Learning Communities

At Funders Together, we work to facilitate information sharing and scale best practices. One of the ways we do this is through issue- and community-based learning communities.

 

Current Communities

PSOs for Housing Justice 

PSOs for Housing Justice, led by Funders Together to End Homelessness and Funders for Housing and Opportunity, convenes cross-sector issue-based philanthropy serving- and mobilizing- organizations (often called PSOs) to strengthen our collective work towards racial justice and liberation through a housing justice focus.

Learn more about PSOs for Housing Justice

Health Funders for Housing Justice 

Health Funders for Housing Justice centers on the inextricable link between healthcare and homelessness systems and the belief that housing is healthcare. This network is open to health systems, healthcare conversion foundations, and staff at any other type of funder interested in housing and health. 

Learn more about Health Funders for Housing Justice

 

California Homelessness & Housing Policy Funders Network

This network provides dedicated and candid space for California funders at various knowledge levels to gain insight around various issues related to housing and homelessness policy in the state, aims to lead funders to move towards policy engagement, and aids the understanding and knowledge of policies that directly impact housing affordability and stability across California.

Learn more about the California Homelessness & Housing Policy Funders Network


Funders Network for Youth Success 

Born from our youth-focused community of practice, Foundations for Youth Success, the Funders Network for Youth Success is a national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to prevent and end youth homelessness. Members of this network receive resources, opportunities convene with colleagues and partners working in the youth homelessness field, and much more. Participation in this network is open to full and basic members. 

Learn more about the Funders Network for Youth Success

 

Foundations for Racial Equity

Despite all the programs and structures designed to prevent and end homelessness and because of historical and contemporary structural racism, people of color disproportionately experience homelessness. To truly end homelessness, we must change the systems that perpetuate racial inequity. Doing so is not an easy or quick task, but together, we can take steps to educate ourselves and use our voices to push the field toward greater racial equity.    

To address this, Funders Together to End Homelessness is launching a two-year community of practice called Foundations for Racial Equity to help funders move the needle toward greater racial equity in homelessness and housing.  

From 2019-2020, we will convene philanthropic leaders working at national and local levels to build relationships with other funders, learn together about systemic racism in housing and homelessness, and lead the field in creating a more equitable world. 

Learn more about Foundations for Racial Equity.

 

United Ways Partnering to End Homelessness

United Ways are distinct and valued organizations within the Funders Together membership, providing both funding and direct services, along with advocacy and convening power within their communities. This network gathers United Way full members of Funders Together every other month for peer learning, problem-solving, accountability, and relationship-building. 

Sign up for the United Ways network by emailing Michael Durham, Director of Networks.

 

Past Communities

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Foundations for Employment and Housing

Communities across the country are increasingly becoming aware of the need to connect the homelessness and employment systems to better serve vulnerable populations with both housing and jobs. This learning community is exploring the intersections of the homelessness and employment systems, and the role of funders in advancing the efforts of both. This community started in 2018 and concluded in 2020.

Learn more about Foundations for Employment and Housing.


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Foundations for Youth Success (FYS)

From 2015-2016, Funders Together to End Homelessness hosted a Community of Practice focused on funders’ roles in ending youth and young adult homelessness. This community, Foundations for Youth Success (FYS), brought together philanthropic leaders -- large, national funders as well as those working at the local level -- to identify best practices in implementing effective solutions for our young people. Throughout this two-year initiative, members participated in regular virtual meetings and came together in person twice a year. 

Resources and learnings from this community can be found on the youth homelessness page. 

Join our new Funders Network for Youth Success for continued learning with FYS participants and other funders by emailing Michael Durham, Director of Networks and Programs, at [email protected]

 

 

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We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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Only members have access to some of the resources we list on this page. Feel free to explore the Funder Toolkit and see what we have to offer, but you may not be able to access some of the resources without signing up for membership.

When you join Funders Together, you also gain access to: educational programming, national learning communities, funder-focused tools and resources, networking opportunities, and more. Read about membership here.

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