What If We Did It Differently? How Chicago Nonprofits Are Redefining the Sector

Dinai Yelverton, founder and CEO of Experiences That Matter Foundation, in front of the mobile vision clinic

In 2020, during the early waves of the pandemic, Dinai Yelverton—then running a sports-focused event marketing agency—launched what she thought would be a one-time activation offering free vision screenings to Black and Brown communities in Chicago. But as she dug deeper into the realities of vision health disparities, the project evolved into a mission. By the end of that year, she had leased a vehicle, piloted mobile screenings across the city, and quickly saw the demand grow. In 2021, she officially founded the Experiences That Matter Foundation and began to build out their flagship initiative, the 2020 Perfect Vision Campaign, now the only mobile vision clinic offering free eye care to children on the South and West sides. Through key partnerships—including an early collaboration with VSP’s mobile clinic team in California—Yelverton secured funding, mentorship, and the technical support to bring her vision to scale. In this Q&A, Dinai shares how her journey from pop-up to nonprofit is redefining access and equity, one eye exam at a time.

CVNC: After launching free vision screenings across Chicago in 2020 and officially establishing the Experiences That Matter Foundation      the following year, you've remained focused on reaching communities that have long been overlooked in traditional healthcare models. How does your organization think about equity in service delivery?

ETM: With the 2020 Perfect Vision Campaign's mobile vision clinic, we center our services around Black and Latino/a/e children who disproportionately lack access to quality and affordable vision health care. Our program was created to address common social determinants of health focusing on accessibility and affordability by bringing free vision services to the very neighborhoods that need it most. Equity to us is more than just ensuring equal opportunity, it's tailoring our approach so that the kids we serve feel prioritized, seen, and most importantly, see themselves. We strive to include eye doctors from the very communities we are serving --when we can, because we are firm believers that representation matters. We collaborate with trusted community partners to ensure our services are delivered with cultural sensitivity, language access, and respect for lived experiences.

CVNC: Collaboration has clearly played a vital role in  2020 Perfect Vision Campaign’s      growth and impact. What collaborative efforts have helped ensure that equitable accessibility—whether digital, financial, or structural—is a core part of your work?

ETM: We have to be intentional about who we serve, how we serve them, and who we invite to partner with us in making it all happen. In 2023, we received the Racial Equity and Community Partnership Grant from Northwestern University. That opportunity not only provided critical funding but also opened the door to a powerful partnership with the Department of Ophthalmology at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, which has played a pivotal role in shaping the foundation of our mobile vision clinic program. Together, we established the NU x ETM Task Force, a coalition of dedicated optometrists and ophthalmologists from both Northwestern and Lurie Children’s Hospital. These professionals generously volunteer their time and expertise because they, too, believe that health equity is non-negotiable. Their involvement ensures that every child we serve receives the high-quality care they need—and deserve. Another partnership I want to highlight is Plano Child Development Center and Dr. Stephanie Johnson, the only African American non-profit that provides vision therapy for kids in Chicago. Dr. Johnson serves as one of the volunteer doctors as well and allocates time in her schedule to prioritize patients who come to her through the 2020 Perfect Vision Campaign. Knowing that most of these families cannot afford vision therapy, she provides a sliding scale to ensure kids are getting the help they need.  I say all that to say, at the end of the day, we know we can’t do this work alone.

CVNC: You’ve described how early support from partners like Mobile Care Chicago helped open doors—not just to funding, but to shared knowledge and collective momentum. How have collaborative funding efforts (e.g., pooled resources, social enterprises) helped maximize impact?

ETM: One of our most impactful and enduring partnerships has been with Mobile Care Chicago, a fellow nonprofit committed to advancing health equity through mobile health services focused on asthma care, physicals, immunizations, and dental treatment. From the very beginning of our journey into mobile healthcare, MCC has been a steady source of support—offering not just funding, but mentorship, guidance, and a generous willingness to share their hard-earned wisdom. In fact, I like to think we played a small role in the creation of their Community Dispatch initiative—a collaborative program they recently launched to support other mobile clinics across Chicago. After responding to what was probably an overwhelming number of our early questions (which we now realize were a bit relentless! LOL), they recognized the broader need for a space where mobile healthcare organizations could connect, share, and grow together. Today, Community Dispatch is a hub of collective knowledge and pooled resources, where we exchange everything from funding leads to best practices, and even join forces on community events and initiatives. Starting a nonprofit, especially in the healthcare space, is no small feat, and early on, our team was incredibly lean. Our first few funding opportunities came directly through MCC. Because we offered a service they didn’t, vision care, they would build our work into their grant proposals, helping us secure the resources we needed to begin building real capacity. That kind of collaboration, where organizations complement rather than compete with one another, is what equity in action looks like. And it's a model we’re proud to be a part of!

You can learn more about the impact of this approach on the 2020 Perfect Vision Campaign website.