Our Best Hope for Civil Discourse on the Internet Is on ... Reddit

Water:Charity assumed that money and celebrity exposure would be able to solve the world’s access-to-clean-water crisis. But this approach often led to more abandoned water pumps. Charities – and journalists who cover them – are now working to concentrate on making their solutions sustainable.

The Live6 area is home to a robust cultural and creative community. And with an increase in development, there's opportunity for artists and institutions to tap into that energy to spur growth.

Single parents are increasingly using GoFundMe to raise money for their own college costs. However, as GoFundMe has started to acknowledge, "crowdfunding is more difficult when one’s crowd doesn’t have extra funds." The platform is brainstorming ways to spread the word about individual campaigns and make donations to individual campaigners tax-deductible.

Despite the looming competition from Amazon, independent bookstores in New York are finding ways to innovate and create bookstore experiences that go beyond the books. The Lit. Bar is a bookshop-wine bar in the Bronx that hopes to instill a love of reading while customers shop and drink. By selling non-book products, new iterations of bookstores can increase their profit margin to remain sustainable. Many even succeed with creative financing, from crowdfunding to finding local investors.

In the Navajo Nation, more than 70 percent of local income leaves the tribal area, but one effort is helping native-owned businesses expand their reach. Change Labs, a business incubator, helped birth Rez Rising, an app that helps people find and shop with native-owned businesses, which often find obstacles to entrepreneurship like listing a physical address or operating a website.

After an initial shock to business-as-usual, some independent booksellers are trying new methods to get their products in the hands of readers. Home deliveries, online sales, and fundraising efforts are keeping some longstanding institutions afloat, at least for now.

Teens selling water on the sweltering streets of Atlanta are typically dealt with by police officers who often crack down on "unpermitted sales of water by youth." In a new approach, city officials convened a council to offer alternatives to police action and suggested ways to promote and develop the entrepreneurial spirit in teens through a variety of programs. The council looked to a similar program in Baltimore that re-engaged windshield-washing teens in school and re-directed others to full-time jobs.

The Business Center for New Americans, a nonprofit that offers loans with a focus on immigrant-run businesses, is going above and beyond to make sure its lenders get through the COVID-19 economic crisis. They are offering tailored support on how to apply for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, sharing other grant and loan opportunities, and using its status part of the SBA’s Microloan Program to offer new loans.

Athletes are mobilizing young voters and raising awareness about the perils of climate change. The athletes have been able to use their large social media platforms and following to educate people, urge them to act, and reach out to elected officials through a concerted effort by nonprofit Protect Our Winters (POW).

A group of female entrepreneurs created a market for other enterprising women who can’t afford to pay standard shop and licensing fees to access a safe place to sell their wares. The group connects women to train them in entrepreneurship, provide networking opportunities and inform people about the market and upcoming events via social media to drive more customers to the marketplace.