The Outsized Impact Award celebrates an individual from an Exponent Philanthropy member organization whose giving has achieved results that are greater than expected. Get to know the 2026 finalists below. Submit your vote by October 28!
Dawn Charaba
Executive Director, Reidsville Area Foundation
Dawn CharabaAs Executive Director of the Reidsville Area Foundation (RAF) in Rockingham County, North Carolina, Dawn Charaba invests in change that outlasts the grant. Since joining RAF in 2018, she has championed rural racial equity, advanced family-friendly policies, and led partnerships focused on digital inclusion and behavioral health.
Drawing on nearly two decades of nonprofit leadership, Dawn has strengthened RAF’s focus on community-centered philanthropy, elevating resident voices and expanding the foundation’s role as a convener, connector, and strategic partner across the county.
Investing in What Lasts
Dawn thinks carefully about what philanthropic dollars can make possible, and what will still be happening years after they’re spent.
Years ago, an RAF grant allowed local community college faculty to teach college courses in area high schools. Because the grant was structured with sustainability in mind, the program continues long after the funding ended. Students still take college courses without navigating barriers like cost, transportation, and logistics.
Dawn brought the same philosophy to RAF’s work with the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, investing not only in individual solutions but in the community’s capacity to listen, build trust, and solve problems together.
Closing the Digital Divide
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dawn played a leading role in forming the Rockingham County Digital Inclusion Coalition. She brought together community organizations, public agencies, educators, health care providers, and nonprofits to address longstanding gaps in broadband access. The coalition built the partnerships, public support, and strategic alignment needed to secure and advance a $13 million broadband infrastructure project in underserved areas of the county.
Dawn knew infrastructure alone wouldn’t solve the problem. She also coordinated a campaign with 11 community agencies to promote digital literacy, raise awareness of affordable internet options, and connect residents with the tools and skills they need. Those partners continue working together today on connectivity, affordability, device access, and digital literacy.
Building Community Capacity
Dawn has helped RAF move beyond traditional grantmaking to serve as a convener and partner in community change. She asks difficult questions about equity, access, and who is, or isn’t, being reached, while building the relationships that bring people together around shared challenges.
For Dawn, the return on a philanthropic investment isn’t measured only by what happens during the life of a grant. It’s measured by what continues because the investment was made.
Brett Howell
Executive Director and Founder, Howell Conservation Fund
Brett HowellBrett Howell founded the Howell Conservation Fund (HCF) in 2019 to back promising conservation work at the stage when traditional funding is hardest to secure. Since then, HCF has supported more than 20 conservation partners across 11 countries, pairing early-stage funding with strategic guidance, introductions, and long-term partnership.
The results speak for themselves: 13,500 mangrove seedlings planted and roughly 4,000 square meters restored in the Philippines, more than 20,000 pounds of plastic removed from Henderson Island in the South Pacific, and more than 101,000 pieces of toxic lead fishing tackle removed in New Hampshire.
Supporting Promising Ideas Early
Brett sees being a lean funder as an advantage. HCF can move quickly, take thoughtful risks earlier than larger institutions often can, and build direct relationships with the people doing the work.
His approach is hands-on without being prescriptive. Brett listens first, visits projects, asks questions, makes introductions, and stays available after a grant is made. He doesn’t tell partners how to solve problems they understand better than he does. Instead, he helps remove barriers and strengthen what’s already working.
That approach continues today. HCF is supporting early-stage work in Maine to recover lost and abandoned fishing gear from the ocean while helping OceansWide chart a path toward long-term financial and operational sustainability.
Staying Involved Beyond the Grant
Brett’s relationship with the Loon Preservation Committee in New Hampshire shows this approach at work. What began as early support for a Lead Tackle Buyback grew into one of HCF’s longest-running partnerships.
As the program developed, Brett stayed involved, providing funding, connections, visibility, and strategic support. The initiative has now removed more than 101,000 pieces of lead tackle, and since New Hampshire’s 2016 lead-tackle law, confirmed adult loon deaths from lead-tackle ingestion have declined by 35.1%.
The partnership became an early blueprint for HCF: find strong people doing important work, support them early, stay close, and help good work grow beyond the initial investment.
Putting Relationships at the Center
Brett doesn’t separate relationships from results. Showing up, listening, staying engaged, and earning trust are all part of the work.
For HCF, the value of early funding lies less in the amount invested than in what that investment can unlock. By pairing dollars with relationships, strategic support, and a willingness to stay involved, Brett helps promising conservation efforts gain traction and grow into something larger.
Lauren Scott
Executive Director, Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund
Lauren ScottAs Executive Director of the Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund, Lauren Scott has helped transform the 80-year-old family foundation into a more strategic, deeply community-connected funder while keeping it rooted in Galveston, Texas.
Under Lauren’s leadership, the Fund has strengthened its strategy and governance. But some of her biggest contributions show up across Galveston, where she brings together relationships, resources, and ideas to strengthen the local nonprofit community.
Looking Beyond the Grant
One question captures Lauren’s approach: “What is ours to do?”
Lauren doesn’t treat the Kempner Fund’s grantmaking budget as the ceiling on its impact. She considers what else the Fund can bring to the table: relationships, credibility, convening power, connections to larger funders, and a willingness to listen.
Coffee & Quality is one example. The Kempner Fund committed roughly $150,000 over three years to the capacity-building initiative. Lauren then drew on relationships across philanthropy, academia, and the nonprofit sector to help unlock a $1.4 million, three-year investment from Houston Endowment. Galveston became Coffee & Quality’s first expansion site outside Houston, giving local nonprofit staff access to learning, evaluation, and other capacity-building support.
Turning Connections Into Opportunities
Lauren is constantly learning and asking how new ideas and relationships might benefit Galveston.
The Kinder Institute Galveston Data & Learning Project began with one of those questions. While meeting with a Houston Endowment colleague about Coffee & Quality, Lauren asked whether Galveston might benefit from something like the Kinder Institute’s Houston Area Survey. That conversation led to an introduction, and eventually a three-year collaborative initiative that will give Galveston sustained community data, along with the engagement and capacity building needed to put it to use.
Lauren has also helped extend Rice University’s Best Boards Conference to Galveston nonprofits and offered free succession-planning and AI-assisted grant-writing resources. The common thread is connection: spotting an opportunity, bringing the right people together, and being comfortable letting others lead.
Leading With Trust
Trust is central to Lauren’s leadership. She treats nonprofit leaders as partners and experts in their own work and has created opportunities for nonprofit and community voices to help shape the Kempner Fund’s strategy. She brings the same approach to her colleagues and board, making room for questions, different perspectives, and shared ownership.
Lauren often talks about creating “on-ramps,” ways for board members, grantees, fellow funders, and community members to see themselves as part of the work. By widening that circle, she has helped the Kempner Fund treat its size not as a limitation, but as an opportunity to stay close to the community and respond to what it needs.
Vote for the 2026 Outsized Impact Award Winner by October 28
While these incredible leaders have all driven outsized impact, we are now asking our community to select this year’s Outsized Impact Award winner.
