Big Tent, Bold Values 

Funders Together for Housing Justice is the singular national philanthropy membership organization that combines housing and homelessness policy toward a unified vision of collective liberation. Founded as Funders Together to End Homelessness, many of our members remain focused on funding the life-sustaining services, advocacy, and capacity-building that reduce the harms of homelessness and help unhoused people restabilize their lives. Others have moved upstream, focusing on housing unit production and preservation, tenant power-building, and de-commodification, for example. Still others approach housing justice through adjacent sectors, such as legal system reform, violence prevention, or health equity. We hold space for all of the above and more to resist the siloization of housing from homelessness within an expansive vision of a world where literally everyone enjoys safe and stable housing.

A Loving Community 

Our peer-to-peer programs elevate our members’ experiments, successes, and struggles. We are fiercely values-driven, so we ensure that our collective north star is always more ambitious than any particular member’s, even as we respect their individual priorities. When you join as a Funders Together member, you enter a community striving for loving accountability. We meet each other where we are but commit to growing from wherever that is. We are honest about our institutional limitations but simultaneously challenge those assumptions. 

Join us. 

Our membership body is diverse in every respect. We represent private foundations, community foundations, healthcare conversion foundations, health system community benefit offices, United Ways, individual philanthropists, corporate giving programs, grantmaking intermediaries, funder collaboratives, and more. Our members are everywhere, from Hawaii and Alaska to Tulsa and Memphis to Boston and New York. Some have two staff while others have 200. As such, you are sure to find camaraderie within this vast network. 

Membership includes certain practical benefits, including event discounts, members-only resources, access to affinity groups, and technical assistance, which you can peruse below. By joining Funders Together, you gain access to the collective wisdom of our staff and membership and bolster our capacity to mobilize the field of philanthropy to direct its power and resources toward proven and visionary solutions. 

Eligibility 

Funders Together membership is limited to foundations, community foundations, grantmaking staff at United Ways, corporate giving programs, individual philanthropists, funder intermediaries, funder collaboratives (read more below), venture philanthropy, and other non-traditional philanthropic giving entities. Government funders and all organizations where grantmaking is not the primary function are not eligible. Funders Together reserves the right to deny membership to organizations we believe do not meet participation eligibility criteria. If you have questions about your eligibility, please reach out to Michael Durham, Sr. Director of Funder Organizing & Coalitions. 

Dues for Institutional Philanthropy 

Our entry-level dues rate continues to be the lowest in our field as we strive to make membership accessible. The scale pertains to your budget on housing and homelessness, however you define that. Please review the chart below and reach out to FTHJ staff for help determining the appropriate rate. If the suggested levels are out of financial reach for your organization, please reach out.

Additional Membership Categories 

Funders Together welcomes funder collaboratives and funder networks on housing and homelessness to join as members, which affords you access to a special affinity group. Membership dues are a flat $5000 for funder collaboratives. 

Individual philanthropists who donate at least $50,000 to homelessness or housing annually are eligible for Funders Together membership. Please use the institutional philanthropy dues structure above to calculate the dues amount that is appropriate for you.

Funders Together is proud to represent United Ways in their grantmaking roles pertaining to housing and homelessness and appreciates their distinct budget limitations. United Ways should use the following scale.

Membership Benefits 

Members-only Resources 

Members have access to resources behind our paywall, including years of trainings, peer-to-peer funder calls, and other political education. 

Technical Assistance and Thought Partnership

Members can access support and thought partnership from our expert staff, whose combined experience represent several decades of housing and homelessness services and advocacy. We also love playing matchmaker, connecting you to peers who share similar characteristics.

News & Analysis 

Our members-only newsletter includes a roundup of Funders Together resources, insights from our national housing and homelessness partners, and case studies of your peers. Our analysis of both philanthropy and the homelessness/housing fields can’t be beat. 

Policy and Advocacy Hub

The Funders Together Policy & Advocacy Hub serves as a centralized resource for funders seeking to understand, navigate, and influence the rapidly changing housing policy landscape. The Hub translates federal policy developments into their state and local implications, identifies emerging trends and threats, and equips funders with timely analysis, research, talking points, training, and other tools to support effective advocacy.

More than a repository of information, the Hub will connect policy to strategy and action, creating opportunities for funders to learn together, strengthen their advocacy capacity, coordinate where alignment is useful, and better support the movements and communities advancing housing justice.

Topical Networks & Affinity Groups 

Funders Together members who feel most engaged usually participate in one of our topical networks, affinity groups, or communities of practice. We organize our members around more specific centers of gravity as listed below. 

• Health Funders for Housing Justice: founded by and for our health system members, this group is open to any FTHJ member who works on the social determinants of health, namely the intersection of housing and healthcare justice. 

• Youth Homelessness Funder Strategy Circles: formally known as the Funders Network for Youth Success, this affinity group formed out of a time-limited Community of Practice that didn’t want to stop meeting! All FTHJ members working on issues related to housing stability for children, youth, families, and young adults will find insight in these bimonthly calls. 

• The Network of Networks: Funders Together organizes our members who are funder collaboratives or networks, some of which license the Funders Together name, in all of the particularity of place-based funder groups. Only funder collaborative members are eligible. 

• United Ways to End Homelessness: United Ways are unique in the philanthropy world. We gather our UW members in their roles as grantmakers while appreciating the blurry lines. 

If you do not see yourself in any of these, fret not: we can organize independent peer-led conversations on topical areas that our members prioritize, assuming there’s critical mass.

Communities of Practice 

At Funders Together, a “community of practice” means something distinct: a time-limited, cohort-based, intensive peer-learning experience that combines in-person and virtual sessions that prioritize relationship-building and culminate in a field-building resource, in addition to practice change at participating organizations. Previous “CoPs” addressed racial equity, workforce, and youth homelessness. More CoPs are on the way! 

Regional Networks & Collaboratives 

All politics is local, especially when federal policy impedes progress. That’s why our membership includes place-based funder coalitions, some of which operate a bit like chapters, such as Chicago Funders Together to End Homelessness and Funders Together for Housing Justice - Los Angeles. While each “regional network” operates autonomously, and may require its own membership fee, we encourage you to get involved with your local network. 

Event Discounts and Early Access

Funders Together typically holds two convenings per year, the spring Funders Forum and summer/fall Funders Institute, in addition to topical convenings, such as the National Funder Summit on Youth Housing Stability. Members receive major discounts and early registration opportunities for these space-limited events. 

Join us! 

Email Michael Durham, Sr. Director of Funder Organizing & Coalitions, with questions or to apply for membership: [email protected]