Almost entirely without recourse to government funds, Daniel Biederman turned Bryant Park from a crime-ridden drug market into New York’s town square The Bryant Park Corporation, which he founded and runs, is a model for hundreds of other public space renovations and creations around the world.

Owning a car is often crucial to holding down a job. Robert Chambers started Bonnie CLAC to help lower income residents of New Hampshire buy new basic, reliable cars so that monthly loan charges would be reasonable, maintenance costs modest, and fuel costs economical.

Dr. Heineman established A Home Within to provide volunteer, high-quality psychological counseling to current and former foster children. Primarily in the San Francisco Bay area, she also has established an infrastructure for national growth.

Reclaim A Youth provides recreation for local kids and prepares local high school graduates for the difficult realities of college life through a college scholarship and orientation program for promising students in Chicago’s predominantly African-American south suburbs.

Levi and Bassie Shemtov raised $5 million in private funding to help the Friendship Circle design and build a facility for the developmentally disabled to practice the life skills they’ll need to become independent adults.

Catherine Rohr designed the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) to channel the business skills many criminals possess toward legal activities. Nationally, almost two-thirds of ex-offenders wind up back in prison. The comparable figure for PEP graduates is five percent.

In an abandoned garage in downtown Erie, Sister Mary Lou Kownacki and her skilled and accomplished faculty have brought literature, music, dance, and art to over 3,000 children since 1994.

Paige Ellison cobbled together the first Project K.I.D. PlayCare site six days after Hurricane Katrina left kids with no safe place to go. In four months, with determination and 220 volunteers, she had opened 12 such sites, serving 5,600 children.

Richard Liebich established Project Lead the Way in 1997 to help schools give students the knowledge necessary to excel in hightech fields. Today, 200,000 students in 1,700 middle and high schools participate in PLTW programs.

Aaron Hurst founded the Taproot Foundation in San Francisco to deliver infrastructure-building support to qualified nonprofit organizations. Since 2001, teams of Taproot volunteers have supported and strengthened over 500 nonprofit groups.

Started by a lone physician in 1994, Volunteers in Medicine Institute has helped start 50 volunteer-based free primary-care clinics for the uninsured in 24 states. And Amy Hamlin has plans for hundreds more.

Jose-Pablo Fernandez began a computer literacy program for barely literate rural Mexican immigrants. Today graduates qualify for office jobs, start their own small web-based businesses, and help their children with homework.

Teach for America graduate Temp Keller founded this web-based system to recruit young, effective teachers trapped in failing schools and match them with good, mostly charter, “emerging” schools.

Joan Mazzotti took over and radically transformed Philadelphia Futures, which prepares inner-city ninth-graders for four-year colleges, providing financial and mentoring support all the way through to graduation.

“Mack” McCarter revived the settlement house movement in poor neighborhoods of Shreveport. His seven Friendship Houses are a staging ground for tutoring, music lessons, preventive medical care, and neighborly support.

John Sage started Bridges to Life after the horrific murder of his sister. Bridges brings volunteers to speak with felons in prison about the impact of crime in the belief that empathy and remorse will change the hearts of the men so they do not commit new crimes after their release.

ReDonna Rodgers founded CTE, which teaches Milwaukee African-American youth how to be entrepreneurs, seeking to revive the tradition of self-reliance she saw in her stepfather. CTE helps these children start and run their own small businesses.

Al Sikes' READ Foundation pairs poor readers in grades K-2 with academically-successful teenagers to help these kids learn to read. Their efforts have helped over half of these kids improve their reading by a full grade level.

Up Glo, headed by Jane Leu, acculturates immigrants to succeed in America, and works with employers to help them better understand the skills in the immigrant workforce.

FPYF, founded by Amy Lemley, provides safe, affordable housing and supportive service to former foster children who, upon reaching 18 years of age, are no longer supported by foster care. They work to provide these young adults with the skills needed to live independently.

Chad Pregracke founded Living Lands and Water to clean up the banks of the Mississippi, along which he grew up. LL&W organizes thousands of volunteers and its four barges, which operate as a floating recycling center, to make America's greatest waterway a cleaner and safer place.

Mike Tenbusch and Dan Varner founded Think Detroit to give Detroit kids access to the kinds of well-coached and well-equipped sports teams they had in their youth in Detroit. Over 5,000 children are currently enrolled, and TD has renovated five baseball diamonds in a previously dilapidated city park.

Sara Horowitz founded Working Today to represent the needs and concerns of the growing independent workforce. Her non-profit insurance brokerage provides portable, affordable health insurance products for self-employed individuals who otherwise might join the ranks of the uninsured.

Gerald Chertavian, a one-time software magnate, is the founder of Year Up, an intensive education and apprenticeship program for urban young (18-24) adults. The Program is aimed at placing these people, with limited skills but good attitudes, at IT help desks and other behind-the-scenes computer-dependent jobs.

Rev. William Barnes formed Shepherd's Hope to help working men and women who lacked health care benefits. His group organizes a staff of volunteers, including doctors and nurses, to run eight evening medical clinics for poor families without health insurance.

College Summit, founded by J.B. Schramm, works to increase the number of college admissions among mid-tier, low-income kids. It runs workshops and training sessions designed to help them navigate the college admissions process.

New Jersey Orators is a public speaking training and competition program for African-American youth. Run on a volunteer basis by James Hunter, NJO provides an oasis for academically-oriented students.

JUMP, a military-style after-school program for children in Buffalo, ceased operation following the death of its founder, John Dixon.

Credit Where Credit is Due is a non-profit organization designed to increase low-income people's access to, understanding of, and control over financial services. In addition to operating a neighborhood credit union, it provides financial literacy education programs to youth and adults.

The SEED charter school, founded by Eric Adler and Rajiv Vinnakota, is a Washington, D.C. boarding school where kids learn in a safe, secure, and highly-structured environment. Recipient of many awards, the SEED School this year was selected to receive the prestigious Innovations in American Government Award, from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Steppingstone is an intensive academic program - both after-school and on Saturdays during the school year and over the summer - which helps poor children in Boston qualify for academically-selective public or private high schools. It is run by Michael Danziger, a former teacher.