Community Highlights: Meet Alex Firestone of Jordy’s Compassion Fund

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Firestone.

Hi Alex, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey has been anything but traditional, and looking back, I think that’s what makes it so meaningful.

I spent much of my twenties trying to figure out where I belonged. I started my career working in television production before transitioning into sales and the travel industry. On paper, I was building a career, but personally, I was struggling to find my footing.

In 2018, my life took a turn that ultimately changed everything. I entered recovery and, shortly afterward, learned I was pregnant with my daughter. Suddenly, I wasn’t just thinking about the life I wanted for myself. I was thinking about the life I wanted to create for her.

I spent my pregnancy at Beit T’Shuvah, a residential recovery program in Los Angeles, and later moved into Harvest Home, a nonprofit that supports pregnant women experiencing homelessness. What began as a place where I received support eventually became the place where I discovered my professional purpose.

After having my daughter, I joined the team at Harvest Home. I had experienced firsthand what it meant to have people believe in you during one of the most vulnerable chapters of your life, and I wanted to be part of creating that experience for other women.

Over the next several years, I found myself immersed in nonprofit development, fundraising, community partnerships, and storytelling. I discovered that I loved bringing people together around a mission and turning an idea into something tangible. Some of my proudest moments came from building relationships that brought meaningful resources and visibility to the organization, including partnerships and national media opportunities.

That experience eventually led me to Wilshire Boulevard Temple, where I currently serve as Associate Director of Institutional Advancement. My work focuses on philanthropy, institutional giving, donor relationships, and developing programs that strengthen the organization and the communities it serves.

Alongside my nonprofit career, I’ve also found an unexpected creative outlet in baking sourdough bread. What started as a personal hobby between my daughter and me grew into My Mother’s Dough, a small business rooted in my love of creating something with my hands and sharing it with others. There’s something incredibly rewarding about taking a few simple ingredients, giving them time and attention, and turning them into something people genuinely enjoy. Funny enough, I sell to Beit T’Shuvah, so the residents can experience gut-healthy bread!

More recently, I’ve also established Jordy’s Compassion Fund, a nonprofit created in honor of my best friend, Jordy, who passed away from glioblastoma in January 2026. Together with her husband and our close friend, we are building an organization dedicated to supporting families navigating a glioblastoma diagnosis. It’s deeply personal work and a reminder of why I was drawn to the nonprofit world in the first place.

Today, I’m a mother, a nonprofit leader, an entrepreneur, and someone who has learned that life doesn’t always unfold the way you imagined.

If there’s one thread connecting all these chapters, it’s the belief that something meaningful can grow out of even the most difficult experiences.

I’m incredibly proud of the life I’ve built, but more than anything, I’m proud that my daughter gets to see what it looks like to work hard, pursue what you love, and continue growing, no matter where you started.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not even close! But I think that’s part of what makes my journey so special.

There have been plenty of moments when I felt like I was starting over, trying to figure out my next step while watching everyone around me seemingly have their lives together.

One of the biggest challenges was rebuilding my life while preparing to become a mother, alone. When I entered recovery in 2018, I had no idea what my future would look like. I had to learn how to trust myself again, become financially independent, and create stability, not just for myself but for my daughter.

Becoming a single mother has certainly come with its own challenges, but I have always felt incredibly fortunate that I’ve been able to choose being a mom first. My daughter is, without question, the greatest part of my life. The hardest part isn’t necessarily balancing work and motherhood. It’s realizing how quickly these years are passing and knowing that so many of our little moments exist only in my memory. There isn’t always someone there to take the picture, capture the funny thing she said, or document the ordinary moments that I know I’ll wish I could relive someday. It’s a strange kind of bittersweet feeling because I’m so grateful to be the one experiencing those moments with her, but sometimes I wish I could step outside of them for just a second and see us together. I think that’s one of the quieter challenges of being a single mom that people don’t always talk about.

Professionally, I didn’t follow a traditional path into nonprofit leadership. I didn’t have years of formal fundraising experience or a perfectly mapped-out career plan. I learned by doing, asking questions, taking chances, and sometimes figuring things out as I went. I’ve had to work hard to build confidence in myself and recognize that my unconventional background is actually one of my greatest strengths.

I’ve also learned that doing meaningful work doesn’t mean it’s always easy. Working in the nonprofit world can be emotionally demanding, especially when the causes are deeply personal. Losing my best friend Jordy to glioblastoma earlier this year was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life. Helping build Jordy’s Compassion Fund in her honor has been both incredibly difficult and deeply meaningful. It’s a way to channel some of that grief into something that can make a difference for other families.

