Food insecurity, reproductive health and the climate crisis are among the global challenges young social impact entrepreneurs are tackling.By Alex Stuckey, Igor Bosilkovski and Robert Davis

After a flood devastated her hometown of San Pedro Tultepec, Mexico, in 2015, Xiye Bastida dedicated her life to fighting climate change. In 2020, the now 23-year-old co-founded the Re-Earth Initiative, a youth-led climate advocacy organization aimed at addressing environmental threats.

“That changed me because it showed me that the climate crisis was here, that it was affecting our communities, my people,” Bastida told Forbes.

Sebastian Nevols for Forbes

Since launching her non-profit, Bastida says the organization has raised more than $3.4 million from big climate players like 776 Foundation, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, and Diane Von Fursterberg. That money has gone toward supporting climate initiatives around the world—like Shamba Box, which helps farmers in Tanzania learn regenerative farming techniques; and La Labs, a group of students in Ottawa, Canada working to increase the city’s use of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology. $1 million in grants has been dolled out so far.

Bastida is just one of the ambitious young entrepreneurs and changemakers to make the 15th annual Forbes Under 30 list for Social Impact. Research for this year’s class began with thousands of nominations from the public, Under 30 alumni and industry experts. Forbes reporters whittled down top candidates to feature our final selection of the 30 most promising twenty-somethings.

To be considered for this year’s list, all candidates had to be under the age of 30 as of December 31, 2025. Candidates for this list were evaluated by a panel of judges, including Jean Case, chairperson of The National Geographic Society and CEO of the Case Impact Network; Gayatari Datar, CEO of Earthenable and a 2021 30 Under 30 All-Star Alumna; Cheryl Dorsey, CEO of Echoing Green; and Randall Lane, Forbes’ chief content officer.

The 2026 Under 30 class was compiled against the backdrop of a political administration that has made life much more difficult for nonprofits and social entrepreneurs, from changing federal grant funding requirements to threatening legal action against organizations that support diversity, equity, and inclusion principles. Despite the challenges, these Under 30 honorees have persisted, building global organizations to support social problems including food insecurity, women’s reproductive health and getting young people more engaged in politics.

Six of the 30 listmakers this year focused their efforts on improving health care for vulnerable populations. Mila Magnani, 24 and Lucas Labelle, 27, founded Milamend to provide women with hormone care at a time when many doctors are no longer providing similar services. The company launched in May 2024 and their initial product launch, a nutritional supplement called Hormone Harmony, sold out in minutes. The company has already shipped more than 88,000 units of its hormone balance blends and is on track to earn $10 million in sales in 2025. Camron Brown, 27, and Kaelaan Maynor, 27, cofounded Counter Fin, an AI-enabled SaaS platform to help people successfully file for disability and leave benefits. Nur Shafiqah Shahirah, 29, founded KOI Health to connect family caregivers to flexible care for as little as two hours per week, much lower than the standard 20 hour minimum that other providers offer.

The focus on food insecurity has also increased. More than 40 million households were at-risk of becoming food insecure because of changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to the American Public Health Association. Four of this year’s honorees launched organizations designed to address this growing problem. Paige Swanstein, 26, and Owen Tanner-Flomberg, 28, founded the Student Basic Needs Coalition to help young students access food benefits, helping more than 10,000 students access $37 million in SNAP benefits as of 2025. Sheila Nicolin, 28, and Lucas Kuzak, 26, started Ordo under a similar premise: The company helps schools provide healthy food options for students, and has delivered more than 4.5 million meals across 18 states.

Artificial intelligence is also playing a large role across social impact startups—from waste management and recycling to increasing diversity in the tech industry. Nyamekye Wilson, 29, founded Black Sisters in STEM, a nonprofit that trains Black women to work in AI and tech. The organization has raised about $1.4 million since 2018, and trained 27,000 women across 33 countries and more than 200 schools, with a 100 percent STEM degree attainment rate. Sarika Bajaj, 29, Tushita Gupta, 29, cofounded Refiberd, a startup that has developed novel AI technology to sort textiles for resale and recycling applications. Their technology is able to detect the actual composition of recycled materials within one to two percent. They have active partnerships with eBay, fashion brand GANNI, and others. To date, they have received $4.7 million in funding.

But it’s not all doom and gloom in the world of impact. John Cronin, 29, is the cofounder and chief happiness officer of John’s Crazy Socks. Cronin, who has down syndrome, bootstrapped the company with his dad to provide employment opportunities for people with differing abilities. So far, the company has created 34 total jobs, 22 of which are held by people with differing abilities, and has raised roughly $800,000 for charity partners like the Special Olympics.

This 2026 list spotlights the founders, activists, teachers, and more who are breathing new life into social impact. All candidates must have been 29 or younger as of December 31, 2025, and never before named to a U.S., Europe, or Asia 30 Under 30 list. Of those named to the final list, 53% identify as people of color, 39% are women or non-binary folks, and 92% are founders or building their own brands.

This year’s list was edited by Robert Davis, Alex Stuckey and Igor Bosilkovsky. For a link to our complete 2026 30 Under 30 Social Impact list, click here, and for full 2026 30 Under 30 coverage, click here.

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