Disruptors for GOOD | Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises

This Sundance, you’ll have the chance to experience a first look at the film’s sizzle — and to sit with other creators, funders, civic leaders, and artists wrestling with these questions at Power House, a warm and intentional gathering hosted by Powerlines.org just steps from Main Street.

Over hot food and drinks, these conversations go beyond festival noise into how stories truly intersect with democratic life, citizen power, depolarization, and collaborative problem-solving.

The Fight For Power isn’t just a film to watch, it’s a lens on what’s at stake for communities, for accountability, and for civic engagement in 2026 and beyond.

To watch the sizzle and be part of this Sundance experience, RSVP at www.thefightforpowerfilm.com

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

In a fashion industry built on shortcuts, KENT has taken the harder road on purpose.

Founded by Stacy Grace, KENT is a super natural basics brand focused on one simple but radical idea, underwear and essentials should be made entirely without plastic.

No spandex. No polyester. No hidden synthetics.

Just organic, plant based materials that are healthier for people and capable of returning to the earth at the end of their life.

While many brands claim sustainability, KENT operates with a stricter definition.

Every product is designed from fabric to thread to elastic using 100 percent natural materials, with the explicit goal of creating basics that can be composted instead of sitting in landfills for centuries.

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

Healthcare has not changed its patient attire in over a century. That is not an exaggeration. While medicine, technology, and clinical standards have advanced at a remarkable pace, the patient gown has remained largely untouched, often becoming a quiet barrier to care rather than a support for it.

Shawn Gibbs knows this firsthand.

After 15 years in clinical practice, he repeatedly heard the same story from patients. People delayed or avoided care because they felt exposed, embarrassed, or powerless the moment they were handed a standard medical gown.

Over time, that pattern became impossible to ignore. What started as individual patient conversations turned into a clear systemic failure.

GIV Gowns was born from a simple but uncomfortable truth. Dignity matters in healthcare. Confidence matters. What a patient wears can influence whether they show up, how open they are during an exam, and how effectively a provider can do their job.

GIV is building what Shawn calls a new gold standard for patient attire, designed with real human experience in mind, not institutional convenience.

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

For nearly 25 years, One Percent for the Planet has quietly reshaped how businesses think about responsibility, strategy, and long term stewardship. What began as a simple commitment has grown into a global network spanning more than 100 countries and hundreds of millions of dollars in certified environmental giving.

In this episode of Disruptors for GOOD, I sit down with Kate Williams, the organization’s CEO, to unpack how the model really works, why progress matters more than perfection, and what it takes to keep climate action grounded, practical, and nonpartisan.

This conversation goes beyond surface level sustainability talk. It digs into how businesses of all sizes can meaningfully participate, how philanthropy becomes strategy when done right, and why steady commitments often outlast trends, politics, and fatigue.

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

Transportation has always shaped how societies function. Who can move, how easily they can get from one place to another, and at what cost often determines access to work, healthcare, education, and community. In the digital age, rideshare platforms have quietly become part of that infrastructure.

In a recent conversation, I sat down with Jerry Golden, Chief Policy Officer at Lyft, to unpack how transportation policy, technology, and social responsibility intersect. The discussion covered Golden’s unconventional career path, the realities of policymaking in a fast moving sector, Lyft’s expanding role in disaster response and accessibility, and how autonomous vehicles may reshape the future.

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

For over a decade, Causeartist has published the annual Social Entrepreneurs to Watch list. If you know a founder building a real solution, put them on our radar.

What is Causeartist Next?

Causeartist Next is our annual list of social entrepreneurs building companies that put impact next to profit, not behind it. We cover founders creating practical solutions across climate, food, health, education, financial inclusion, ethical supply chains, and more.

Check out the lists from past years:

2014 / 2015 / 2016 / 2017 / 2018 / 2019 / 2020 / 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024 / 2025

Frequently asked questions

Is nomination required to be included?
No. We also source founders through interviews, research, and referrals. Nominations help us find people we might miss.

Do you charge to be featured?
No. If someone asks you for money to get on the list, it is not us.

Can I nominate myself?
Yes. Self nominations are welcome and encouraged. 😀

When does the 2026 list publish?
Deadline for nominations is January 20th. We publish in early February and share the list for all of 2026 via our website, newsletter, and social accounts.

Nominate here

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

The statistics on marine pollution are staggering: an estimated 11 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans every single year, equivalent to dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the sea every minute.

This crisis impacts everything from coral reefs and endangered species to the seafood on our plates.

For decades, the fight to save our oceans was led primarily by large, established non-profits. Today, however, a new, dynamic force has emerged: the ocean conservation startup.

These ventures are attracting significant investment and deploying cutting-edge technology to tackle pollution at its source, in rivers, and in the open ocean. They represent the leading edge of sustainable ocean tech.

Full post here.

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

For decades, nonprofits have relied on the same narrow funding playbook. Donations spike at year end. Grant cycles are slow and unpredictable. Teams spend enormous time fundraising instead of delivering impact.

Meanwhile, trillions of dollars move through global markets every day with no connection to social outcomes.

In Episode 235 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, we sat down with Martin Simms and Aaron Rafferty, co founders of WYDE Impact Exchange, to explore a bold alternative.

What if markets themselves could fund missions automatically.

What if trading activity generated real nonprofit revenue

 And what if transparency and accountability were built directly into the system.

WYDE is not another crypto exchange chasing speculation.

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

The push to decarbonize the world’s energy systems now overlaps with a long standing problem: what to do with the massive amount of agricultural waste produced every year.

Billions of tons of crop residues and animal waste are generated across the globe. Much of it is left to rot or is burned, which adds to air pollution and releases methane.

The result is a two sided problem.

We face avoidable environmental damage on one side, and a large source of unused energy on the other.

A growing group of startups is working to change this. They are building practical technologies that convert agricultural waste into clean energy that farmers and rural communities can actually use.

These companies are cutting waste, lowering emissions, and supporting local economies. They are also helping build a circular bioeconomy that treats waste as a resource rather than a burden.

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

The global move toward cleaner energy is gaining speed, yet two issues continue to shape its future. We need a dependable and sustainable supply of battery materials, and we need storage systems that can carry the grid through long periods of weak wind or sunlight.

The surge in electric vehicles and utility scale renewables has put real pressure on both fronts. It has exposed how fragile a linear, mining dependent supply chain can be and how little short duration storage can do when the grid faces extended stress.

These gaps must be solved if the energy transition is going to hold up over the long run.

A new generation of startups is rising to meet this challenge, fundamentally disrupting both the Circular Economy for battery materials and the Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) market.

These innovators are not just fixing problems; they are building the technological and logistical backbone of a truly resilient, decarbonized grid.

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Disruptors for GOOD is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.

Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.

By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.