THE FREESTARTERTM AWARD

For those who are blazing new paths with their ideas, innovations, and solutions – you inspire us.

We’ve all heard the saying ‘lead, follow or get out of the way’.

But what about people who go their own way, for the sake of others? Often solitary and occasionally erratic, these FreestartersTM time after time dare to go where others won’t. Towards humanity’s biggest needs, greatest hurts, and most pressing problems.

A FreestarterTM can have the zeal of an entrepreneur, the creativity of an artist, the vision of a prophet, and the grit of a warrior – and they bring their passions to teaching, community development, finance, film, ministry, peacemaking, counseling, and a wide range of other fields, all in an attempt to make our world a better place.

To learn more about FreestartersTM visit this blog post here. To meet this year’s winners, continue scrolling.

2022’s FreestarterTM Nominees
founder and Chief Vision Officer of Arrabon

David M. Bailey is a public theologian, cultural anthropologist, and catalyst focused on building reconciling communities. David is the founder and Chief Vision Officer of…

2021’s FreestarterTM Nominees

Ako

House Church in myanmar

Ako at a young age dreamed of making Myanmar a better place. He adopted his first son at age 27 and moved to Thaton township to …

Telos group

Before founding the Telos Group, Greg lived in Ramallah, the West Bank, where he advised the Palestinian leadership on peace negotiations with Israel. Although …

telos group

Todd spent sixteen years in senior positions in the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government before co-founding the Telos Group. From 2005 to 2009 …

survivor alliance

Dr. Minh Dang is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Survivor Alliance. She recently completed her PhD at the School of Politics and International Relations…

2020’s FreestarterTM Nominees
Founder of Partners, Relief and Development
Steve has over 20 years experience sharing captivating stories of Partners work with refugees and internally displaced people…
a dynamic speaker, teacher, author and reconciliation leader.

True bravery – the kind that calls us to experience potential loss and rejection in the name of justice – is what Brenda exemplifies …

Serving the unhoused population in the Bay Area

Aaron main gig is working at First Presbyterian Church in Hayward with the homeless …

2019’s FreestarterTM Nominees
Scholarship and Activities
Manager, The Freedom Story

Thodsaphon Kitta, the Scholarship and Activities Manager. Thodsaphon has worked …

Executive Manager, The Yadayna Project

Wife, mother and grandmother. Lives in Cairo, Egypt. Lilianne completed her BA from …

Co-Founder, President &
Chairman of the Board, The Taylor
Family Foundation

Elaine’s passion for giving children in need critical support and profound compassion  …

CEO and co-founder of Talech

Irv Henderson was born in Belize, Central America as the youngest of 10 children and came to …

Twice a year, The Goble Family Foundation honors a FreestarterTM with a financial donation of $5,000

— plus a whole lot of love. If you see a FreestarterTM here, it’s because we deeply believe in what they are doing. We hope you, too, will be inspired by their bravery, out of the box thinking, trail blazing, perhaps sometimes wacky, work and ideas. And, perhaps, even choose to join them.

To nominate a FreestarterTM in your life, please fill out the nomination form below. Please note the restrictions of the Goble Family Foundation’s mission to provide educational opportunities, ethical storytelling and human rights through our grants.

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