--- title: Humans of New York Founder Raises Over $700,000 for Inner-City Kids to Visit Harvard description: Humans of New York is one of the Internet's runaway success stories, and creator Brandon Stanton is intent on giving back to the people who've... canonical: https://time.com/3687136/humans-of-new-york-hony-founder-raises-700000-plus-for-inner-city-kids-to-visit-harvard/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-29T04:22:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:02:38.718Z og:title: Humans of New York Founder Raises Over $700,000 for Inner-City Kids to Visit Harvard og:description: Brandon Stanton is intent on giving back to the people who've helped his blog become what it is today og:url: https://time.com/3687136/humans-of-new-york-hony-founder-raises-700000-plus-for-inner-city-kids-to-visit-harvard/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04fe4e10288d4872/69877c8455a8598948a8585a/brandon-stanton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Brandon Stanton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Humans of New York Founder Raises Over $700,000 for Inner-City Kids to Visit Harvard twitter:description: Brandon Stanton is intent on giving back to the people who've helped his blog become what it is today twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04fe4e10288d4872/69877c8455a8598948a8585a/brandon-stanton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Humans of New York Founder Raises Over $700,000 for Inner-City Kids to Visit Harvard > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=7be5caf1-af57-49c0-aa7a-938249e656a3&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 30 Under 30: Brandon Stanton, Creator of 'Humans of New York' [Watch (HLS stream): 30 Under 30: Brandon Stanton, Creator of 'Humans of New York'](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zT7Xss3H.m3u8) (5:10)  _Published 2013-12-12. Brandon Stanton is the street photographer turned culture spotter behind the blog "Humans of New York." His photos have been called capsules of a moment in time, and are being imitated all over the world._ by [Alex Heigl / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Alex Heigl / People Contributor Jan 29, 2015 4:22 AM UTC by [Alex Heigl / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Alex Heigl / People Contributor Jan 29, 2015 4:22 AM UTC [Humans of New York](http://www.humansofnewyork.com/) is one of the Internet’s runaway success stories, and creator Brandon Stanton is intent on giving back to the people who’ve helped his blog become what it is today. For his latest project, Stanton says he was inspired by a picture of a student from the Mott Hall Bridges Academy, a middle school in Brownsville, one of Brooklyn’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods. [The student, Vidal, identified his principal, Nadia Lopez, as the most influential person in his life](http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/109056788996/one-of-the-coolest-things-about-this-fundraiser-is). “When we get in trouble, she doesn’t suspend us,” [he told Stanton](http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/108621363306/whos-influenced-you-the-most-in-your-life-my). “She calls us to her office and explains to us how society was built down around us. And she tells us that each time somebody fails out of school, a new jail cell gets built. And one time she made every student stand up, one at a time, and she told each one of us that we matter.” [Stanton launched a crowd fund campaign Thursday](https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard) inspired by Lopez, with the goal of $100,000, which would go towards organizing trips for Mott Hall Bridges students to visit Harvard. As Stanton wrote, “Since many of her scholars have never left New York, \[Lopez\] wants them to know what it feels like to stand on the campus of one of the world’s top schools, and know that they belong.” It took 45 minutes to raise the $100,000, so Stanton quickly revised the goals of the campaign, updating the site to reflect the needs of the students at Mott Hall. Lopez noted that Mott Hall was in need of a summer program, writing that “Learning stops during the summer for my scholars. We have what is called a ‘summer slide.’ My scholars can’t even go outside. It’s too dangerous.” Currently, the campaign has raised over $700,000\. [To donate, you can click here](https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/let-s-send-kids-to-harvard) – the campaign is scheduled to run for another 11 days. [_This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.com_](http://www.people.com/article/humans-new-york-founder-raises-money-harvard) ## Transcript >> Brandon Stanton is the street photographer turned culture spotter behind the blog " Humans of New York ." His photos have been called capsules of a moment in time, and are being imitated all over the world. He is on TIME's 30 Under 30: World Changers list. Brandon. >> Hi. >> Your blog " Humans of New York" turned into a book. One week on sale and you hit the New York Times Bestseller list. You're 29 years old. What is the first thing that you think when you're on the New York Times Bestseller list at 29? >> Even when I got the call, I wasn't expecting it at all so it's more of an outpouring of emotion than it was any kind of a, you know, structured thoughts. >> You got a really interesting path to get to where you are. In 2010, you were laid off as a Chicago bond trader. >> Right. >> And the next thing you know, you're a huge success in New York City. >> Not the next thing. >> Walk me through the line then. >> So I lost my job. I've only been photographing for a couple of months. It was just kind of a hobby. And, you know, I lost my job- and I was in finance- and I kinda had this moment of realization that in the last 3 years of my life, I had really kind of been, you know, organizing all my thought, energy and all my time around making money, and so I wanted to do something that absolutely had nothing to do with money and I knew I enjoyed photographing and so I said I'm gonna take some time off. I'm gonna travel around and I'm going to photograph. You know, I'm a very obsessive person. You know, I- it's benefited me. I don't view that as a negative thing. But, you know, every time I decided I wanna do something, I just do it and that was photography at first. And so, you know, the very early success of the blog was built on to just kind of obsession with photography and then kind of as the obsession died down, my audience was growing and then it turned into devotion. >> So you've taken more than 5, 000 portraits. >> Right. >> Who has stuck with you the most? >> This one woman- 80- year- old woman- that I ran into just south of Central Park and she had this very bright umbrella and it's pouring down rain- context is important in the story. It's pouring down rain- I don't have an umbrella- and so this very old woman comes walking towards me and I take her photograph, and I get under the umbrella with her and I said " if you could give me one piece of advice, what would it be ?" And rain is coming down and she had this raspy voice like the narrator from the Titanic, and she said " I'll tell you what my husband told me when he was dying ." He said- I said, " Mo, how am I gonna to live without you ?" and he said, " Take the love you have for me and spread it around ." Isn't that beautiful? I kinda find that, you know, any experience I'm going through in my life at this time- you know, I can look back and I can say, you know, there's somebody I talked to on the street- it was going through the same thing. So, you know, memories of these interactions are always popping up contextually. >> Do you live your life by any motto or is there anything that runs through your head walking down the street? >> So many people want to share their philosophies and share their opinions, you know, and I'm just like- I kinda rebel against that- and just like, you know, " well, I just want to work hard ." I just want to work hard and kinda let the work speak for itself. So, you know, I try not to form these overworking philosophies about what hone is about. You know, what is it contributing to the world? What's the meaning behind the work? You know, why am I doing it? I'm doing it 'cause I love it. I- other people seem to enjoy it and I want to get better at it, and if there's meaning in the work, let that come out organically. >> What advice would you give to people who find themselves laid off? >> On a broader sense, I mean it all comes down to work. You know, I spent so much time trying to give people advice and then it's just like it's gotten narrow, narrow, narrow, narrow- just like, " God, dang it. Just work ." Just work. You know, don't wait. Everybody is waiting till they have the perfect idea to start working, you know. Just even if you have kind of an inkling of what you wanna do, start moving towards it and it's gonna flesh itself out through the process of moving towards the goal. And by the time you get to where you're gonna be, it's not gonna look anything like it did when you sat on the couch thinking about it and if you wait to get till it's perfect in your head before you get off the couch and start working on it, that's never gonna happen. >> Photography the rest of your life? >> There's this feeling, you know, of having built up this audience, you know, over this time period and having them rely on you for daily content in this case photography. You know, there's- it's a very good feeling but there's this feeling of being just attached to it, you know, that if you stop, it'll dissipate so- I mean right now I can't imagine stopping photographing. Just taking these 2 million people that are looking at my work everyday and saying, " Hey, guys. Thanks. It's been fun ," you know, I just- it's not- definitely not something on the radar now. >> Thanks, Brandon. >> Yeah. 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