The Intrigue Yellow® Foundation
is a U.S.-based, IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in Chicago to redefine how humanitarian work is designed, funded, and delivered, beyond expensive galas and opaque fundraising models. Rather than operating as a traditional charity, Intrigue Yellow® functions as a research and development platform where scholarly cultural intelligence and emotional clarity of humanness translate into practical pathways for healthier living and cleaner societies. Guided by a modern interpretation of wellness-led wisdom, we design solutions through lifestyle conceptualization, branding, and a mentorship, scholarship system that brings the heart of giving into a rewarding, joyful state, so it may guide the mind toward peace through visible content and lived experiences. Every contribution becomes a scholarship, and every scholarship supports untold research, education, and human-centered innovation-advancing well-being without bias, ideology, or trend-driven agendas.
Intrigue Yellow® – The IY Sphere – is a nonprofit foundation working in parallel with its creative firm to transform cultural intelligence into real-world systems of impact. Moving beyond charity alone, the Sphere creates work, builds bridges, and activates precise human talents to sustain and scale meaningful change. Rooted in PersianNess World Heritage, the earliest recorded framework for wellness and wisdom, the IY Sphere translates evidence and knowledge into living intelligence through Art’a, its signature rhythmic lifestyle. Apolitical, non-spiritual, and evidence-led, the Sphere merges art, science, and ethical design; ensuring technology remains a tool, not a replacement, for human emotion, intelligence, and evolution.
Our Sphere
Our
Sphere
An Avant-Garde
Humanitarian Model
An Avant-Garde Humanitarian Model
the vision:
Intrigue
Refine Humanity
To shape a world where being well and living wiser becomes a universal dialogue; guided by an authentic, modern, and inclusive intelligence that elevates health and humanity across cultures.
the mission:
Yellow
Reposition Health
To design a trusted resource for human goodness through creative projects that integrate art, science, and humanity as practical, everyday tools ; advancing awareness, ethical growth, and responsible business within a circle of good practice.
بنی آدم اعضایِ یکدیگرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
"Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul"
Sa’adi Shirazi Persian Poet 13th Century at
the entrance of United Nations
Intriguers
Circles of Humans Powering a Good Life
Say Hello
Directors
Each year, The Intrigue Yellow® Foundation – the non-profit of The IY – accepts applications for its Board of Directors. We invite world-minded thought leaders dedicated to altruism, apolitical and secular clarity, and the wellbeing of all humans. Become an intriguer today.
Mahtab Hariri Salehi
Ursula Hansen
Leah Farra
Committees
Wellness and Wisdom Cultural Catalysts
Human – volunteer – based Cultural Catalysts are curated, committees devoted to well and wiser living. Organized around Eight Intelligences, they mentor and activate under-discovered talents; transforming care, creativity, and knowledge into selective campaigns and meaningful and intelligent cultural motions and experiences. This is where joy becomes soft power for building a basic good human life, and where mentorship, scholarship, internships, and entrepreneurial pathways begin; thoughtfully, humanly, and with purpose. Become an intriguer today.
Patrons
Patrons are altruists who mentor, support, and uplift the mission with time, monetary support, and expertise.They give through donation, investment, or guidance, strengthening the long-term humanitarian ecosystem of Intrigue Yellow®. Become an intriguer today.
Notable Contributors
In Memory of
Kristine Farah
Kristine Farah served Intrigue Yellow® from its inception (2018–2025), contributing to its early infrastructure, marketing, and civic connections in Chicago. Trained in dentistry at Northwestern University, she later dedicated her work to safe community, cultural and philanthropic enrichment. A key altruist and single mother to Leah and Jadd, she passed away in July 2025, too young, following surgery. Her generosity and commitment remain part of our foundation.
Advocartsy • Michael Aram • Shohreh Bakhsheshian • Behzad Bolour • Marit Bohbot • Eleni Bousis • Raha Didevar • Rita Garry • Gisue Hariri • Shadi Hariri •Leyla Kashani• Arian Khoroushi • Lucien LaGrange • Mary Beth Malone • Navid Madani • Niaz Parvaresh • PopileeNYC • Whitney Reynolds • Shawna Rodgers • Rouzati Rugs •Dr. & Mrs. Saldana • Mahin Serry • Stephanette Walker • Faranak Vossoughi •Jordan Fashion Week • BMO Wealth Management
Impacts
From the multicultural openness of Chicago, Intrigue Yellow® as a USA Registered Trademark, grew as a grassroots platform where free thought, diverse voices, and civic imagination became Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds in action. In five official years, and a lifetime in the making through founder Dr. Mahtab Hariri, ancient humanitarian sophistication was translated into clear Western simplicity. Through Art’a, this intelligence became a practical, creative, and mindful lifestyle brand and academic framework. Working with original sources and scholars, bias was removed from fragmented literature. Through PaLVn, knowledge becomes action: selective, multi-sensory projects offering lasting tools for daily well-being and wiser living, accessible locally and globally.
nitiatives
Chicago gives
chic-a-go
Chicago-Gives-Chic-A-Go is a Chicago-born PersianNess giving-back movement rooted in resilience and hope. Led by the Intrigue Yellow® Foundation, it uses purpose-driven crowdfunding guided by a taking from what we give ethos to enrich the city through culture, shared experience, and collective care. From Persepolis, burned 2,500 years ago, to Chicago, rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1871, the movement reveals humanity’s enduring sameness across time and place. Repeating biennially since 2019, it activates selective art-and-science campaigns that renew people and strengthen how communities live, learn, and belong locally and globally.
testimonial
A Recognition of Purpose and Legacy
Intrigue Yellow® is honored to be recognized by Her Majesty Farah Pahlavi, the last crowned Queen of Iran. This recognition affirms our mission to elevate PersianNess as an enabling intelligence and to dignify women’s enduring contributions to Earth, humanity, and compassionate public service, honoring women as cultural stewards whose talents sustain dignity and a more humane world.
“A gift to the Chicago Art Institute in honor of inception of the Intrigue Yellow® Foundation for dignifying identities of all women in talents
Farah Pahlavi
26 November 2019”
I am Intrigued!
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Stay tuned for the next experiences , content capsules, cultural enrichments & creative releases.