Active Cause Co-Founder Yonis Hassan Featured in Rolling Stone MENA Cover Story with OVO’s Noah “40” Shebib

By Active Cause Editorial Team

New York, NY – September 7, 2025

Active Cause Co-Founder and CEO Yonis Hassan was featured in Rolling Stone MENA’s September cover story, “40 Over 40: OVO’s Noah ‘40’ Shebib On Lebanon, Grief, Palestine, And Collective Liberation,” published September 2, 2025.

The in-depth profile by artist and writer Yassin “NARCY” Alsalman explores producer Noah “40” Shebib’s personal journey through grief, identity, and responsibility, while examining the philanthropic infrastructure he and Hassan built to address systemic issues facing marginalized youth in Toronto and beyond.

Hassan discusses Active Cause’s mission to reimagine philanthropy as a force for cultural power and systemic change, led by the voices of creators, fueled by strategic capital, and built for a new generation. The conversation reveals how lessons from working alongside one of music’s most influential producers shaped Active Cause’s approach to serving athletes, artists, and entertainers.

Building Infrastructure, Not Spectacle

In the feature, Hassan emphasizes Active Cause’s commitment to leveraging what works while avoiding the pitfalls of traditional celebrity philanthropy. “I’m not an artist, I don’t know the pressures and guilt that Noah might feel,” Hassan told Rolling Stone MENA. “I feel guilt around how the world works, the rooms that make those decisions. It’s devastatingly overwhelming.”

The profile examines how Hassan and Shebib approached philanthropy differently than corporate proclamations around social justice. “When corporations make proclamations around change and social justice, is it in their by-laws? No. It’s all symbolic,” Hassan explained. “So for us, we came in not afraid to bite the hand that feeds us. The government or the corporate sector.”

Hassan identified apathy as the biggest issue facing young people today. “You’re so desensitized. This is the first generation to go through wave after wave of unprecedented crisis. The first generation desensitized to violence because they see it on social media on a daily basis. They don’t know how to react to things.”

Active Cause’s Evolution

Since the Rolling Stone MENA feature, Hassan has focused on scaling Active Cause globally, applying lessons learned to build a platform that serves the unique needs of high-earning creatives. Active Cause now provides donor-advised fund infrastructure, charity discovery tools, fundraising campaign management, philanthropic insights, and community through Active Gatherings.

The platform addresses structural barriers that prevent athletes, artists, and entertainers from building sustainable giving practices, including irregular income patterns, compressed earning windows, privacy concerns, and lack of access to professional philanthropic guidance.

“This is how philanthropy should work,” Hassan told Rolling Stone MENA. “This is the one sector that transforms and takes risks. This sector has tremendous, credible, knowledgeable leaders who are policed and can’t speak out because it risks them losing funding. I think we came in like outliers. We aren’t afraid to speak around the real issues.”

The Full Feature

The Rolling Stone MENA cover story provides an intimate portrait of Shebib’s journey through personal loss, his Lebanese heritage, his stance on Palestine, and his approach to using cultural influence for systemic change. The feature includes conversations with Shebib’s collaborators including Hassan, artist Nemahsis, engineer Noel Cadastre, and Majid Jordan’s Majid Al-Maskati.

The full article is available at Rolling Stone MENA: 40 Over 40: OVO’s Noah “40” Shebib On Lebanon, Grief, Palestine, And Collective Liberation

About Active Cause

Active Cause is a private philanthropy membership app exclusively for athletes, creatives, and entertainers. The platform provides donor-advised fund infrastructure, charity discovery tools, fundraising campaign management, philanthropic insights, and community through Active Gatherings.

Active Cause exists to reimagine philanthropy as a force for cultural power and systemic change, led by the voices of creators, fueled by strategic capital, and built for a new generation.

Learn more at activecause.co.

About Rolling Stone MENA

Rolling Stone MENA is the Middle East and North Africa edition of Rolling Stone magazine, covering music, culture, politics, and entertainment across the region.

info@activecause.co