Nicholas Kristof’s 2024
Holiday Impact Prize
Supporting little-known organizations
working to make the world a better place.
Since 2009, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has written an annual “holiday gift guide” column to bridge a philanthropic gap: readers who want to help but don’t know how, and heroic individuals and organizations who desperately need resources but are off donors’ radars. The column has helped raise the profiles of organizations that work on the very issues he covers in his journalism—health, education, human rights and women’s rights, both domestically and abroad.
For a sixth year, Kristof will award a $150,000 Holiday Impact Prize to the nonprofits he showcases. His 2024 column highlights the three winners each receiving $50,000, in addition to a volunteer opportunity that is strengthening communities through service.
The 2024 Holiday Impact Prize is a call to action for others to join in supporting Kristof’s appeal. All funds raised by January 31, 2025 will help these remarkable organizations accomplish the impacts outlined below. And individuals expressing interest in volunteering will be linked to program representatives in their communities for follow-up.
For more information, please see our Frequently Asked Questions.
Donation Opportunities
There are three opportunities to become a 2024 Holiday Impact Prize donor.
Fistula Foundation
Ending the suffering of women injured in childbirth
Worldwide, 15% of women develop complications during childbirth. Obstetric fistula occurs when a woman has a prolonged, obstructed labor but is unable to access emergency care, such as a C-section. While largely eradicated in wealthy nations, fistula persists in low-income countries. Untreated, the condition leaves a woman incontinent and too often results in a lifetime of ostracization by her friends, family, and community. Surgery is a highly successful cure…when it is available and affordable.
Fistula Foundation makes access possible. It is the global leader in obstetric fistula treatment, partnering with local hospitals and community organizations to provide more than 100,000 free surgeries to women in 35 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia since 2009. Because women typically develop fistula in their twenties, timely intervention and surgical repair can allow them to reclaim decades of health and productivity.
No one should lead a life of despair and isolation simply for trying to bring a child into the world. $619 provides a woman with untreated fistula the surgery she needs to heal.
Muso
Saving lives by reaching patients faster
Each year, millions of people die from curable conditions because they don’t have access to care fast enough, or at all. Mortality rates remain unjustly high for women and children, with sub-Saharan Africa facing the highest rates in the world.
Muso has refined and, with Ministries of Health or NGO partners in five African countries, is implementing proactive healthcare systems that reach people early. Muso employs trusted members of the community to screen for sick patients door-to-door. These professionally trained and supported Community Health Workers diagnose and treat patients in the home, and refer and accompany complex cases to upgraded healthcare facilities, all without point-of-care fees. Independent research has demonstrated extraordinary improvements in health outcomes in communities Muso serves, including achieving and sustaining the lowest documented rates of child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa (on par with rates in the United States).
For only $22, you can provide a full year of rapid, life-saving care to someone who would otherwise get help too late.
Reach Out and Read
Making early literacy a standard part of pediatric care
Reading aloud has profound effects on parent-child bonding, early cognitive development, and language skills. Yet only 37% of U.S. babies and young children–and barely a quarter of those in low-income households–are read to every day.
Reach Out and Read promotes the lifelong benefits of daily shared reading for 4.6 million young children and their families each year. In partnership with over 39,000 clinicians across the United States, Reach Out and Read leverages pediatric well-child visits to “prescribe” reading and sees that children receive a free book along with their regular checkup from birth through age 5. The program increases well-child visit attendance by 40%. Participating parents are 2.5 times more likely to read to their children, who subsequently arrive at kindergarten 3-6 months ahead of their peers in language development.
Donations help Reach Out and Read achieve its goal of serving half of all U.S. children under 5 by 2030. Every $30 funds a year of the proven program for an additional child.
Volunteer Opportunities
You can also support the 2024 Holiday Impact Prize by becoming a volunteer in your community.
Crisis Text Line
Expanding mental health support through the power of volunteers
A growing fraction of the population struggles with some form of mental health challenge, with young people suffering at higher rates than any other age group. The need for support far outpaces traditional solutions, and many people are left to cope alone.
Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7, high-quality text-based mental health support in English and Spanish in the United States. Every day, volunteer Crisis Counselors help thousands of people deal with depression, anxiety, bullying, suicidal thoughts and other challenges. And they do so through a confidential, accessible medium that is regularly used by many, especially teens and young adults.
Expertly trained and professionally supported, Crisis Text Line volunteers offer nonjudgmental guidance and empower texters to identify their own strengths and coping strategies. Volunteers report that the skills gained during training also help them support their family and friends as well as navigate their own mental health. Volunteering is 100% remote and virtual. You can save and change lives from anywhere that’s comfortable, on your own schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
Click on any of the Holiday Impact Prize FAQs in the list below to view the answer.
Focusing Philanthropy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that believes donations should be made with the same level of strategic intent, information, and confidence as other investments. The organization targets serious human challenges that individual donors can successfully address, chooses tactics that are demonstrably effective, identifies confidence-inspiring implementing partners, conducts ongoing monitoring, and assures substantive reporting. These services are provided free to both donors and partners in an effort to scale interventions that work. Donations are fully tax deductible, and Focusing Philanthropy covers all administrative costs and replenishes credit card transaction fees so that 100% of funds contributed go to implementing partners.