Boundaries beget margins – this is the axiom that the post-COVID world is finally coming to terms with. With boundaries and margins come accentuated divisions and limited access to resources. Marginalization, a term that has recently been given more political currency as the process through which the center is upheld at the cost of those at or beyond the boundaries or margins, is an important issue. What, then, is the responsibility of those who advocate for equality as activists, philanthropists, and social workers? This is the message that New Solutions Network is sending out to give a shock to a general philanthropic thought worldwide.
The Founder of NSN, Dr. Natanya Wachtel, learned early on the value of communication and a healthy family structure. Born into a small, multi-ethnic family, she lived and experienced many cultures from around the globe. She saw the differences in wealth and access to healthcare across members of various communities and decided to dedicate the rest of her life to solving these issues. Her education in psychology as an undergraduate and subsequent Ph.D. in behavioral sciences equipped her for a career as a therapist, advisor in behavioral science strategy, healthcare innovation and advocacy. She is now a successful MedTech and Healthcare entrepreneur, and leads efforts for several nonprofits that benefit marginalized communities.
The New Solutions Network was founded in 2008 by Dr. Wachtel to aid health and wellness brands in understanding, managing, and solving modern business challenges with a blend of customer-centric psychology, actionable behavioral models, and technical innovation. However, in the wake of COVID, alongside her partners and colleagues, Dr. Wachtel worked to revamp the model to make the organization create room for proactive philanthropic work.
Dr. Wachtel believed that the organization’s trajectory was more oriented toward individual action and business and not so much toward collective growth,and equality. As a result, the renewed model of NSN is open and better suited for collective social betterment. In addition to the work carried out previously, it is now functioning as a diverse band of companies with like-minded founders and leadership structures rooted in their corporate and philanthropic congruences.
The primary areas of concern for New Solutions Network are food and nutrition, access to healthcare, and the right to quality education. These causes are not only the foundational values of the company’s business model but are close to Dr. Wachtel’s heart. She acknowledges that more resources and provisions can be delegated in productive ways with a for-profit structure. As the founder and chief strategy officer, the greater half of the job entails offering her partners resources that are not as readily accessible owing to budgetary limitations. This is why she believes the revamped model is best suited to significant action that moves beyond boundaries and margins to make a significant change.
The culture of NSN has cultivated a sense of belonging between the partners, who have come together with the shared goal of helping the world. This, believes Dr. Wachtel, can be done through open equity sharing, investing in each other, or revenue-sharing opportunities.
The company’s primary philanthropic model is divided into three distinct aims: access to education, food and nutrition, and healthcare. Dr. Wachtel believes that these three not only constitute the basic needs that must be fulfilled for any individual to succeed but modeling the company after these factors enable the youth to promote more widespread change in turn.
In addition to her essential role at NSN. Dr. Wachtel is the Board Chair of Women Who Create, a not-for-profit organization based in New York City, which helps women of all classes and colors with educational and professional opportunities. She has recently partnered with leading AI-based organizations like BetterMeal AI and co-founded evrmore, a wellness space modeled after Empathy-AI™ and also is the Chief Strategy officer for ViTel Health, a unique clinician-centric digital health company. For more details about her extensive roles at these organizations, check out her LinkedIn.