Nearly 80 philanthropic leaders gathered in Seattle for the inaugural National Funder Summit on Youth Housing Stability to imagine what it will take to prevent and end youth homelessness. From challenging our assumptions about reform and transformation to building stronger connections across sectors, the Summit offered a glimpse of what becomes possible when philanthropy expands the tent and thinks beyond crisis response.

As Funders Together enters its next chapter, we’re evolving how our team works together and supports our members. Several staff have stepped into new and expanded roles that strengthen our strategy, organizing, narrative work, and member engagement.

This Black Philanthropy Month, Funders Together for Housing Justice asks philanthropy to move beyond celebration toward action: What must we protect? What must we build? And how far are we willing to go to transform the conditions that continue to produce housing injustice?

With great excitement, Funders Together for Housing Justice welcomes Rinal Ray as our next Chief Executive Officer. Beginning August 3, 2026, Rinal will lead the organization into its next chapter, drawing on more than two decades of experience advancing housing stability, strengthening communities, and building partnerships that create lasting systems change.

In this statement, Funders Together for Housing Justice reflects on the newly released 2025 Point-in-Time (PIT) count and what it reveals about the state of homelessness in the United States. While the data show a modest decline in homelessness nationally, the organization cautions against treating the PIT count as a complete measure of housing instability. Instead, Funders Together argues that the findings reinforce a broader lesson: investments in housing, prevention, and support services work, and philanthropy has an important role to play in expanding those solutions rather than retreating from them.

In this blog post, Michael Durham, Director of Networks at Funders Together for Housing Justice, reflects on the lessons that shaped his understanding of housing as a core driver of health and wellbeing. Drawing from his experience at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, he examines the tension between addressing immediate needs and advancing systemic change, and calls on philanthropy to hold both in pursuit of housing justice.

After nearly 11 transformative years with Funders Together for Housing Justice (FTHJ), we share with deep gratitude and bittersweet joy that Lauren Bennett, our Chief of External Affairs, will be departing the organization to join the Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) as their Senior Director of Communications and Membership. 

In this blog post, Interim Co-CEO Jessica Venegas reflects on the political moment we are living through, the ways immigration enforcement is shaping housing instability, and what philanthropy must do now to stand with impacted communities and help build a future rooted in housing justice, racial justice, and belonging.

Reflections from the 2026 Philanthropic Leaders Track

On March 2–4, 2026, philanthropic leaders from across the country gathered in San Diego for Leading Together for Housing Justice in the Face of Authoritarianism, the Philanthropic Leaders Track at the National Alliance to End Homelessness Leadership Summit on Ending Homelessness, curated by Funders Together for Housing Justice. 

In this blog post, Interim Co-CEO Maegan Scott reflects on the history and strategy that brought the country to this verison of authoritariansim and calls on philanthropy to be clear on what is required in this moment to both protect people and build the future where everyone can thrive.