Following the U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on  Protecting Youth Mental Health, several funders came together and found they were facing a similar challenge. Funders in health, education, child welfare, juvenile justice, and other youth-focused collaboratives were all discussing how to support youth mental health, but the conversations were happening in siloes. There was no space to see the full picture and collaborate with peers in a holistic way. Additionally, the few funders with explicit youth mental health portfolios were fielding regular one-on-one inquiries from others seeking to get started funding the work, and they were eager to have a platform that could more efficiently identify and onboard new funders.

The need for a shared, cross-sector table for funders to find one another and go deeper on this issue was clear. A cross-sector and cross-issue community of funders who enter this work through different lenses can do what no one funder type can do on its own: bridge siloed systems, accelerate innovative cross-system models, align investments, share insights across relevant fields, and elevate youth and community perspectives.