Funder Community

The GMA Funder Community promises a great experience in breaking out of traditional giving models. We aim to tap into the potential we see in groups of individual funders with overlapping missions and goals.

Funder Community, 2023-24

17/25 Fund for Young Adults

Purpose: Unlocking economic self-sufficiency for 17-to-25-year-olds

UPDATE

This round of the 17/25 Fund for Young Adults has concluded. The final session was truly a celebration of four remarkable organizations working in different ways to support young adults on their paths to achieving self-sufficiency.

Following four presentations and funder discussion, participants voted to recognize The Haven Project and The Wily Network. Each program will receive $80,600 to provide 28 young adults with $150 per month in direct cash, no strings attached, for 18 months – plus $5,000 towards administrative costs. For more detail, contact GMA’s Fund manager, Heidi Heinlein.

The 17/25 Fund

People ages 17 to 25 The 17/25 Fund for Young Adults will dig into innovative and effective strategies to support young adults in Greater Boston and Gateway Cities through their transitional years. This age group has received proportionately little philanthropic investment and is experiencing a crisis of untapped potential.

Much of philanthropy is dedicated to the younger years, positioning children and youth for later success as adults, usually through a college or career pathway. Despite significant progress, that pathway is not working for all, particularly not for young adults with inadequate support systems. In 2021 only 52 percent of Boston Public School graduates enrolled in college; just over half of enrollees finished a degree within six years. The percentage of youth neither working nor in school rose sharply during the pandemic, after decades of decline.

The Fund will center on direct interventions that empower people to thrive, starting with guaranteed income. We expect to explore other direct aid, such as guaranteed housing or work, in the Fund’s future years. Considerable innovation is underway in all three areas, so there is opportunity for creative investment.

In 2023, the 17/25 Fund will explore how guaranteed income programs can empower young adults to succeed. Read the 2023 GMA Funder Community Participant Guide for more detail.

Fund Participation

GMA’s six-month pooled giving and comprehensive learning experience is now accepting grants from donors eager to identify and fund community-driven solutions to a large-scale problem affecting young adults across the country. The participant-directed Fund will award a few significant grants to exemplary organizations that model ways of helping young adults achieve economic self-sufficiency and thrive.

The Fund is a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Philanthropy Massachusetts. Participation is open to private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor-advised fund accounts, and individual donors. It is a funder-directed initiative that does not accept unsolicited applications.

Contact GMA Director Phil Hall by phone 617-391-3097 or email phall@gmafoundations.com to learn more about the GMA Funder Community. Find detail in the 2023 GMA Funder Community Participant Guide.

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