Hi! I’m Jackie Wolf, the founder of Big Idea Mentor.

While I have worn many hats in my professional life, I have always been in the idea business. I began my career as a graphic designer and art director, and later started my own design agency, eventually bringing these skills to the nonprofit world. At its core, my job has always come down to asking: What resonates with people? What sparks their imagination and gets them excited? These questions have followed me from the design world to nonprofits, where I began thinking about what moves people – whether donors, volunteers, or the community to support a cause they care about. I believe deeply in the transformative power of doing something you love, and have seen the impact this has as both a parent and a professional.

The inspiration for launching Big Idea Mentor grew out of my work as the part-time Managing Director of Jared’s Fund, a Montclair, New Jersey, nonprofit working to end the stigma around mental illness. Since 2022, I have helped run a six-week fellowship program where local high school students pursue an original project of their own design to help break that stigma in their communities.

Seeing the genuine passion and excitement the students bring to projects was eye-opening. My role isn’t to tell them what to do, but to help them develop and fine-tune their ideas, taking their projects out into the community where they can have a broader impact. Through this work, I began to see how powerful that combination of ownership and mentorship can be.

It made me wonder: What if more young people had that kind of support to pursue something they were passionate about?

As a parent myself, I realize there is a delicate balance between encouraging a child and unconsciously taking over. Sometimes the more we suggest, the more kids pull away. A mentor can fill this gap by listening, asking questions, encouraging and challenging them, while giving them and their ideas room to grow.