When thinking of nonprofit organizations, you'd probably never think of entities that specialize in hosting large concerts and events for the public. Instead, the typical food banks, fundraisers and social welfare programs may come to mind. But that's not the case for one organization centered in Seattle.

Recently I sat down with Brian Franada, the founder of Reign, a nonprofit organization that hosts concerts and events in Seattle and works with up-and-coming artists to bring awareness and support to underserved youth around the world. This month marks Reign's first full year as a nonprofit, and it's still growing daily.

Franada has found inspiration from many places in his life. He works with a group of alumni from Manila Science High School, one of the top ten schools in the Philippines, to identify and coordinate support efforts brought together by Reign. The funds raised from Reign's concerts and events go directly to Manila to help buy school supplies for youth in the area. This is a cause close to Franada because of his own mother's experience - who's originally from the Philippines. Franada realized that if it hadn't been for someone stepping up to support his mom, his family wouldn't be where it is today.

The causes Reign works to help aren't any different from other nonprofit organizations, but the approach taken is very unique. This includes working with musicians and artists outside of the mainstream.

"I don't think there are a lot of production companies who work specifically with YouTube artists and music to support kids," says Franada. He turned his attention to artists promoting themselves through YouTube because of their rising popularity among young people and his belief that they deserved more than what they were credited for.

Unknown artist performs at Reign Concert. Photo credit: Kevin Quimosing

In the past Franada has worked with mainstream artists to produce events, but he always wanted to work with youth and give them more opportunities. "Especially Asian Americans, just because we don't get the same opportunities I feel like, well not yet," he says. Franada started organizing to find a way to give youth a platform to showcase their talent. So he brought three performers, AJ and Reese, Erika David, and J.R.A. to test the response he would get.

"I told myself, if those three fail, then you know, (I'll) just leave that alone," he says. "But those three were pretty successful, like each one of them can draw a few hundred people on their own."

Realizing this, Franada imagined how big Reign could be if he brought in even more artists and he hurried to get the first Reign concert started. "For us to be the best, we got to do it first," he states. The success from the first concert showed potential for what Reign could become and sparked a year of accomplishments.

Traphik performs for the crowd at Reign's first concert. Photo credit: Kevin Quimosing

So far Reign has presented two concerts and a handful of smaller shows, with another coming up soon.  Reign has also created a clothing line, a music team and has started making music videos.

For the next year, Reign has plans to do it big - including more concerts, a new festival, a possible radio station and further expansion of the organization. Franada's motto in life is, "If you're not gonna dream big, then don't even bother dreaming."

Find out more information on Reigntakeover.com

The LION is an experimental arts journalism project run by youth from all around Pierce County in partnership with FAB-5. The aim is to provide youth with an outlet to explore and share about art related topics and issues within their community. The LION will be contributing to the Weekly Volcano throughout the month of August.