Mouse
founded in 1997
mouse.org

Your name
Daniel Rabuzzi, executive director

Describe in 50 words or less what your organization does.
Mouse is a youth-development nonprofit that empowers all students to create with technology to solve real problems and make meaningful change in our world.  We are committed to increasing diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and opening opportunities for underserved youth across the country.

At what scale is your organization currently operating?
Mouse is having a positive and lasting impact on more than 6,700 youths across the country, with most of our sites in New York City, California, and Minnesota.

What do you consider your greatest achievement to date?
As Mouse enters its 20th year, we are proud to have empowered close to 40,000 ethnically diverse young people, more than one third being young women, to create technology with purpose.

What other nonprofit do you most admire, and why?
The Children's Defense Fund, because they serve all the children in our country, have been doing so since 1973, and can demonstrate concrete policy achievements as a result of their ceaseless, bi-partisan advocacy backed by research.  The CDF inspires and accomplishes, consistently focused on the youngest and all-too-often the most vulnerable members of society.

What’s the ratio of sleep you get to sleep you need?
Close to 100 percent:  as an athlete, I prioritize the recovery and consolidation only sleep provides, so that I am best equipped to tackle challenges during our daylight hours — and to do so over and over again, since the biggest challenge is to do the distance and hand off properly, not just sprint to an isolated and most likely ephemeral result.

Recommend a book to us. Any book.
Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000, by Lucille Clifton. She is one of the great American poets, capturing in concise lyrical language the pains and joys of our everyday lives.

Complete the sentence, “If I could double my funding, I would _______.”
...strengthen efforts to increase the participation of diverse youth in Mouse, including increasing percentage of young women in our programs from 33 percent to 50 percent by 2020.

View Mouse Rising Nonprofits to Watch profile on EcoMedia's GiveWithUs site.