Almost every week of their freshman year, current seniors Willow N. and Jordan B. have trekked to Michaels, the craft store, and browsed through a selection of glistening beads and eclectic charms. Willow and Jordan’s dedicated routine stemmed from their club, Beads and Bobs, which turned a hobby—jewelry making—into an opportunity to sell their goods and donate the proceeds to the Elizabeth House, a local organization for homeless mothers and their children. 

Towards the end of ninth grade, Willow combined her club’s mission with the opportunity to teach local elementary school students at the Boys and Girls Club and Altadena’s Odyssey Charter School, thus founding Beads for Benefit, a nonprofit spinoff of her original Westridge club.

Fast forward to the second semester of her senior year, Willow now estimates she’s taught 60 classes and 250 kids with Beads for Benefit, her official 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 

And she’s not alone. She is one of several 501(c)(3) founders on the Westridge campus. In the senior class, four other nonprofit organizations are filed as such. There are two others—in the Class of 2026 and the Class of 2027. Of the seven current or previously registered 501(c)(3)s in Westridge Upper School, Spyglass spoke with five.

At many college preparatory institutions like Westridge, students and parents are willing to go to great lengths to give their application a leg up, and nonprofit passion projects have emerged as a viable option to show leadership and dedication. 

The Ivy Institute, an admissions consulting firm, says, “For some students, the idea of founding a nonprofit may arise as a means to bolster their college applications, hoping to stand out among the sea of applicants.”

Others have also been quick to scrutinize nonprofits as transactional and ultimately self-serving in relation to the college process. Arguably, volunteering with pre-established local organizations like Families Forward or The Ronald McDonald House include the same—if not more—philanthropic benefits of founding a nonprofit: reaching a wider audience, having a greater breadth of impact, and solving a problem in the community.

Mattie Culkin writes in his college counseling service webpage, “The best way to help people is by volunteering. Not by trying to run a business.” Culkin cautions against founding a nonprofit for fear of diluting charity down to a business—and that’s exactly what many nonprofits ultimately become: a business. When the stress of schoolwork and other extracurriculars inevitably dissolves an organization’s initially altruistic intentions, what’s left is a hollow, superficial supplement to student resumes.

Despite the scrutiny, Westridge students with nonprofits have been motivated by a dedication to service, whether it be through their community action project (CAP) or in conjunction with a club.

For Jordan, her organization’s nonprofit status was not even a talking point in her application. “I really didn’t talk about the fact that it was a nonprofit even in my college app. It wasn’t for that.” She continued, “There’s a lot of other things we’re doing for college, but this wasn’t for that.”

Founders of the nonprofit Teens for Disarmament, juniors Kanon I. and Manon I. are just starting their college process and remain committed to their charitable work, disputing any notions of self-interest. “We were inspired to create this nonprofit because we talked to a lot of atomic bomb survivors, and that’s where it started. It’s not like that because we were thinking that far ahead in the future for some kind of career goal,” Manon said.

For Willow, the financial commitment and work toward filing as a government-recognized nonprofit was worth it to her. “I really enjoyed teaching jewelry making classes. I found that it really was great to interact with the kids and teach them…So, I wanted to expand to more local elementary schools,” Willow said. She hosted a garage sale, worked as a tutor, and asked her parents for money to fund the legal fees she estimated to be around $1,000 to file Beads for Benefit as a 501(c)(3). 

Registering an organization as a 501(c)(3) is not only difficult but time consuming, especially amid schoolwork and the college process. In addition to legal fees, founder(s) must present a mission statement and file articles of incorporation to the IRS, which can take the IRS months or even years to approve.

Manon and Kanon cited the benefits of filing for a 501(c)(3). “We are officially recognized as an established organization,” Kanon said. “Oftentimes, what Manon and I do is get involved with the nuclear community, work with the United Nations, and work with the Critical Issues Forum…[so] we wanted to be established as an official organization. Also, it was a space for us to group together with many different communities to amplify the voice of the nuclear disarmament community.”

These nonprofit founders similarly expressed their commitment to their organizations and missions post-college admissions. 

Cindy C. ’25, founder of Generations Free, a 501(c)(3) providing educational support for underprivileged children in rural China, said, “It’s been almost five years now, and I definitely want to continue working with them and our mentors. I don’t think [Generations Free] is something that I can give up that easily.”

“Personally for me, I’m thinking of majoring or exploring political policy [in college]. So I want to have more public engagement once I go to college and explore the policy action that we can do in terms of nuclear disarmament in college,” Kanon said.

For others like Kimberly C. ’25 of Madhatter Knits, an organization dedicated to supplying knit hats for premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, her organization is large enough to sustain itself even while she plans on staying involved. “[Madhatter Knits] grew so big to the point where it’s growing on itself. I feel very proud of that,” Kimberly said.

Since Madhatter Knits’ founding in 2014, they now have chapters in four continents and more than 40 states. 

“It’s to reach more people, but also feel like it’s to raise awareness not to gain more money,” Kimberly said.

Saving and raising money is also an important factor in registering an organization as a 501(c)(3). For Willow and Jordan, 501(c)(3) status for Beads for Benefit, allows them to receive craft donations and ultimately save more money to donate rather than spend on supplies.

Westridge alumna Morgan Hoang ’23 co-founded Stemology for Kids, an organization aiming to inspire children to engage in STEM, while a sophomore at Westridge. The organization now features international chapters dedicated to combating inequity in education. Though not initially a nonprofit, she and her two co-heads opted to register as such later in their sophomore year to give their organization a sense of credibility when receiving donations.

As a current sophomore at Princeton University, Morgan focuses on developing the chapters in the Los Angeles area—two that she mentioned were based at Westridge and La Salle College Preparatory High School. Morgan also organizes tutoring for local children in the Princeton area, though not officially for Stemology for Kids. 

Morgan recognized that at an elite university such as Princeton, many of its students have founded nonprofits. “I know making a nonprofit comes with a lot of privilege, but I think as long as your intent is to make change in your community, and building a non nonprofit allows you to do that, I don’t see anything wrong with it,” she said.