Impact Award: Colossal Honors The Innocent Founder Nate Lewis
When a community encourages a child, it can change how that child sees their future. At Colossal, we see that encouragement take shape through competitions that celebrate young people’s talents, nurture their confidence, and give them opportunities to try something new.
But the opportunity to grow and pursue a dream starts with something more fundamental: safety.
That connection makes Nate Lewis’s work especially meaningful to our team—and makes him a fitting first recipient of the Colossal Impact Award.
Giving Law Enforcement Tools to Protect Children
As founder and CEO of The Innocent, Nate leads an organization focused on protecting children from human trafficking, exploitation, and sexual assault. Its approach centers on equipping law enforcement with the training, technology, and resources needed to investigate these crimes.
The work extends beyond instruction. The Innocent also advises officers during undercover operations, helping them apply their training and develop the experience to continue investigations independently. That emphasis on building lasting capabilities is central to Nate’s mission.
His perspective draws on years of international experience, including a previous executive role at a global anti-trafficking organization and 16 years living mostly abroad.
A Personal Message for the Colossal Team
At our annual Impact Summit, more than 90 Colossal employees joined in person and virtually to hear Nate share the personal experiences that brought him to this work. We recognized his leadership with the inaugural award and $10,000.
His message invited everyone to consider how they could contribute. Protecting children takes specialized expertise, but supporting that work can begin with the skills, connections, or audience someone already has.
For our team, it was an opportunity to think about advocacy beyond our daily responsibilities—and about the people whose commitment turns a mission into action.
What the Colossal Impact Award Represents
We created the Colossal Impact Award to recognize work that makes a lasting difference. The selection considers how deeply that work affects people’s lives, how far it reaches, and how it reflects our belief in helping people advocate for themselves and others.
Nate’s leadership brings those values into focus. By helping law enforcement build the knowledge and capacity to protect children, The Innocent’s work supports the safety young people need to grow and explore their potential.
We’re proud to recognize Nate and introduce our community to the mission he carries forward.
To learn more about The Innocent’s work, visit theinnocent.org.
