Winning App

Since SANA YOUNIS was young, she has felt it in her soul that making the world a better place was her duty. Now that her startup, Humanity Hub, is gaining momentum following a recent award from UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), she’s seeing her vision come to life.

“I think of myself as a system thinker, transformation agent, and a community builder,” Younis says.

Those identities have guided her journey from earning a master’s in both public health and health care transformation to roles across the globe that eventually inspired the creation of Humanity Hub. Her career includes a decade in health care administration in Dubai. There, her passion for improving systems – focusing on access and end results – grew tenfold.

“I’ve always thought health care was a right, not a privilege,” Younis says. “And my goal was to improve access and affordability, as well as outcomes.”

Her commitment to social change later extended into her work to identify social determinants of health. She had the opportunity to collaborate with Catholic Charities in Michigan on a pilot to help develop housing solutions. During this time, Younis and her team tried to connect with a partner organization in Seattle to gain insight into their housing success.

“It took us three to six months just to connect with someone from Catholic Charities in Seattle,” she recalls. “With the technology we have, that should not be the case.”

She doesn’t blame this hiccup on anyone, but on a lack of inter-organizational infrastructure. While frustrating at the time, this delay planted the seed for Humanity Hub – the platform and startup Younis has envisioned to break down such communication barriers and foster collaboration across organizations.

Younis developed Humanity Hub earlier this year over her five-week intensive workshop at the CIE’s Idea Test Lab with the Women in Tech/Female Founders cohort. The program took on seven early-stage company founders, guiding them through initial phases of their entrepreneurial ideas and leading them to refine and present their ultimate startup pitch.

Younis’ startup focuses on connecting nonprofits and other NGOs to amplify their impact through networking, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing.

The concept gained traction quickly. While facilitating the first strategic planning session for the Cape Fear Housing Coalition at The Harrelson Center, also during the time she was enrolled in the Idea Test Lab, Younis came across a pamphlet listing over forty Wilmington-area nonprofits. That list became a cornerstone of her Humanity Hub pitch: a way of bringing such organizations together.

“Humanity Hub is not just a resource – it’s an ally,” Younis says. She describes the platform as a network for nonprofits and other NGOs to build communities that work together to solve systemic problems.

Some examples are facilitating grant writing workshops, connecting diverse stakeholders with shared issues to solve, connecting similar organizations for events or research, and even setting up developers with institutions seeking to create housing or other building projects. The app can also be used to host surveys, increasing information across organizations. In simple terms, it’s an elevated networking and collaboration app for changemakers. While the initial design will likely be more locally focused, the goal is to branch out and go global, maximizing worldwide connectivity between humanitarian organizations, Younis says.

Her experience at the Women in Tech/Female Founders event exceeded her expectations, she says. Younis went in hoping to clarify her focus and build connections; she left with first place and a $5,000 prize – the largest awarded by the judges.

“I was packing up as they announced second and third place,” Younis says. “I was going to congratulate the first-place winner and rush home to my kids.”

With the prize money, Younis plans to develop a prototype of Humanity Hub, focusing initially on housing, which she says is a critical social determinant of health. Since winning, she’s already hard at work forming an advisory board to guide the platform’s development.

As Younis continues building her platform, she plans to keep working with local organizations, such as the CIE and The Harrelson Center, to optimize Humanity Hub’s development. She also plans to start a podcast, imparting her breadth of knowledge from years in the health care transformation field to anyone interested in changemaking.

“A lot of people can just be up in the clouds and think big ideas, and others are the doers,” Younis says. “I am able to bring those together.” 

Having spent twenty-five years in health care, Younis feels that she has finally found her sweet spot – improving the world through transformation and connection. 

“Knowing I can amplify the voices of changemakers through this platform,” she says, “I have never felt so aligned with my calling.”

To view more of photographer Aris Harding’s work, go to arisharding.com.

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