GenXYZ Nominees Thrive: Brandy Bertram (2013) — Where is She Now?

Everyone was right when they predicted bright futures for these executives, entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders. Ten-plus years after ColoradoBiz profiled these Top Young Professionals of Colorado, we revisited several to see where their career paths led them and what they are doing now.

Some are with the same companies; others have moved on to different businesses and new roles.

For some, change was inevitable as their companies were acquired or merged with other entities. For still others, the desire to start something new was irresistible. All are continuing to meet and exceed their own career goals and engage with their communities.

The Gen XYZ Awards are open to those who are under 40 and live and work in Colorado.

Brandy Bertram

2013: 36, Executive Director, YouthBiz

2024: Principal, Great Big Good

People generally want to do good, but Brandy Bertram has made it the focus of her career.

Whether she’s helping youth develop entrepreneurial skills or helping nonprofits fundraise, Bertram is driven by her curiosity and by her desire to create, foster and facilitate good. Her firm, Great Big Good, works with mission-driven leaders to help them engage and grow the resources they need.

Bertram launched Great Big Good after she left YouthBiz, where she had been executive director. YouthBiz helps young people learn entrepreneurial skills so they can advance their social and economic prosperity.

She began working at the nonprofit in 2012. “YouthBiz was in many ways the realization of all my career dreams to that point,” she says. “It was the ultimate platform to build and scale entrepreneurship programming for young people, especially kids that were systematically underestimated and undervalued.”

She left YouthBiz in 2014 and began what she calls “pretty intense reflection” to find what mission-driven work she could do next. She reached out to her network, and those relationships led her to Colorado Open Lands, a statewide land conservation organization, where she became director of philanthropy.

“I got to develop new skills and expertise, especially in fundraising, and invested heavily in my own leadership development,” Bertram says. “I created new skills and relationships that continue to shape my work today.”

As if a career as a social impact leader is not enough, she also volunteers with the Colorado Planned Giving Roundtable, which she joined in 2014 in support of her work at Colorado Open Lands.

Today, she is the chair of the board of directors and last year was awarded volunteer of the year. The award was based on her work presenting educational sessions, chairing the programming committee and updating the CPGR’s Non-Discrimination Policy, an important element in the group’s, and Bertram’s, commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

Great Big Good is Bertram’s second consulting business. Prior to joining YouthBiz, she had a consulting practice called Meaningful Monday, which specialized in entrepreneurship and financial education curriculum development and training.

“I still do that work from time to time,” she says. “One of my favorite moments of 2023 was two weeks in Northern Uganda working with facilitators on livelihoods development training and coaching for refugee women.”

Today her work as principal with Great Big Good is guided by her curiosity and her core value of contribution. The firm’s clientele includes four conservation organizations, and Bertram helps them improve their fundraising strategy, planning, staffing and execution.

Another client, Change Please, trains and employs people experiencing homelessness as baristas. The organization sells coffee online and in cafés around the world, and directs profits from its coffee sales to wages, training, housing, therapy and other services.

Bertram dedicates much of her time to the expansion of this social enterprise-driven solution to homelessness. “We’re launching a full-scale training academy, café and retail presence here in the Denver metro area thanks to this community’s belief in the power of people, their love of socially minded businesses and their desire to make a positive impact at every opportunity,” she says.

The café, scheduled to open this winter, will be located in the Fitzsimons redevelopment in Aurora.

In many ways, she says, the opening is a full-circle moment. “I’m returning to the world of building better futures through the social entrepreneurship, much like YouthBiz.”

Nora Caley is a freelance writer specializing in business and food topics.