Beats for Relief Supports the Best Buddies 2026 Champion Campaign
Think about the first time you walked into a room and felt like you truly belonged. No explaining yourself. No being the exception. Just welcomed.
For millions of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, that feeling is still rare. Best Buddies International is the world’s largest nonprofit working to end the social, physical and economic isolation of the 200 million people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) worldwide. Through one-to-one friendships, inclusive jobs, leadership development and independent living, Best Buddies builds a world where everyone has a place.
Best Buddies has long been a Beats for Relief NGO partner, and this fall we’re standing behind them in a new way: supporting the 2026 Best Buddies Champion campaign.
The room that changes everything
Every summer, nearly 3,000 student leaders, families, advocates and country directors from around the world gather at the Best Buddies Leadership Conference (BBLC). For four days, people who are so often overlooked take the stage, lead workshops, give speeches and walk side by side in the Friendship Walk.
People arrive as strangers from different countries and leave as a global family, carrying new skills, new confidence and new friendships back to their communities. That ripple is how Best Buddies has grown to 47 countries, with a goal of reaching 100 countries by 2030. Leaders who attend BBLC go home and build the next chapter, the next program, the next country.
See it for yourself 👇
The problem: talent everywhere, tickets nowhere
For international leaders, getting to BBLC is the hardest part. Flights, visas and lodging put it out of reach for too many, and every year there are far more incredible applicants than there are scholarships.
That’s what this campaign is about. The goal is $2,500 by November 10, which funds one full scholarship to BBLC 2027 in Indiana: roundtrip flights, lodging, meals and registration. One scholarship means one leader in the room, and one leader can change an entire community.
Meet Our Mission Partner: Carolina 🇨🇱
Every Champion campaign is paired with a Mission Partner, someone whose life shows exactly what this work makes possible. Ours is Carolina Sotelo Silva from Best Buddies Chile.
Carolina made the journey from Chile to BBLC. She stepped into that room thousands of miles from home, surrounded by people who spoke different languages but shared the same belief: that everyone belongs. She brought that experience home to her community in Chile, where it keeps growing.
Carolina is proof of what one seat in the room can do. And somewhere out there, the next Carolina is waiting for her chance.
Hear her story in her own words:
¡Gracias, Carolina, por compartir tu historia con nosotros! 💙
Why we’re in
Beats for Relief was built on a simple idea: when people come together, real change happens. Best Buddies lives that idea every single day through friendship. Supporting this campaign is our way of saying we see the work, we believe in it, and we want more leaders in that room.
How you can help
Donate. Every gift, big or small, brings a leader one step closer to BBLC 2027: Support the campaign
Watch and share. Send the BBLC documentary to someone who needs a reminder of what inclusion looks like.
Learn more about the conference at bestbuddies.org/bblc
Because everyone deserves a seat in the room. 💙