Writer Brian O'Hagan is on a four-month journey across the United States to see a different kind of America — the nonprofit America.

O'Hagan, a London native and contributing editor with Philanthropy News Network, is visiting nonprofits from New York to San Francisco for a travel book to be published next year.

“One of the things that doesn't come across in most nonprofit sector publishing is the actual work people are doing,” O'Hagan says.

People like Sujoy Haldar, executive director of Cab Watch, a New York City — based group that trains 100,000 cab drivers to be the eyes and ears of the city, reporting accidents, crimes, and emergencies to police.

O'Hagan also met with Kevin McDonald, founder and president of the Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, a therapeutic community for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics in Durham, N.C. The residents live on campus and work 10-hour days at a variety of businesses that TROSA runs, including a moving company. “It's people that have had to fight some terrible demons, and they're back on track,” says O'Hagan.

O'Hagan, who quit his job as a fundraiser to write this book, will return home in September. His itinerary is available at the PNN web site (www.pnnonline.org). “I'm in a breathtaking country in very interesting times,” he says.