Tribute to Unexpected Nonprofit Heroes Aims to Help Worthy Causes

When the bottom fell out of the economy in 2008, Katrina Fried sought an antidote to the anxiety that spread across America. She wanted to feel inspired.

As an editor at Welcome Books, Ms. Fried produces lavish coffee-table books on subjects like fashion, cooking, and small-town living. She decided to use her expertise to create that inspiration, and make it beautiful to behold.

The result is Everyday Heroes: 50 Americans Changing the World One Nonprofit at a Time, a glossy salute to 50 founders of charities throughout the nation, and one that its creators hope will bring more attention and support to worthy causes.

The book was a labor of love for Ms. Fried and the photographer Paul Mobley. Ms. Fried spent hundreds of hours researching and selecting the book’s subjects, whittling down the possibilities from thousands of potential candidates.

She focused exclusively on people who started charities that directly improved the lives of people, and included only those who did not expect to become charity leaders.

“They weren’t people who necessarily had 20 years of experience and were experts in their fields,” says Ms. Fried, “but people who recognized a way in their own life they could make a contribution and help.”

Mr. Mobley crisscrossed the country—and Haiti—over the past two years shooting the book’s subjects. A commercial-advertising photographer, Mr. Mobley started his career working under the portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz. The book’s pictures echo her style.

A memorable, albeit messy, shoot involved three or four people dumping buckets of water on a smiling Scott Harrison, the founder of Charity: Water, which works to provide clean water to people in the developing world.

For his photograph of Taryn Davis, founder of the American Widow Project, a charity dedicated to helping military widows, Ms. Davis’s steely resolve is reflected in her portrait: She holds her late husband’s combat boots, her body draped by an American flag.

Another nonprofit leader featured in the book is Wynona Ward, founder of Have Justice-Will Travel, a charity that provides legal services to domestic-violence victims in rural areas. She hopes that Everyday Heroes will draw attention to her organization and help her raise more money.

“One of the most challenging aspects of Have Justice-Will Travel is that all our services are offered free for our clients,” says Ms. Ward (pictured on the opposite page in her trademark truck). “What I’m really hoping is that this book will give us exposure to people who realize how important my project is, and to more financial possibilities.”

Ms. Fried hopes that the book will not only garner notice for the featured leaders and support for their charities but also encourage readers to do good themselves.

She quotes one of the book’s subjects, Robert Egger, founder of the D.C. Central Kitchen, an antipoverty charity: “A great nonprofit doesn’t try to solve the problem, it tries to reveal the power we have as a community to solve the problem.”

“We all have something to give,” says Ms. Fried. “If this book can inspire people who read it to really think about what they can do, I’ll be incredibly proud.”