HelpMeSee was chosen as a top 10 nonprofit and social enterprise at the 6th annual Classy Awards, in recognition of its innovative program to end cataract blindness through surgical training. The Classy Awards, which Classy presents in honor of “remarkable changemakers of our generation,” are the capstone event to the three-day Collaborative conference in Boston, which brings together social innovators such as charity: water, Heifer International and Microsoft Philanthropies.
Classy selected the 10 award recipients from among 1,300 nonprofit and social enterprise programs, which were evaluated through an extensive year-long research and vetting process. In April 2016 HelpMeSee’s program was nominated among 100 finalists for the Classy Award. Winners were selected by a 110-member honorary board of leaders and experts from academia, non-profit organizations, for-profit corporations, global NGOs and other industries.
On winning this award, HelpMeSee’s VP of Development and Marketing Matt Kupec commented that, “We’re honored to be selected among so many incredible programs who are equally committed to social good. This was an inspiring event, and we’d like to thank Classy for creating this platform to share our mission with other like-minded organizations.”
Pat Walsh, Co-Founder and CIO of Classy.org said about the awards, “The Classy Awards team spends a year extensively researching social innovations from around the world, and this year’s pool of nominees was one of the strongest we’ve ever seen.” Speaking about this year’s winning programs, Mr. Walsh added, “We’re excited to name HelpMeSee as one of this year’s winners, and to play a role in recognizing the organization’s efforts to end blindness. We were impressed by HelpMeSee’s track record of success and look forward to continuing to watch this program grow.”
In just five years, HelpMeSee has supported nearly 250,000 life-changing cataract surgeries through partnerships working with 282 cataract surgeons across nine countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This year, the organization will celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of its co-founder Albert L Ueltschi, the late founder of FlightSafety.
Classy.org, the hosts of the Classy Awards, is an online platform dedicated to fundraising for individual campaigns and organizations. Previous winners of Classy Awards include Invisible Children, Action Against Hunger and the Trevor Project.
HelpMeSee team members pose with Classy Award (pictured left to right): Leticia John, Molly Biechele, Stefany Marranzini, and Matthew Hurst
About HelpMeSee
HelpMeSee is a non-profit social enterprise committed to ending the global crisis of cataract blindness, the leading cause of blindness worldwide. HelpMeSee intends to make sight-restoring surgery available to millions of poor within their communities by training tens of thousands surgeons, many women, to perform high quality, high volume Manual Small Incision Cataract Surgery (MSICS) surgery. Since 2012, the campaign has supported nearly 250,000 surgeries through partnerships across nine countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
About Classy
Classy is the world’s first social impact platform with the goal of helping organizations solve social problems more effectively and efficiently. Since launching in 2011, Classy has helped more than 2,500 social enterprises including Oxfam, World Food Program USA, and National Geographic to raise hundreds of millions of dollars. Classy also hosts the Collaborative and Classy Awards to recognize excellence in social innovation. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy employs a staff of over 180 people and was recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the world’s 10 Most Innovative Companies for Social Good. Classy is backed by investors including Mithril and Salesforce Ventures.
