Our Mission

To empower underserved and marginalized communities worldwide, providing financial resources for locally-sustained initiatives in education, healthcare, sustainable farming, and water access. 

Heartsteps Foundation, Inc. (Heartsteps) was formed in 2023 by several compassionate and action-oriented friends, all keen on supporting various projects worldwide. 

Heartsteps was conceptualized as a means to more formally create awareness and fundraise for these initiatives.  Our objective is to deliver financial starts, strategic guidance, and nurturance to community projects worldwide. Our support focuses  primarily on eduction, healthcare, sustainable (organic) farming, and water accessibility, with emphasis on children and women-centric impacts.

Our goal is to get key “grassroots” initiatives, in marginalized and underserved areas, off the ground, working in partnership with local government and village councils to empower the recipients to continue the momentum, sustaining the growth and successful development of these projects going forward.

Our Team

  • Kathleen standing with young girl in Nepal.

    Kathleen McCabe, President

    It all started with a “giving back” volunteer trip to Nepal in 2019, which set the wheels in motion.

    Kathleen McCabe, Founder and President of Heartsteps Foundation, just knew that Nepal was where her heart and energy would stay. She was transformed by the peaceful Nepali culture, the raw beauty of the prugged landscape, and the endurance of the people— particularly the children.

    After seeing the crying need for the basics—like school uniforms and warm outerwear—to help the children attend school in the remote regions of the Himalayas, Kathleen and two dear friends from Canada and England undertook several years of initiating grassroots fundraising efforts supporting children’s education, particularly in remote rural mountain areas. Kathleen has since expanded Heartsteps Foundation’s mission to include healthcare, and sustainable (organic) farming.

    Kathleen visualized an organization that could partner with, and empower, communities to dream, change, and grow.

    Heartsteps Foundation, established in 2023, is focused on Kathleen’s projects in Nepal, as well as key initiatives driven by fellow Heartsteps Board members. In Uganda, support is centered on children’s education, and in Kenya, the work focuses on sustainability, and women’s education and empowerment.

  • Donald Lamb, Vice President

    Bio Coming Soon

  • Black & white photo of Jaime smiling.

    Jaime Purinton, Secretary / Communications

    Jaime Purinton (she/her) is a marketing and brand expert passionate about weaving an organization's mission, values, and dreams together through brand storytelling and authentic connection. She has extensive marketing, branding, and communications experience from fifteen years in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Her career expands over several industries, including wine, events, outdoor media and clothing, and conservation/advocacy. Jaime is an avid hiker, hiking around 1,000 miles a year, loves live music, and lives in a small town in North County, San Diego, with her husband and two rescue dogs.

  • Liz standing with Kenyan girl- both are smiling.

    Liz Dunne, Treasurer

    An accomplished professional with over 35+ years as a top International Marketing Executive as VP of Marketing Worldwide for Vidal Sassoon, a division of Procter & Gamble, Max Factor, and a Chief Operating Officer for other consumer product companies. She is a Spiritual and Life Coach helping people move from loss, pain, confusion, and despair to wholeness and freedom, enabling them to live a life on purpose. She is a Practitioner of Mental and Emotional Release, HUNA - Ancient Hawaiian Art & Psychology from the Association for Integrative Psychology - A Spiritual Licensed practitioner with Centers for Spiritual Living. She is a Creative Art Facilitator from the Institute for Palliative Care at California State University Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Liz is a best-selling author on Amazon with her book Finding Hidden Courage. She has created a community that supports space for growth and personal freedom. Her travels worldwide, specifically in Africa, have moved her deeply. She is dedicated to helping them by raising funds and creating life-sustaining programs to achieve these goals.