Top Illinois Social Impact Startups (68)

Over the last 15 years, we’ve grown from a startup to a market-leading organization with over 150 team members, and we’ve created an award-winning culture that makes this company an amazing place to work. We've been ranked on multiple best places to work lists including the 2026 BuiltIn Chicago rankings.

Pangea is a digital money transfer platform that makes sending money abroad simple, reliable, and cost-effective. Founded in 2012 and based in Chicago, we’ve helped millions of people send money securely and efficiently, empowering financial freedom across borders. We serve a global customer base with a mobile-first platform that offers low fees, competitive exchange rates, and fast*, secure delivery. Our work...

Amp Americas owns and operates one of the largest carbon negative fuels producing portfolios in the U.S. Amp makes ultra-low carbon intensity renewable natural gas (RNG) from dairy waste at 7 facilities in 3 states processing manure from over 100,000 cows. Amp operates three business units: Amp Americas Development, Amp Americas Services, and Amp Americas RNG Marketing. Amp’s dairy RNG...

Rang is building the rewards platform for schools. Our mission is simple: improve student outcomes. Rang helps schools reinforce positive academic behaviors by connecting students and families to digital rewards funded by corporate sponsors. Schools get a powerful tool to improve attendance and engagement. Sponsors get measurable social impact tied directly to student outcomes.

Not every candidate is a top performer—and neither is every hiring assessment provider. Wonderlic’s mission is to help HR professionals identify top applicants and predict on-the-job performance by providing them with the most trusted, scientifically validated assessments on the market. Since the company was founded in 1937, more than 200 million Wonderlic assessments have been administered to job candidates. Our...

Operated by elected Supervisor, Danielle Chynoweth, Cunningham Township Supervisor’s Office (CTSO) is a government office providing a local safety net for low-income households since 1928. We provide General Assistance, Rental Assistance, Utility Assistance, Food Support, and referrals to services funded by Urbana residents serving Urbana residents. We provide Homeless Services to Champaign County residents funded through grants coordinated through our county’s Continuum...

Double Good is a company built on creating joy and helping others. By reimagining product-based virtual fundraising, we help expand organizations' missions by giving back 50% of every dollar sold. We make ultra-premium popcorn sold through our simple-to-use software. We've helped raise over $200 million to support organizations nationwide that tilt the playing field for all kids. Double Good is not...

STEAMe's digital and data platform powers workforce development pathways to employment, connects system partners, simplifies workflows, and helps get the right person, to the right training, and the right job, so people and communities can flourish.

Vidmob is the creative data company. Its AI-based software improves creative and media performance by helping brands and agencies derive their own custom creative best practices, and ensure that those learnings are applied across all flighted media. Vidmob’s approach to using creative data drives brand consistency, reduces creative and media waste, and increases overall business performance across the funnel. As...

At Gannon Solutions, we design and develop beautifully tailored websites cunningly optimized for all devices. We are a full-service digital firm. That means we partner with you from inception thru analytics on every project to help you stay relevant to your current customers and attractive enough to attain new.

With more than 13.5 million monthly active users in virtually every country in the world, Grindr has grown to become a fundamental part of the LGBTQ+ community since its launch in 2009. The company continues to expand its ecosystem to enable gay, bi, trans, and queer people to connect, express themselves, and discover the world around them. Since 2015 Grindr...

PiN is a renewable energy company disguised as an online gamification platform via website and mobile apps. PiN is a social enterprise that is a hybrid between online and mobile games and penny auctions. Users can win prizes through skills games, initially trivia games, with renewable energy advocacy and education built in before each game.

SPEDxchange is an online community of special education teachers, Speech-Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, School Psychologists, School District Administrators and other staff that service special education students and their families. SPEDxchange is transforming and improving the way special educators, school districts and parents connect with each other.

At NowPow, we use technology to power entire communities by connecting people with the vital services they need to stay well, meet basic needs, manage with illness and care for others.

Honest Game is reimagining a world where access to college sports is fair, equitable, anchored by data and grounded in integrity. Honest Game's SaaS product builds individualized academic roadmaps to provide real-time strategic eligibility guidance so everyone has a clear pathway to college sports and beyond. Founded in Chicago in 2019, Honest Game is seeking a Principal Engineer to support...

Progressive Turnout Project (PTP) is the largest voter contact organization in the country. Our mission: Get Democrats to vote. We design, test, and execute specialized voter turnout programs targeting inconsistent Democratic voters in the most competitive elections up and down the ballot. Since 2015, our trained Field staff, Fellows, and volunteers have made more than 59 million voter contact attempts...

To reach out, communicate and educate Illinois public sector employees about the pension crisis and how it will affect their retirement future. Working with public sector employees, unions, and Illinois state & local governments to fundamentally fix the retirement crisis through a permanent long-term solution.

enterN is transforming the early-career hiring process by eliminating the biases embedded in traditional resume-based recruiting. By shifting the focus to verified skills and cultural fit, enterN provides a more equitable and effective way for employers to identify top talent among college students, recent graduates, and entry-level job seekers. Resumes introduce significant opportunities for implicit bias before the hiring process even...

City Tech reinvents cities. We convene cross-sector leaders to tackle urban problems that are too big for any one group to solve on its own. We remake essential city services and infrastructure using advanced technology and then expand these solutions to other cities. To learn more, visit www.CityTech.org.

Thought Collection Publishing is an independent publisher supporting social change through publishing literary and visual artists in our nonfiction publications. Our publications are a collection of stories and art depicting expressions of our lives, a collaboration of those that want to explore the world and expand their life perspectives and w