A powerful new take on volunteerism
How a nonprofit is tackling some of LA’s toughest issues — and creating a model to empower other cities
Love Has No Limits, a coalition of volunteers and service groups uniting to help their neighbors in Los Angeles beat poverty and rise
Local problems keep getting worse — more kids in foster care, more homelessness, leading to higher poverty
Create a playbook for nonprofits, faith-leaders, and volunteers to unite to find solutions. (Oh, and Justin Bieber… more below)
A “week of action” in LA, 20,000 volunteers and 641 churches, over 1 billion media impressions, and a scalable model
The leaders of Love Has No Limits wanted to do more.
The nonprofit, led by Dominic Russo and Jedidiah Thurner, unites nonprofits, faith-leaders, and volunteers to tackle some of LA’s toughest issues, including homelessness, foster care, and re-entry from prison back into society.
The coalition got early traction. By July 2021, it had enlisted 1,900 families to pursue fostering or adopting children, and was on pace to reunite more than 200 families and build a presence in all 35 California state prisons to bring hope and help to the incarcerated. But this was just the start.
They were already helping thousands of vulnerable families and working in every California prison. But, to them, it wasn’t enough.
Love Has No Limits came up with a big idea: 1DayLA, an unprecedented week of service that would activate tens of thousands of people to volunteer alongside community-based nonprofits to break the cycle of poverty.
But they needed support to pull it off. So the nonprofit forged a partnership with Stand Together Foundation.
“Our mission to activate families and individuals into a lifestyle of service was amplified by Stand Together.”
We saw how incredible Love Has No Limits’ idea was. It could find real solutions to pressing local problems, helping huge numbers of people. Moreover, it could inspire countless people to see that solutions start from the bottom-up — inside communities, not from outside forces. So we set out to help the group to scale and make 1DayLA a huge success.
Support from Stand Together Foundation and a donor partner
Since partnering with Stand Together Foundation, Love Has No Limits has achieved its vision and more:
- Love Has No Limits needed funding to create 1DayLA. Stand Together Foundation and one of our donor partners committed $2 million to help them launch 1DayLA.
- They wanted to inspire people in LA and beyond to see that solutions start locally. Our communications team helped them generate roughly 450 media articles.
- They wanted to keep volunteers engaged after 1DayLA. Stand Together connected them with the online platfom VOMO to keep volunteers active throughout the year.
- They wanted to partner with other effective nonprofits to help neighbors rise. We introduced them to Safe Families, which helps kids avoid foster care.
Love Has No Limits already brought together 20,000 volunteers in L.A. Now it’s turning to other cities…
1DayLA was a huge success. It engaged 20,000 volunteers and 641 churches. And, incredibly, famous musicians such as Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper got involved, hosting a major concert at the week’s end. The resulting media coverage had a potential reach of 1.1 billion impressions — not only in Los Angeles, but all across America.
Volunteers engaged in community service as part of 1DayLA
Potential media impressions our team helped generate with Love Has No Limits through nearly 450 articles highlighting 1DayLA
Best of all: Love Has No Limits now has a proof of concept and scalable model to activate mass numbers of volunteers, community groups, and top influencers. The organization is planning to organize 1DayLA-style events in more cities, proving that people from all walks of life can unite to tackle local problems, even big ones like poverty.
“We’ve been able to do six months of work in one week.”
What You Can Do
Learn More: Explore how we’re working with a wide diversity of partners to transform the way our society tackles poverty.
Partner With Us: Tell us about your project and vision — and how we can help you accomplish even more.
Get Involved: Find out how you can support Love Has No Limits — and change the lives of those in our society who need it the most.
