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 the Funders Network for Youth Success have access to:

Resources, such as webinars, member calls, newsletters, articles, and blog posts
Opportunities to learn about philanthropy's unique role in supporting youth-led organizations
Networking opportunities
Opportunity to engage in advocacy with other funders
Connection to key national partners

The Funders Network for Youth Success is open to all full and basic members of Funders Together who are currently investing or interested in best practices and solutions to youth homelessness or intersecting issues, such as education, and juvenile or criminal justice. There is no fee associated with joining the network and members can join at any time. To join, please email Director of Networks Michael Durham at [email protected].

Youth Homelessness Funder Strategy Circles

Launched in 2024, the Funders Network for Youth Success hosts bimonthly forums to discuss emerging issues affecting philanthropy’s role in preventing and ending youth homelessness. This is the opportune place to showcase your work, ventilate struggles, get input from colleagues, and build relationships with others in similar roles.

All members of Funders Together to End Homelessness are eligible; simply fill out this form, after which you will receive a calendar invitation from Michael Durham.

Meetings take place on the 4th Tuesday every other month at 2:00 ET, 1:00 CT, 12:00 MT, 11:00 PT.

Educational Resources

Funders Together to End Homelessness has collected resources that provide you a snapshot of the current youth homelessness landscape for funders. This includes an archive of youth-homelessness-specific newsletters and webinars all in once place.

Why Join the Funders Network for Youth Success?

Do you like this page?

Showing 1 reaction

Tabitha Blackwell published this page 2022-04-30 15:30:32 -0400

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