ABOUT US

For twenty years, Let's Breakthrough Inc. (Breakthrough) has harnessed the power of media and popular culture to spark conversations and transform norms around gender, racial justice, sexuality, and immigrant rights.

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Tomiko Behind the Scenes Film

As a society, we consume culture. It's an integral part of every-day life. Culture consumption is where Breakthrough seizes the opportunity for change. We reject cultural norms, practices, and products that perpetuate violence and discrimination. In their place, we produce and amplify media, arts, and technology that promote core human rights, including dignity, equality, and respect.

OUR METHODS

Breakthrough US Pop Culture and Media

MULTIMEDIA + POP CULTURE

Through film, animation, video games, storytelling, social media, and more, we make human rights issues real, relevant, urgent, and actionable.

 

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Breakthrough US Community Organizing

 

COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION

We embolden young and emerging leaders to use their talents for social change through digital campaigns, media mentorship, and virtual and on-the-ground events.

 

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Breakthrough US Partnerships

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

Our game-changing partnerships with grassroots and media organizations, cultural influencers and youth educators add depth to our campaigns and reach audiences at scale. 

 

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Breakthrough US Global Impact

OUR WORK EXTENDS BEYOND THE U.S.

Breakthrough’s journey began in India in 2000. Now, Breakthrough's campaigns reach audiences at scale -- not only in the United States and India, but also globally. Our work has been internationally recognized, including with the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2016) and the Lipman Prize (2014).

See Breakthrough's History

Want to help marginalized media-makers reclaim their narrative and transform media and pop culture to drive cultural change?

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MAGGIE BANGSER

Interim Board Chairperson

Maggie works with social justice initiatives and their funders to design, plan, implement and evaluate the change they seek to create. She offers technical expertise in the rights of vulnerable groups and strategies to reach them based on over twenty years living and working in East and Southern Africa. Maggie founded and directed Women’s Dignity in Tanzania which re-framed the global conceptualization of obstetric fistula in a human rights context. Prior to that she was a Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition. Maggie holds a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management from Yale University. Her Bachelor’s degree is in Political Science from Amherst College, from which she received an Honorary Doctorate in 2009.

MAGGIE BANGSER

Interim Board Chairperson

MARC J. SOKOL

Treasurer

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Marc J. Sokol is a seasoned nonprofit executive with over 30 years of global and U.S. experience leading and implementing successful change management initiatives across diverse organizations of varying sizes. Marc takes big-picture strategy and implements it, restructuring and transforming entire organizations or discrete departments and divisions. Marc specializes in arts and culture, human rights, social justice, philanthropic, and social impact organizations.
Always client-centered, Marc works in both a hands-on way, implementing and leading, as well as offering insight and advice to senior leadership. With dedication and superior attention to
detail, Marc directs and fulfills internal-facing duties, releasing CEO’s and leadership teams to focus on vision, strategy, and diverse stakeholders all while conducting their regular business.
Before dedicating himself to consulting clients, Marc served at Let’s Breakthrough, Inc. for 15 years, running the day-to-day business and ensuring program implementation. Marc took point on two significant organizational development lifecycle processes for Breakthrough: collaboratively designing and implementing the structures and systems that transformed Breakthrough from a small binational venture of 15 staff into a 150+-person global organization; and, more than a decade later, serving as Interim E.D. As Interim E.D, Marc worked closely with the Board to guide and implement a leadership transition process. In 2023, Marc joined the Board of Directors of Let’s Breakthrough, Inc. Marc also serves on the Board of UHAI EASHRI USA, Inc., a sister organization to the East Africa-based UHAI EASHRI, an indigenous, activist, feminist fund resourcing and supporting African LGBTIQ and sex worker
movements for health and human rights.

MARC J. SOKOL

Treasurer

DARNELL L. MOORE

Secretary

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Darnell has long been a fan of Breakthrough’s work. He was previously a member of the Breakthrough team as the U.S. office’s Head of Strategy & Programs, before becoming Director of Inclusion Strategy for Content & Marketing at Netflix.

Darnell is an award-winning writer and activist, a leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and a tireless advocate for justice and liberation. He is co-managing editor of The Feminist Wire and the author of No Ashes in the Fire. His writings have appeared on several media platforms, including the Guardian, MSNBC, EBONY, Advocate, and within academic journals.

Darnell has spent the last two decades working in the fields of education, youth programming, community development, and media. All that he has done is organized a singular mission, namely, to do the little he can in community to transform society by ending the intersecting injustices of gender-based violence, racism, LGBTQI discrimination, and the other structural forces that keep people on the margins.

When he is not working, he is likely sitting on his stoop, at all times of the night, laughing with friends or on a plane traveling and wishing he were still on his stoop with his friends.

DARNELL L. MOORE

Secretary

MICHAEL J. HIRSCHHORN

Michael Hirschhorn is the founder and CEO of mebl | Transforming Furniture.  Formerly, from 2008-2015, he was Executive Director of the International Human Rights Funders Group (now Human Rights Funders Network)). From 2003-08, Michael served as Executive Director of the Coro New York Leadership Center and, from 1995-2001, as Executive Director of the Literacy Assistance Center in NYC. From 2001-03, Michael worked as a non-profit strategy consultant, primarily in the fields of education, human rights, and leadership development. Earlier, he was an Assistant to the Chancellor of the NYC Public Schools and a Visiting Non-Profit Executive at Yale’s School of Management. In addition to Breakthrough, Michael serves on the boards of WITNESS, Just Vision, Documented, and several other non-profits and grantmakers focused on human rights, education and art/video for social change. Michael received a BA from Yale University in 1981 and an MBA and MSW from Columbia University in 1989.

MICHAEL J. HIRSCHHORN

MALLIKA DUTT

Founding President Emeritus

Mallika Dutt is a leading innovator in human rights, multimedia, and culture change. She combines her creative advocacy for social justice with a spiritual healing practice that connects planet, people, and purpose. Her work inspires a diverse community of change-makers dedicated to replacing the social norms that perpetuate inequality and violence with the bedrock value of respect for all.

Mallika is the founder of Breakthrough and served as President and CEO of the organization from its founding in 2000 through early 2017.

Mallika has worked for more three decades to expand and deliver civil rights, economic and environmental justice, progressive public policy, and global health.

Her achievements include co-founding Sakhi for South Asian Women, initiating the Ford Foundation’s work on police reform in India, and acting as Associate Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University that led the global movement that recognizes women’s rights as human rights, In 2012, Mallika received an honorary doctorate from Mount Holyoke in recognition of her pioneering accomplishments.

Mallika graduated from NYU Law School and holds a Masters in International Affairs and South Asian Studies from Columbia University as well as an A.B. in International Affairs from Mount Holyoke College. She recently received a certificate in shamanic studies and energy medicine from The Four Winds.

MALLIKA DUTT

Founding President Emeritus