14.8 million. That’s how many people Noora Health reached this year with life-saving information about COVID-19. Responding to the pandemic in a big way, the Fast Forward alum created a wide range of COVID-19 tools now being used by governments, healthcare professionals, and individuals across India and Bangladesh.

Noora Health improves patient outcomes through key behavior change practices. During the pandemic, this meant empowering families with training to slow the spread. With accessibility in mind, Noora Health leveraged WhatsApp and SMS to provide COVID-19 teletraining to patients and families right from their mobile phones.

Noora Health leveraged partnerships to reach even the most remote communities. With the help of over 70 organizations, they made sure millions had access to their COVID-19 Resource Library, an open-source tool that shares critical health information in 14 regional languages.

Shahed Alam and Elliott founded Noora Health because they believed in the power of families to heal. Seven years later, their solutions are empowering families at scale, improving health outcomes for at-risk communities through a global pandemic and beyond.

This year, screens replaced classrooms, whiteboards, and even books for students across the country. With the risk of learning loss heightened by remote learning, TalkingPoints improved student outcomes during the pandemic by enabling 3 million families to engage in their child’s education.

It’s not widely known that parent engagement is twice as important as socioeconomic status in predicting student success. To drive parent engagement in under resourced and non-English speaking families, TalkingPoints connects parents with the other key player in children’s education: teachers. The tech nonprofit has enabled 100 million conversations, in 100 languages, between families and teachers via their mobile app and text messaging.

This year, Talking Points announced expanded and new partnerships with national funders like Google.org and Schmidt Futures, and several of the country’s largest school districts including Oakland Unified and Boston Public Schools. These partnerships helped Talking Points expand its reach by six times since the start of the pandemic alone.

Heejae Lim was born in Seoul, Korea. She immigrated to the UK when she was eight, and later moved across the globe to the US. Her experiences navigating language barriers as an immigrant led her to pitch the idea for TalkingPoints at a hackathon. She won. Six years into leading TalkingPoints, she’s unlocking the potential of family engagement at meaningful scale.

In 2020, millions of families struggled with debt driven by historic unemployment related to the pandemic. Upsolve had their back. A legal aid organization turned tech nonprofit, Upsolve helps Americans file for bankruptcy and relieve their debt - all for free.

This year, Upsolve celebrated relieving $300 million in total debt and over $150 million in debt in 2020 alone. Upsolve helped 11% more people file this year than in 2019. This impact earned Upsolve the honor of being named a TIME Best Invention of 2020.

Upsolve is more than a life-changing tool: it’s also a community. This year, they launched a Facebook Group for Upsolve users which became the most engaged community for bankruptcy on the Internet.

At its core, Upsolve is a civil rights organization. Rohan Pavuluri was a student at Harvard in 2016 when he and lawyer Jonathan Petts founded Upsolve with one mission: to empower people to access their rights when they can’t afford a lawyer. Since their beginnings as a Brooklyn-based brick-and-mortar organization housed in Blue Ridge Labs, Upsolve has changed the lives of millions of Americans by helping them exercise their civil legal rights.

Black Americans represent 33% of the incarcerated population, almost triple their share of the U.S. adult population. This is a racial justice crisis.

Accelerator alumni Uzoma Orchingwa and Gabe Saruhashi recognized that among the many layers of injustice inherent to this issue, the prohibitive cost of prison communications was one they could impact. Communications with loved ones while incarcerated is vital - recidivism rates are lower for those who regularly communicate with loved ones. Ameelio was born.

Ameelio is a prison communications platform which enables people who are incarcerated and their loved ones to send free photos and letters. In less than a year, Ameelio has celebrated some significant milestones: over 40,000 families have sent 205,795 letters and photos to incarcerated loved ones, Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall initiative donated $500K, and Ameelio contacted and registered voters who are incarcerated in Georgia, Maine, and Colorado. Keep an eye on this rising star.