I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you don’t have to have everything figured out to keep moving forward. There have been setbacks, plenty of uncertainty, and moments of self-doubt, but there has also been so much growth and so much joy.

I’m still figuring things out, and I think I always will be. But I’m proud of how far I’ve come, and I’m especially proud of the example I’m setting for my daughter. I want her to know that life can be messy and unpredictable, but that doesn’t mean it can’t also be beautiful.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Jordy’s Compassion Fund?
One of the most meaningful things I’m working on right now is a nonprofit I recently co-founded called Jordy’s Compassion Fund.

In August 2024, my best friend, Jordy, was diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM), an incredibly aggressive form of brain cancer. She was a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend, and truly one of the most extraordinary people I’ve ever known. Jordy had this incredible ability to make everyone around her feel loved. She was funny, thoughtful, generous, and had a way of making even the most ordinary moments feel special.

We lost Jordy in January 2026, and I don’t think any of us will ever be the same.

Throughout her illness, I watched her husband, Hank, their family, and the people who loved her navigate something no family should ever have to experience. It became clear just how much a diagnosis like this changes every aspect of a family’s life. Beyond the medical appointments and treatment decisions, there are everyday responsibilities, financial pressures, and countless practical challenges that don’t simply disappear.

And perhaps the hardest part is that time suddenly feels so much more precious.

Together with Jordy’s husband, Hank, and our close friend Erica, we founded Jordy’s Compassion Fund to help ease some of those burdens for other families facing glioblastoma.

Our mission is to provide direct financial assistance, compassionate support, and meaningful resources so families can focus on what matters most—spending precious time together, creating lasting memories, and living fully in the face of an unimaginable diagnosis.

Our guiding philosophy is simple: While researchers work toward tomorrow’s cure, we’re focused on helping families live today.

I think that’s what really sets us apart. There is so much important work being done to find a cure for glioblastoma, and we wholeheartedly support those efforts. But we also recognize that families are navigating this disease right now, and they need support today.

We’re developing programs to help with things like travel for clinical trials, childcare, care at home, everyday household expenses, therapeutic support, and opportunities for families to create meaningful experiences together.

Sometimes the greatest gift you can give a family isn’t something extraordinary. It’s taking one thing off their plate so they can have a little more time and energy for each other.

One of the things Jordy said before she passed away was that whenever we felt the warmth of the sun on a cold day, she wanted us to think of her. I carry that with me, and in many ways, it’s what I hope this organization becomes for other families—a little bit of warmth during an unimaginably difficult time.

We’re still at the very beginning. We recently received our official 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and are preparing to launch our first fundraising campaign in December 2026.

What I’m most proud of is that we’re creating something that feels so true to who Jordy was. She was someone who showed up for the people she loved, and that’s exactly what we want this organization to do.

My hope is that one day, families who never had the chance to meet Jordy will still feel her love and compassion through the support they receive.

And to me, that’s a pretty incredible legacy.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Oh gosh, I was a little wild! I was fiercely independent, probably a bit of a handful, and definitely had a mind of my own. My parents would tell you I was feisty and always knew exactly what I wanted, which I’m sure made raising me an adventure!

But I also had a really big heart. Even as a kid, I cared deeply about people and had a strong sense of fairness. I remember being really bothered when something didn’t seem right or when someone wasn’t being treated fairly. I wasn’t always the best at following the rules, but I was pretty passionate about standing up for what I believed in.

My parents divorced when I was 10, which was a big part of my childhood and something that still affects me today. My sister and I were incredibly close growing up, and my friendships were just as important to me. Two of my best friends were Erica and Jordy, which makes it pretty incredible that all these years later, Erica and I are now building a nonprofit in Jordy’s honor.

Looking back, I think a lot of who I was as a little girl is still part of me, but I’ve also changed so much. I was always independent and strong-willed, but I don’t think I was ever really sure of myself. I may have acted like I knew exactly what I wanted, but the truth is, I spent a lot of my life trying to figure out who I was and where I belonged.

I think one of the greatest gifts of getting older has been finding that confidence and genuinely feeling happy with who I am. When I found out I was going to be a mom, something shifted in me. I started thinking about the kind of person I wanted my daughter to grow up to be, and I realized I needed to become that person myself. I wanted her to be confident, kind, independent, and happy with who she was. And somewhere along the way, in trying to create that example for her, I started finding those things in myself.

I’m so much more comfortable in my own skin now. I still have that same big heart, strong opinions, and probably a little of that feisty little girl in me, but there’s a sense of peace and happiness today that I didn’t always have growing up. And I think that’s something I’m really proud of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gbmcompassionfund.org/