Mission and Goals

In 1997, a group of grantmakers (Ford Foundation, Edward W. Hazen Foundation, Jewish Fund for Justice, Merck Family Fund, Open Society Institute, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Surdna Foundation) hosted a briefing about a growing area of work that develops the leadership of young people while advancing positive systemic changes in the community. Drawing over 75 funders, the event signified a clear groundswell of activity and interest around this powerful strategy called youth organizing. Recognizing that scarce resources were targeted to this relatively young but promising field, the working group issued a mandate for a collaborative funder effort to catalyze support for youth organizing. In 2000, the Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing was formally launched.

The Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO) is a collective of national, regional and local grantmakers and youth organizing practitioners dedicated to advancing youth organizing as a strategy for youth development and social justice. The mission of the FCYO is to substantially increase the philanthropic investment in and strengthen the organizational capacities of youth organizing groups across the country.

The goals of the Collaborative are to:

• Increase the level of funding directed towards youth organizing groups;

• Support youth organizing groups to develop stable and sustainable organizations; and

• Increase the awareness and understanding of youth organizing among funders and community organizations.

The FCYO seeks to bring about a society in which young people are integral leaders and decision-makers in their own lives and communities, and in which the systems and institutions that serve them and their families are held accountable. Youth are one of the largest, fastest growing and increasingly diverse populations in the U.S. today. Given the current disinvestment in quality public education and strong community infrastructures, and the parallel increase in fast track poverty, unemployment and incarceration, the vision of the FCYO is even more urgent. Youth, especially those growing up in poor communities, are often simplistically perceived as recipients of services at best or as threatening, social delinquents at worst. Neither common perception does justice to the critical need for communities to engage youth as essential members, nor the inherent capacity of all youth to be active, contributing partners in their individual and community development.