Every July, Disability Pride Month is a celebration of identity, resilience and a movement that has fought hard and won hard. It traces its origins to July 26, 1990, the day the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law, a landmark civil rights victory that transformed the lives of more than 60 million Americans. In 2025, the whole of July was recognized as a time not just to mark that anniversary, but to honor the people with disabilities and disability advocates and communities whose persistence brought it to the calendar.

Disability Pride is an insistence that disability is a natural part of human diversity, that people with disabilities deserve full participation in public life and that the barriers they face are social and structural, not personal. The month is a reminder that progress is real, the work is unfinished and everyone leading that work deserves to be celebrated loudly.

This article is part of our Breakthrough Nonprofits series, an extension of our monthly newsletter for nonprofit professionals. The series shines a light on organizations that refuse to accept the status quo, finding new ways to clear the path for the people they serve. Support for any of the nonprofits below means contributing to a future where people with disabilities have full access to opportunity, belonging and joy – on their own terms.

The nonprofits

The Give Lively member nonprofits featured below are leading examples of breakthrough work in disability inclusion and care: from Extra Special People, building year-round community for people of all abilities and their families across Georgia and North Carolina, to The Red Barn, bringing equine-assisted healing to individuals with disabilities, veterans and children with communication disorders in Alabama; from L'Arche USA, creating shared homes and communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live as genuine peers, to organizations offering accessible outdoor adventure, supported employment in the arts, adaptive equipment for kids and so much more. They are joined by schools, employment programs, family resource centers and therapeutic farms, each dismantling the barriers that keep disabled people from living fully.

L'Arche USA

L'Arche USA builds communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work alongside one another as peers, not as clients and caregivers. Through shared homes, vocational programs and daily support across the U.S. and 36 other countries, it is creating a world where everyone's gifts are recognized and no one is left behind.

Art Enables

Art Enables is the only nonprofit in Washington, D.C., dedicated to supported employment for adult visual artists with disabilities in the form of studio space, materials and marketing support to develop professional careers. Since the program’s founding in 2001, its artists have generated nearly $1.5 million in art sales and exhibited their work locally, nationally and internationally.

Center for Independent Futures

Center for Independent Futures helps adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities pursue their hopes and dreams through individual coaching, community living options and its My Full Life program in the Chicago suburbs. It approaches each person as a full human being with unique goals to support independent living in a way that centers the individual's own vision.

Environmental Traveling Companions

Environmental Traveling Companions has been opening the outdoors to people with disabilities and youth from under-resourced backgrounds since 1972, pioneering accessible whitewater rafting, sea kayaking and cross-country skiing adventures across California. It has served over 100,000 participants to build self-confidence, environmental stewardship and a genuine love of the natural world.

Extra Special People

Extra Special People creates year-round programs for people of all abilities across Georgia and North Carolina, with everything from after-school enrichment and summer camp to employment pathways like its mobile coffee cart, Java Joy. For nearly 40 years, it has been building spaces where individuals with disabilities and their families can find belonging, connection and joy.

The Hagedorn Little Village School

The Hagedorn Little Village School is a publicly funded, not-for-profit school on Long Island, New York, that provides outstanding educational and therapeutic services to children with developmental disabilities from birth to age 12. Early intervention, preschool and elementary programs are available at no cost to families, pairing specialized instruction with speech, occupational and physical therapies, and support for the whole family.

Michigan United Cerebral Palsy

Michigan United Cerebral Palsy has been an ally and advocate for people with disabilities across the state for more than 75 years, grounded in the belief that everyone has the right to live to the fullest of their abilities. As a statewide nonprofit, it works to remove barriers, champion rights and inspire individuals with disabilities to go as far as their ambitions will take them.

The Next Step Programs 

Founded in 2015, The Next Step Programs bridges the gap between high school and adulthood for young adults with disabilities in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It offers in-home and community support, employment services, day programming, social groups and overnight experiences, all designed to help individuals live full, engaged and meaningful lives.

No Barriers USA

No Barriers USA uses outdoor adventure as a catalyst, running multi-phase programs for people affected by disability, including veterans, youth and family caregivers. Combining in-person wilderness experiences with structured personal development work, it aims to shift mindsets, foster belonging and encourage participants to break through barriers to live purposeful lives.

Pony Power Therapies

Pony Power Therapies is a New Jersey-based nonprofit that harnesses the power of horses and nature to support children and adults with disabilities, offering therapeutic horseback riding and horse-assisted learning programs. It serves a wide range of participants at its farm campus, where it pairs evidence-backed equine therapy with a warm, community-oriented environment.

Promise Project

Promise Project gives underserved children in New York City a fighting chance at academic success via free, comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations for kids with learning disabilities. In partnership with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center, it connects low-income families in neighborhoods like Harlem and Washington Heights with the assessments, advocacy and individualized education plans children need.

Reality Ministries Inc.

Reality Ministries is a community-based nonprofit in Durham, North Carolina, that creates spaces where teens and adults with and without developmental disabilities can experience genuine belonging and kinship. Its daytime programs, evening gatherings, residential opportunities and a packed calendar of community events reflect the belief that real community has no margins.

The Red Barn

The Red Barn is an Alabama nonprofit that offers equine-assisted horsemanship, learning and therapeutic programs for individuals with disabilities, with a focus on low-income families, veterans and their loved ones. It also runs Horse Sense, a standout program that brings children with communication disorders together with law enforcement officers to learn about one another through the shared experience of horses.

Support for Families of Children with Disabilities

Support for Families is a parent-run San Francisco nonprofit that has been helping Bay Area families of children with any kind of disability navigate systems, services and challenges since 1982. Free workshops, support groups, parent mentorship, resource libraries and individualized guidance guide families to what they need to make confident, informed choices for their kids.

Smile Farms

Smile Farms creates meaningful employment in agriculture and hospitality for adults with developmental disabilities, operating across 14 campuses in the New York metro area. Founded by the McCann family (of 1-800-Flowers), it gives Smile Farmers the chance to grow produce, tend greenhouses and earn a paycheck while gaining the purpose and dignity that comes with real work.

Variety – the Children's Charity (of Pittsburgh)

Variety Pittsburgh works across 59 Pennsylvania counties to put life-changing adaptive equipment directly into the hands of children with disabilities, including custom bikes, strollers and communication devices free of charge via its My Bike, My Stroller and My Voice programs. The goal is simple: no child should miss out on the ordinary joys of childhood just because they have a disability.