Leading for Kids in Need (article source click here)

At the moment, Matt Blesso sits on several boards. There’s the Institute for Urban Design, a progressive design and urban planning policy organization that emphasizes sustainability. There’s the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, which is a think tank. The Fourth Arts Block focuses on making the area on East Fourth Street between Second Avenue and the Bowery “a real cultural destination,” said Mr. Blesso. And he is also on the board of the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, where he studied 10 years ago.

The organizations have a lot in common with Mr. Blesso’s profession. The 37-year-old New Jersey native founded Blesso Properties 11 years ago to develop residential properties in the city. (With the real-estate downturn, Mr. Blesso has focused on buying most of the commercial property in the Fire Island Pines and developing a hotel in Panama. He also made an investment in the 3rd Ward arts collective.)

“I love New York City and I’m trying to make it a better place, but on a deeper philosophical level, I wanted to know, Who are the neediest people in the world and how could I help them?” Mr. Blesso said.

In early 2008, to satisfy that question, Mr. Blesso started a nonprofit to build sustainable housing for impoverished people in Central America.

“And then the [economic] crisis kicked in,” Mr. Blesso explained. “It was no time for a nonprofit so I decided to table it.”

Mr. Blesso quickly moved on to find an existing organization to which he could donate some time, one that supported orphan children. He eventually settled on the Worldwide Orphans Foundation, which was launched in 1997 by Dr. Jane Aronson, a pediatrician who works with children that have been adopted from Third World countries.

“I did a lot of financial due diligence,” Mr. Blesso said. “I look at my nonprofits the same way I look at my for-profit endeavors: as a venture capitalist. With a nonprofit company, the profits are positive social impact.”

Ms. Aronson suggested the two work together on a trial basis and that the Worldwide Orphans Foundation could use Mr. Blesso to reach out to a younger audience. He threw a fund-raiser at his NoHo apartment in June 2009, and that night, Ms. Aronson invited Mr. Blesso to join the organization’s board.

Mr. Blesso helps the Worldwide Orphans Foundation expand its donor base and has been focusing on a social media campaign. “We’re trying to embrace new ways of connecting with people, so automatically, by my age, I’m the one they ask,” he said.

As for balancing all his philanthropic work with his profession, Mr. Blesso, who grew up in Paterson, N.J., and studied economics at the University of Rochester, said: “It’s a challenge. But I enjoy it. I have all these things I like committing myself to, though it helps to have a great assistant and a great staff to make it work.”