For fifteen years Shana Dressler worked as a multimedia producer and photojournalist on projects spanning several disciplines and continents while consulting for nonprofit arts and media organizations.

Inspired by her consultant work with the Peabody award-winning satellite TV station, Link TV, Shana sought ways to contribute to featured causes in a meaningful way. Since February 2009, Shana has concentrated on building unique giving communities focused on raising funds and awareness around such issues as human rights, the global water crisis, youth education, women’s leadership and social entrepreneurship.

Through her nonprofit organization, the Global Giving Circle, she created opportunities for people of all income levels to support hybrid grassroots social enterprise and philanthropic initiatives focused on poverty alleviation. In December 2009, Shana launched Global Gifts That Matter, an online gift emporium supporting high-impact nonprofits and social enterprises through the sale of gifts and gift donations. In February 2010, she began work on the Global Cocoa Project. Its mission is to support cocoa farmers around the globe by supplying them with not only tools to improve the quality of their cocoa production, but also basic needs for their daily lives.

Shana is the co-founder of the Social Innovators Collective, a dynamic, international network of emerging founders, leaders and individuals who work in the social enterprise and nonprofit sectors. Part of the organization’s mission is to train the next wave of social change leaders so that they become financially sustainable. To this end Shana has produced workshops on non-profit and social enterprise business development at General Assembly; designed bootcamps hosted at Parsons School of Design; created panels of social good industry experts for conferences like Social Media Week; and programming for Internet Week NYC.