Kelly, at Striking Beauties gym in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, with two of her fighters. Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert

On the evening of October 2, 2014, Julie Kelly stood on a balcony inside the Royale nightclub in Boston’s Theater District. Below her, in the “ballroom,” two women in pink boxing trunks, singlets, 12-ounce gloves (red or blue), and protective headgear faced off in a portable boxing ring. Cheered on by a crowd of some 900 men and women, most under 40, who had paid $75 to attend, the fighters—one a school teacher by day, the other a realtor—slugged it out in a torrent of blows. The realtor (blue gloves) won on points, awarded by five USA Boxing judges.

“Belles of the Brawl 2″—a 10-fight card—was a classic production of Haymakers for Hope (H4H), a nonprofit launched by Kelly and a friend, Andrew Myerson, in 2010 to raise money for cancer research. The two met in fall 2009 at a New York City gym where Kelly was training to defend her title—successfully—in the 132-pound division of the New York Golden Gloves competition. Kelly took up competitive boxing in 2002 to get in shape; she’d been declared cancer-free that year after chemotherapy and radiation treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. At the time, the former art history major was working in digital marketing for Hearst television. Now her job is to oversee H4H fighters’ four months of preparations, from admission (when she matches applicants by age, weight, and athletic experience) to weigh-in on fight night. (Myerson, who worked at Goldman Sachs before cofounding H4H, handles the finances.) Kelly is on the road six days of most weeks, meeting with each boxer at least once every 10 days at his or her gym to review conditioning and skills, and adjusting the pairings to yield bouts that can go the distance (three two-minute rounds).

To participate, boxers must raise $4,000 for a designated charity such as the Jimmy Fund or Memorial Sloan Kettering. The volunteers often find soliciting pledges more daunting than fighting, Kelly says, so she advises on targets and tactics. For the three events H4H sponsored last year, Kelly managed 76 fighters. She and her electrical engineer husband also welcomed a baby girl, Calin Kay, in November.

Since 2011, H4H has held nine events, in Manhattan and Boston. Two featured women-only cards, the others a mix of men’s and women’s fights. Between money brought in by the fighters and income from ticket sales, sponsorships, ringside raffles and auctions, and T-shirts, the organization has raised more than $3 million, with 70 percent going to charities.

Read more by Thomas Cooper