Impact
Fulcrum Impact was not born in a boardroom. It was born from a hard truth: when the largest nonprofits take the larger share of the philanthropic dollar, the organizations doing the closest, most direct work in our communities are left dividing a sliver — not a share of what's needed. Rather than compete harder for the leftovers, we build new ways of funding and new ways of working together, so nonprofits stop competing for scarcity and start building capacity together.
Chart your course
Rather than operate a single program, we identify the barriers that keep people and communities from thriving, then build practical ventures that address them. Some are educational programs. Some are mission-driven businesses. Some are technology platforms. Together they generate impact, create sustainable revenue, and strengthen the nonprofit sector.
We began where we knew best. For more than 20 years we trained nonprofit leaders, then took those same tools and pointed them at individuals and families who wanted a different life — people ready to start a business, build an income, and change their own trajectory rather than wait for someone else to change it for them.
That work introduced us to brilliant medical professionals with ideas, treatments, and specialties that could genuinely change lives, but no clear path to market. We help bring those ideas forward — not for the sake of a product, but for the real difference it makes in someone's life.
Real change does not happen in isolation; it happens in community. So we opened a media training company to give people the tools to tell stories that build connection and knit communities back together. Impact Studio, the PEG channel, and our streaming services extend that work with the local middle school and high school — using 25-plus years of nonprofit relationships to give underprivileged students training, on-air credits, and access no one had promised them.
Neighborhooding gamifies something simple and radical: being a good citizen and a good friend, turning small daily acts of care into something visible and rewarding. BeTheChange.social gives nonprofits that same capability — a way to build connected citizenship at scale, so the communities we serve don't just survive, they belong to each other again.
The old models were never built for the world we are trying to create. Every venture we launch tests a new idea, builds a practical solution, and creates a model others can adopt — measured against outcomes for real people in real places, including where results fall short.
Ventures overview
Every initiative in the studio ladders up to one of four goals. Here is the map — what we are trying to change, and what we have built to do it.
12 initiatives shown
Turning 20-plus years of nonprofit training into practical paths to income, ownership and self-employment for people ready to change their own trajectory.
Helping clinicians and researchers move treatments and specialties out of the drawer and into the hands of the people who need them.
Giving people — especially students — the tools to tell their own stories, and giving communities a shared place to see themselves.
Changing how the money moves: shared infrastructure, connected citizenship and funding that reaches the organizations closest to the work.
Goal 01 in detail
For more than 20 years we trained nonprofit leaders. We now point those same tools at individuals and families who want a different life: cohort training that ends in a launched venture, consulting that helps organizations pay their people properly, and a local marketplace where neighbors find paid work, contracts and customers without leaving their own city.
Cohort training that walks founders from idea to launch, with mentors drawn from our nonprofit network.
Strategy, revenue design and capacity building so mission-driven organizations can pay their people well.
Connecting neighbors to paid work, contracts and customers inside their own community.
Goal 02 in detail
Brilliant clinicians and researchers routinely hold treatments, protocols and specialties that could change lives, and no path to market. We provide the commercialization support — business model, funding structure, regulatory sequencing, storytelling — and we publish plain-language health reporting so families can act on what the research actually says.
Commercialization support for medical professionals with treatments and specialties but no path to market.
Plain-language health reporting so families can act on what the research actually says.
Goal 03 in detail
Change happens in community, and community happens when people can tell their own stories. Impact Studio trains students in production and broadcast, Buena Park TV gives them real on-air credits alongside the middle school and high school, and The Park gives the city a paper written by its own residents, with local desks, puzzles, comics and want ads.
Media production and broadcast training that turns students into working storytellers.
A PEG channel and streaming slate built with the local middle school and high school, with real on-air credits.
A community paper written by community journalists, with local desks, puzzles and want ads.
Goal 04 in detail
The old funding models were never built for the work we are trying to do. So we change how the money moves: shared fiscal and back-office infrastructure so small nonprofits skip the overhead trap, a nonprofit investment vehicle that funds ventures instead of making them compete for scraps, and connected-citizenship platforms that make everyday care visible and rewarded.
Fiscal sponsorship, banking and back-office support so small nonprofits skip the overhead trap.
A nonprofit investment vehicle that funds ventures instead of asking them to compete for scraps.
Gamified good citizenship that makes small daily acts of care visible and rewarded.
The same connected-citizenship engine, offered to other nonprofits at scale.
Questions
How the initiatives are organized, who owns them, and how to browse them by goal or studio category.
For prospective board members
A three-page PDF summarizing why we exist, the four goals, the ventures that carry each goal, and what we ask of directors — formatted for sharing with prospective board and committee members.
Volunteer with us
Our ventures run on people who show up — mentors, coaches, producers, event crews and skilled professionals. Tell us how you would like to help and we will match you with the work that fits.
Culture-Fluent desk
Neighbors, service clubs, schools and small businesses tell us what is happening in Buena Park. Editors review every pitch before it appears here.
Browse all community impact stories
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Culture-Fluent desk
Culture-Fluent covers the Buena Park stories that get missed — schools, service clubs, grand openings and civic life. Send us the story and our editors will review it for The Park.
Start a conversation
Whether you want to partner with a venture, fund the work, bring a program to your community, or simply understand the model, write to us and a member of our team will follow up personally.
