We are so inspired by the businesses in our community because of how many of them are committed to helping to make the world better than it is today. Check out some great businesses below and how they are helping others.

Shavon Morris | Printmaker & Stationery Designer

Using art as a vehicle for critical discourse has been really important to me lately. I want to create pieces that are rooted in empathetic collaboration, civic engagement, and conversation. Right now my work focuses on our flawed American systems. Particularly, unemployment, education, and systemic violence against Black people. My recent project, America’s Honest Identity incorporated statistics that were derived from reputable books (which I used as source material,) such as The American Crisis, and Social Inequality by Martin Marger. Read more>>

Killian Hagen | Founder & CEO

Since May of 2020, Bruce & Olive started making masks for the community. We knew we couldn’t only make these for profit, we had to give back at the same time. I’m passionate about helping our homeless, people of color, and queer communities in Austin, and after doing some research, I found two local nonprofits that I felt shared the company’s values and were directly impacting people in need. For each one sold, we donated one to these two organizations: –allgo: a non-profit focused on social justice, cultural arts, and health and wellness for queer people of color. It provides resources and relief to queer and minority communities, including grants. –The Other Ones: a non-profit focused on transitioning Austin’s homeless neighbors into an engaged community through shelter, opportunity, and support. Our masks are supplying those who cannot afford masks with them, and helping keep our community safe from the spread of covid-19! We also have made multiple donations to DAWA, an Austin=based nonprofit that sends out monthly grants to black artists. Read more>>

Rex Andrews | Coach

What I’m most proud of about Pathway Training is the community we’ve built. When you’ve put your fitness and health on the backburner for a long time and are trying to get started towards a healthier life, it can be incredibly intimidating and overwhelming. What we’ve built is an awesome community of people who all support each other and share success in accomplishing goals they never thought possible before. Over the last year, while everyone has been more isolated than ever, and bad habits have been exposed, it’s more important than ever to have positive influences. It’s been so great to see people rally around the idea of not settling for mediocre and striving to better themselves in a time where it’s easy to have all the excuses in the world of why they aren’t in the shape they want to be in, or why they will wait until the time is right. Pathway Training allows people to have a community that pushes for growth and drives us all to be better for ourselves, for our families, and for our community. Read more>>

Mark “Merriwether” Vorderbruggen, Ph.D. | Chemist, Herbalist, and Ethnobotanist

The goals of Medicine Man Plant Co. are to: 1. Reattach people to the medicinal plants and mushrooms of our ancestors that we co-evolved with to maintain health. 2. Reattach people to nature itself by teaching them of the miracles she contains. 3. Have people re-think the way they take care of themselves based on how we evolved rather than what a pharmaceutical infomercial tells them. When they start understanding how humans got here, it makes the path forward more clear. When you think of the evolutionary phrase “survival of the fittest” remember that we have been using these plants and mushrooms to maintain our health for thousands of generations. Those that responded best to these natural compounds thrived and reproduce more, giving their children the same benefits. We evolved to use these plants/mushrooms. Turning away from them denies our bodies what it became designed to use. By redirecting people’s interest to nature and her powers, they come to love nature. Read more>>

Kimberly Anderson | Teacher & Non Profit Founder

In 2011 my family suffered the devastating loss of my brother Marcus to gun violence. Marcus was the youngest of 7 and his absence is felt daily. Milestones and holidays come and go each year and we still feel the missing link in our family chain. We will forever. My brother was a father and the impact of his loss on his children (ages 10-17) was immense. My family and I wanted to keep his memory alive in a positive light by helping others who understood and empathized with our loss. In 2015 Gifts of Love from Above (www.GolfaSA.org) was formed in his memory. The mission of the organization is to strive to rebuild the lives of children whose parent or guardian’s death was caused by gun violence. Our mission is to bring awareness to the prevention of gun violence and support the family, the fabric of our communities. Funeral grants, counseling services and emotional support is a major part of the nonprofit in hopes to offer grief care camp for the youth as well. Read more>>