes access to healthy food should be rooted in community.
“Together, we turn shared knowledge into living spaces that grow food, connection, and belonging. A little orchard of 5 to15 trees, supported by this network, can quietly and consistently improve daily life in a neighborhood. Lessons learned in one place become nourishment for many.”
By partnering with local organizations, the nonprofit addresses food insecurity while strengthening community ownership, education, and environmental stewardship. Today, more than 680 of these little orchards are in 16 cities across the country. Managed and maintained by more than 1,300 volunteer orchard stewards, dozens of new orchards are added each year. With a Creator’s mindset, Ashley has grown The Giving Grove into a scalable model helping move towards a goal of reaching 1 million people by 2027.
Water Access
Danny Wright
Gravity Water
Vietnam
Turning rain into safe drinking water for schools and communities that lack reliable access to clean water.
Water Access
Danny Wright
Gravity Water
Vietnam
“We strongly believe the challenges we’re facing today and tomorrow can’t be solved by the solutions of yesterday. Positive global change is possible, but it requires unwavering optimism, openness, and curiosity.”
Water Access
Danny Wright
Gravity Water
Vietnam
Gravity Water turns rain into safe, sustainable water for communities by combining cutting-edge harvesting technology with advanced filtration and rainwater automation systems. The idea for Gravity Water began when founder and CEO Danny Wright was caught in a rainstorm in rural Central America, where clean water was often hard to come by. What started as an invention sketch in his field notebook became a calling.
“When I came up with my idea and technology to turn rain into safe water, I started seeing the potential it had to help 85% of the global population who live in tropical areas yet lack reliable access to clean water. Once I realized this potential existed, it became a leading inspiration in my life to make this reality a possibility.”
Since 2016, the organization has implemented more than 500 systems across Vietnam, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan - providing clean water to over 285,000 people. Gravity Water is proving that rainwater - an abundant yet overlooked resource - can become a cornerstone of global water resilience.
Developmental Disabilities
Paula Manion
Our Stomping Ground (OSG)
Northern Virginia, USA
Creating inclusive communities where adults with developmental disabilities can live, grow, and thrive.
Developmental Disabilities
Paula Manion
Our Stomping Ground (OSG)
Northern Virginia, USA
“When I began this work, there was no model for inclusive affordable housing communities where adults with developmental disabilities could live alongside neighbors. We had to invent it. This grant is a perfect opportunity to elevate a vision that started at a kitchen table and has now become a blueprint for change.”
Developmental Disabilities
Paula Manion
Our Stomping Ground (OSG)
Northern Virginia, USA
Our Stomping Ground (OSG) is a nonprofit dedicated to building community, confidence, and opportunity for people with disabilities. Inspired by her adult son, co-founder Paula Manion envisions a world where adults with developmental disabilities are seen, valued, and included, not as an afterthought, but as essential contributors to community life. A main step is access to affordable housing, which OSG helps to facilitate.
“Creating integrated communities for adults with developmental disabilities with diverse programming and social spaces solves for loneliness and improves health and well-being -not just in adults with disabilities, but for entire communities.”
Paula’s Creator mindset is one rooted in empathy, representation, and action. Through OSG, she is building pathways for adults with developmental disabilities to live, grow, and thrive - with access to public transit, groceries, green spaces, social events, and the support they need.
Economic Development
Joséphine Goube
Sistech
France, Italy, Greece
Supporting refugee women in Europe through access to tech and digital jobs.
Economic Development
Joséphine Goube
Sistech
France, Italy, Greece
“Through Sistech, I want to challenge the idea that the place you are born or the gender you identify with dictate your opportunities and constrain your future.”
Economic Development
Joséphine Goube
Sistech
France, Italy, Greece
Sistech delivers free holistic programs that meet the needs of refugee women throughout France, Italy, and Greece. Founder Joséphine Goube grew up in northern France near Calais, where migrants often gather to seek safer futures. Inspired by what she witnessed, she committed her career to expanding opportunities for displaced women.
“I genuinely believe that talent is evenly distributed, but opportunities are not.”
Sistech’s career orientation, professional training, and job-readiness programs equip women with confidence and marketable tech skills, advancing their search for long-term employment in their welcoming countries.
Rooted in sisterhood, the organization co-creates its programs with refugee women - restoring dignity, strengthening agency, and ensuring lived experience shapes every solution.
Food Security
Dysmus Kisilu
Solar Freeze
Kenya
Transforming food systems and livelihoods by bringing solar-powered cold storage to smallholder farmers in East Africa.
Food Security
Dysmus Kisilu
Solar Freeze
Kenya
“To me, being a Creator is about turning lived problems into real solutions. I’m driven by the belief that practical, well-designed technology can restore dignity, income, and opportunity - especially for those who have been left out of traditional systems.”
Food Security
Dysmus Kisilu
Solar Freeze
Kenya
Solar Freeze creates solar-powered, mobile cold storage units for rural smallholder farmers to help them reduce the challenge of post-harvest loss. Dysmus Kisilu, a Kenyan social entrepreneur, founded Solar Freeze after seeing firsthand how lack of cold storage kept farmers like his grandmother trapped in cycles of loss and poverty.
“I grew up watching farmers work tirelessly, only to lose much of their harvest to spoilage and middlemen. That injustice stayed with me. My “why” is simple: people should not lose their livelihoods because they lack basic infrastructure.”
Determined to solve this challenge, Dysmus studied Renewable Energy at U.C. Davis and then returned home to Kenya to design localized, affordable cold storage units that run off grid. His work blends innovation, community empowerment, and climate resilience - giving farmers access to tools that preserve harvests, increase income, and reduce food waste.
Wildlife Conservation
Dr. Marconi Campos-Cerqueira
WildMon
Puerto Rico
Advancing biodiversity conservation using bioacoustics to detect, identify, and track species in real time.
Wildlife Conservation
Dr. Marconi Campos-Cerqueira
WildMon
Puerto Rico
“Our work is deeply rooted in collaboration with local communities, recognizing that meaningful environmental progress happens when people closest to nature are deeply integrated into the process itself.”
Wildlife Conservation
Dr. Marconi Campos-Cerqueira
WildMon
Puerto Rico
WildMon founder Dr. Marconi Campos-Cerqueira is a Brazilian tropical ecologist committed to using technology as a powerful tool to protect nature. Drawing on years of research at the intersection of ecology, data science, and sound analysis, he founded WildMon to bridge the gap between scientific innovation and on-the-ground conservation impact.
WildMon’s cutting-edge monitoring technology provides conservationists and local communities with accurate, actionable data to protect biodiversity, especially in remote or hard-to-monitor ecosystems.
“We see invention not as technology alone, but as rethinking how conservation, livelihoods, and long-term environmental stewardship can reinforce one another.”
Dr. Marconi’s Creator mindset - combining curiosity, invention, and purpose - has positioned WildMon as a leader in using sound to safeguard biodiversity and strengthen global conservation efforts.
Started in 2023
Investing in Creators
The Stanley 1913 Creators Fund has been investing in inventive nonprofit leaders around the world since 2023. We’re proud to amplify and support these visionary voices and their trailblazing work across a diverse set of causes, approaches, people, and communities.
Previous Grantees
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