115: Social Enterprise Done Well by Miracle Babies Founder Melinda Cruz

Today, we continue the conversation with the award winning founder of Miracle Babies Foundation.  Learning how to run a charity from scratch when she had 3 premature babies, Melinda Cruz began local, then brought the foundation national and now global. She has raised more than $10M since the foundations inception in 2005 to improve the lives of thousands of preterm and sick babies & families.

Inducted into the Busines Women’s Hall of Fame, she was also voted NSW Women of the Year – Premiers Award Finalist, while also being a trusted consumer expert to medical professionals serving on multiple Advisory Boards including co-authoring 10 medical publications.

She does everything from run the NYC Marathon to raise $230,000 for the Foundation to helping the Australian Red Cross Blood Service Milk Bank Advisory Committee establish the first ever national Human Breastmilk Bank. She is relentless in her quest to improve the conditions for premature newborns and their families.

Melinda, I am so happy to get the chance to sit down and discuss the journey that has allowed so many families and babies to live a better life bc of what you have created…

The Goods on Melinda:

Showing that you can overcome adversity to impact change, Melinda Cruz is the award winning founder of Miracle Babies Foundation. She is a published researcher, influencer and expert international speaker on topics such as not for profit start up and social entrepreneurship, health and consumer advocacy, and how being resilient can help to live a life of inspired action.

Starting the Foundation in 2005 after her own experience of having three premature babies, the incredible difference Melinda has made to thousands along with her impact as a successful entrepreneur has seen her win numerous awards including the 2011 EY Social Entrepreneur of the Year and be a regular guest on radio, TV, podcasts and speaker at national and international conferences. In 2013 she was inducted into the Australian Businesswomens Hall of Fame and was a 2015 NSW Woman of the Year - Premiers Award finalist.

Since the Foundation’s inception, more than $10 million has been raised to improve the lives of thousands of preterm and sick babies and their families. 

Melinda is a trusted consumer expert to medical professionals seeking to improve treatments and understanding of premature and sick

The Podcast's 7th Season
Welcome to In the Game, a podcast where we aim to touch, move and inspire you to what's possible in life. My name is Sarah Maxwell and I am a self-proclaimed relationship engineer. Ever since I was a little girl, I was curious about how people work and how they interact with one another. With a degree in biopsychology representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball. With a degree in biopsychology representing my country of Canada in beach volleyball, retiring from sport into mindset and purpose coaching, I now spend my days running Chatta-box Media, where we aim to story-tell for brands through the medium of podcasting, all while raising an eight-year-old daughter with my partner of 24 years. We are now in season seven of this podcast, featuring a special series on women called who Knew that Was Work aimed at young women who want to broaden their horizon when it comes to career choosing.

Go deeper into the pod and discover incredible stories of changemakers who manifest their dream lives. Gain tangible tools to apply to your own life by scrolling back to that initial season where we were more workbook focused. Have a laugh when we initially were coined the Nat and Sarah show, when my five-time Olympian partner, natalie Cook, and I bantered and had loads of fun interviewing and discovering our common passion individuals who rise to the occasion in life. Okay, now it's time to dive on in to this episode.

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