#impact Podcast: Social Impact | Social Entrepreneurship | Careers for Social Good · Regina Larko

Nurturing and Nourishing Impact Ecosystems

·45 min·4 clips

Hashtag Impact brings Regina Larko into conversation with Dorothy Lam, co-founder and chief catalyst at Dream Impact. The episode starts with a familiar problem for anyone doing mission-driven work: how do you get people to care when everyone is already busy? From there, the conversation moves into the larger question of how communities form around shared purpose. Dorothy’s background runs through New York City, Hong Kong, Berlin, and Abu Dhabi. She talks about social innovation, emerging technology, arts, wellness, resilience, and where those worlds meet in practice. Dream Impact comes across as a bridge-building organization. The episode describes a network of 160-plus social startups, NGOs, universities, impact investors, and corporates working together through a co-working and events collaboration hub. That scale matters because the conversation keeps coming back to cross-sector collaboration. It also shows how Dream Impact organizes its partners into themes that make the field easier to navigate. Those themes include regenerative food and agriculture, affordable and sustainable housing, and circularity. As the discussion goes on, the focus shifts toward corporate consulting. Dorothy explains that the organization is developing work around circular economy, diversity and inclusion, and well-being. The show treats that turn as a response to what companies are asking for. It also spends time on the difference between ESG and B Corp. ESG is framed as a compliance and reporting framework for larger listed companies, while B Corp gives smaller companies a way to engage stakeholders and customers around their impact. The discussion keeps returning to how closely aligned the two frameworks are. Dorothy also explains that B Corp looks not only at environment and governance, but at the social side through community, customers, and staff. Regina responds with clear admiration for the scale and complexity of the work. The closing stretch becomes more personal and reflective, touching on inner critique and emotional hurt. It ends with an invitation to future community calls, keeping the show’s tone rooted in access, participation, and shared purpose.

As heard by us

A clear look at how communities, standards, and partnerships shape impact work.

This episode looks at the practical side of impact communities: how people get engaged, how missions stay coherent, and how cross-sector collaboration becomes durable.

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Why you'd press play

A warm, practical conversation about building communities around the impact you want to make.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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