Meet the shops, foundations, and resorts making a difference in Atlantic City.
We've covered what "giving back" looks like as a business model, then gone city by city, Los Angeles and Nashville, with 20 local businesses apiece. Atlantic City is next, and it's a different kind of city.
With about 38,000 residents and an economy dominated by a handful of casino resorts, Atlantic City doesn't have the density of small give-back shops that a Chicago or a Nashville does, and we'd rather tell you that honestly than pad out a list with businesses that don't really have a giving model behind them. What we found instead is a smaller, real list: a few nonprofit-run shops, a foundation that funds the city's working artists, and, because they're such a dominant part of the local economy, a look at how the casino resorts themselves give back, through foundations, workforce programs, and reentry hiring.
A nonprofit thrift and alterations shop that's been a fixture on Atlantic Avenue for decades; all proceeds are donated to the Atlantic City Business & Community Association.
A soul food institution whose owners, Kelsey and Kim Jackson, are known for supporting local youth organizations including the Atlantic City and Pleasantville Police Athletic Leagues.
Serving the Ducktown neighborhood's Mexican and Latino community since 2005; the city's 2025 Ducktown CDC Community Impact Award winner for two decades of neighborhood investment.
A fund of the Community Foundation of South Jersey that has granted well over $300,000 to Atlantic City nonprofits since 2018, supporting education, youth development, arts, and public health.
The health system's dedicated Atlantic City campus provides Charity Care for patients who can't afford treatment and runs a Community Mobile Market bringing affordable groceries to food-insecure neighborhoods.
Atlantic City's biggest employers are its casino resorts, and several run real, documented giving programs, from local grants to reentry hiring for people with past convictions.
The Caesars Foundation has granted $150,000+ to local nonprofits and runs workforce-development and mentorship programming with the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City.
One of several AC casino resorts participating in New Jersey's reentry employment initiative, which connects people with past incarceration to hospitality jobs.
Though ten organizations is a shorter list than our other city guides, every one of them is something you can only really find here. If you know a local AC shop or organization with a real give-back model that we missed, send it our way; we'd genuinely like to add it.
That's not the end of the map, though. As Businesses for Good grows, we're hoping smaller markets like Atlantic City are exactly where a searchable directory can help most, surfacing the options versus leaving them behind.
Aria Shah is a Computer Science student at Stanford University (Class of 2029) and a summer intern at Giving Connection, where she works at the intersection of technology and social impact. Her writing explores how data, design, and community can... See full bio and posts
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