Los Angeles social impact strategist and Assistance League of Los Angeles board member joins the World NGO Day Global Council.
October 6, 2026 — The World NGO Day Global Council today announced the appointment of J’Net Nguyen, founder of FriendsHAUS and a member of the Board of Directors of the Assistance League of Los Angeles, as an Executive Advisor to the World NGO Day Global Council.
Based in Los Angeles, Nguyen joins the Council as Executive Advisor, North America, in an honorary role supporting the Council’s strategic discussions and the continued development of World NGO Day, observed annually on February 27.
“Executive Advisor appointments are made by invitation and based on the importance of an individual’s experience, contribution and perspective,” said Marcis Skadmanis, Founder of World NGO Day and Chair of the World NGO Day Global Council. “We welcome people whose work has already changed something measurable in the civic life of their own communities.
J’Net has built a career at the point where rigorous research meets practical civic organising, from Gates Foundation-funded work on youth participation and voter engagement to years of governance service with a century-old nonprofit. That combination is rare, and it is precisely what the Council needs as we formalize the global architecture of the observance. Her judgment and recommendations will carry real weight in the decisions we take.”
A career connecting research, civic engagement and community
Nguyen is a social impact strategist and qualitative researcher based in Los Angeles. She is the founder of FriendsHAUS, a private advisory focused on friendship and belonging, and works with companies on community and retention for relocating LGBTQ+ talent. She has also organized events and campaigns supporting LGBTQ+ rights throughout her career.
As Social Impact Lead and Senior Education Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab, Nguyen worked on a Gates Foundation-funded initiative to increase Gen Z civic participation, developed young-voter outreach in partnership with DoSomething and Define American, and led programming reaching thousands of at-risk students across Los Angeles County. She has also designed voter mobilization strategies for presidential and U.S. Senate races, including celebrity-driven media and digital campaigns.
Her research background is in qualitative methods, including ethnographic immersions, in-depth interviews and trend analysis for Fortune 500 brands, universities and technology startups across multiple U.S. markets.
Nguyen has served on the Board of Directors of the Assistance League of Los Angeles since 2020, contributing to fundraising and governance. She holds an M.A. in Communications Management from the University of Southern California, where she has been a guest lecturer since 2016.
“A need is a need, no matter where in the world it exists, and everyone has something to contribute toward meeting it. Sometimes that’s funding, but just as often it’s time, expertise, access, a relationship or simply showing up. Through my work, I’ve learned that lasting change often begins with someone who decides that something beyond themselves matters enough to act. Someone who refuses to look away.
One act can inspire another, gather momentum and ultimately become something far bigger than the person who started it. I’m grateful to Marcis for the invitation and for the vision behind World NGO Day. I’m honored to join the Global Council and help celebrate the people and organizations setting meaningful change in motion around the world.”
— J’Net Nguyen
Executive Advisors serve in an honorary, unremunerated capacity.
World NGO Day Global Council — Media Relations
Vinícius Taddone, COO, Global Council
www.worldngoday.org
