Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context idiomatic intransitive English) To carry out an action, the result of which is a significant change, or an altered circumstance. 2 (context idiomatic intransitive English) To be of importance; to matter.
Wikipedia
Make A Difference (MAD) is an Indian non-profit organisation, working to ensure better outcomes for children in orphanages and shelters across India. Make a Difference works with nearly 5000 children in 77 shelter homes across 23 cities in India, delivering impact through a Fellow-managed volunteering model of 4000 young leaders. It is currently run by Rizwan Tayabali and Jithin C Nedumala. Make A Difference is also the only non-profit to rank in India's Top 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2015 by the Great Place to Work Institute.
Through four core programmes, Ed Support, Discover, Propel and Dream Camps, Make a Difference creates a support system and an emotional safe space for children in shelters by ensuring every child has at least 3 adults who care for them, understand them and who they can reach out to when they feel overwhelmed. They have access to volunteers from 2 to 10 hours a week from the age of 10 onwards. Trained mentors spend time getting to know and develop individual plans for each child. This plan includes not just academic support but also life skills, personal discovery, art, music and language lessons. Depending on the age and need of the child, programmes include career awareness activities, helping them transition to better schools, helping them identify their career path and funding it when required. Make A Difference also works closely with the shelter they are living in to ensure that basic needs are taken care of and that the broader developmental needs of the children are being met.
Make A Difference is registered in Cochin, with a core team based in Bangalore, and operations spread across the Indian cities of Cochin, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Vellore, Bangalore, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Gwalior, Guntur, Dehradun, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mysore.
Usage examples of "make a difference".
Probably the same reason why I enlisted during the war -- I thought I could actually make a difference.
More important, I knew that their ideas and their wishes would really not make a difference in what I saw as the course for the rest of my life.
You can come back, now, as an officer, and make a difference working with me or in a few months you'll be called back anyway as just another mortar sergeant.
What made you stop believing that what you do can make a difference?