2026 Making a Difference Award
Celebrating Gen Z Changemakers
The Next Generation of Leadership Is Already Here
For 29 years, the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award has honored exceptional New Jersey residents whose service changes lives. In its 30th and final year, the award will focus exclusively on Gen Z, ages 16–24, amplifying young trailblazers whose innovation, passion, and purpose are redefining what it means to serve.
If you teach, mentor, lead a youth program, or work alongside young adults who inspire others, this is your invitation: nominate a Gen Z standout whose work is already making a difference.
Deadline for entry: February 13, 2026
Nominate Later:
Why Gen Z?
Gen Z brings new perspectives, digital fluency, and bold approaches to solving community and global challenges. They are rising leaders in nonprofits, social enterprises, environmental initiatives, and business with purpose. By recognizing Gen Z leaders, the Making a Difference Award will celebrate its 30 years of impact by investing in the voices and ideas that will shape the future of New Jersey and beyond.
How it Works
- Nominate a Gen Z leader using the online nomination form by February 13.
- A review committee of community and philanthropic leaders evaluates submissions.
- Finalists are announced in the spring.
- Winners will be recognized at the annual award ceremony in May 2026
- Recipients receive recognition and cash awards.
Nominate a Gen Z Leader!
Be a champion for the next generation. Nominate a Gen Z leader today and share this opportunity with your network.
Making a Difference
Established in 1997 by the late Russell Berrie, and managed and hosted by Ramapo College of New Jersey, the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Award honors Garden State residents whose outstanding community service and heroic acts have made a substantial impact on the lives of others.
Learn more about this unique award and the impact it’s had for nearly 30 years.
Past Honorees
From the Blog
The work of our past honorees, who have tackled important issues, continues to make profound differences for NJ residents. Learn more about these remarkable individuals through their stories.
Shining the Light on New Jersey’s Gen Z Changemakers—Honorees Who Made a Difference at a Young Age
As the Making a Difference Award shifts to recognize Gen Z leaders in 2026, we look back at some Honorees whose work to improve communities and the lives of NJ residents began in their teens or college years.
Saranne Rothberg: Meeting Cancer Head-On with Humor
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the perfect time to shine our light on Saranne Rothberg, a 2003 Making a Difference Award Honoree. A stage IV triple negative breast cancer survivor, Saranne founded ComedyCures in 1999 after her cancer diagnosis.
Meet Lewis Spears: Transforming Lives Among Jersey City’s Youth at Risk
As a middle school teacher, Lewis Spears saw so many young men failing to thrive and barely surviving school. They were being disciplined, detained and suspended, and doing poorly academically, stuck in a cycle without positive opportunities for their future. He set out to change that when he launched Kismet of Kings in 2013.
Recent Press & Media
