November/December Newsletter
December 4, 2024
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As members of The Goodness Web, your family joins a diverse community of results-oriented donors and partners who pool their resources and expertise to accelerate the most promising mental health initiatives to improve lives.
Only together can we do good, better.
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Happy holidays from The Goodness Web! We are so grateful that you are a part of our growing community of families dedicated to transforming youth mental health and improving young people’s lives. I wanted to take a moment to celebrate our progress this year and look ahead to our plans for 2025. None of this would be possible without your generosity!
Celebrating 2024
- The Power of Community. This was an exciting year of expansion, capped off by our incredible event in New York City with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy (check out the recording, password: GoodnessWeb24). In addition to growing into NYC, we held salons in Dallas, Seattle, Orange County, Boston, and Houston, connecting many new families in common cause.
- Grantees Driving Major Change. We’ve made big bets on top nonprofits, and they are having an impact.
- Inseparable. Notched 37 policy wins across 16 states to drive hundreds of millions of new dollars to mental health and expand funding for services ranging from school-based prevention efforts to crisis intervention.
- The Jed Foundation. Study of their first 10 years showed a 25% reduction in suicide attempts, and decreased reports of depression and anxiety on the 444 college campuses (serving 5.6M students) that have worked with them.
- Think:Kids + Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. Proven model for helping kids build emotional regulation skills implemented across 186 community-based organizations in TX, reaching 1,000s of youth and parents.
- Young Futures. Launched first cohort of 10 mental health nonprofit Innovators, working to help young people build social connection, and navigate social media in our increasingly digital world. Cohort two will launch in early 2025.
- Path Forward. Coalition of employers, insurance providers, and industry experts working to expand access to mental health care, gained influential new members: NAMI and National Center for Mental Wellbeing.
- One Mind. Completed stage one of multi-year schizophrenia research study.
- Expansion of the Collaborative Care Model. Conducted a landscape analysis to determine locations that are ripe for implementation across MA.
- Growing Our Capacity. This year, we hired our inaugural CEO (me!), refined our grant making strategy, and launched a couple of new ways for you to learn with us: (1) a Monthly Newsletter and (2) Insider Briefings, knowledge-sharing conversations with grantees that give donors updates and the chance to ask questions of experts.
Looking Ahead to 2025
- New Grants. We have been hard at work scouring the country for non-profits doing path-breaking work in the youth mental health space. Over the course of the fall, we have carefully curated an impressive set to go through our formal diligence process, working closely to analyze their track records and plans for scale. At the start of 2025, we are poised to make large, multi-year grants to organizations tackling issues like the mental health workforce, prevention in schools, and the intersection of AI and youth mental health. We cannot make the ambitious investments we hope to make without your help.
- New Opportunities for Donors. TGW is a special community of people with big hearts who want to work together to solve the youth mental health crisis. While we are fueled by donations of all sizes, we are launching several significant ways for major donors to become more deeply involved in our work and with each other. Those giving at the Accelerator Family level, donating $10,000 per year or more for five years ($50,000 total) are invited to consider the following leadership roles within TGW.
- Our First National Retreat. Will be held March 31-April 2 in Boston to bring together donors who are committed to playing a leadership role in building our community and want to engage in deeper learning on mental health philanthropy.
- TGW Investment Committee. Will convene three times per year corresponding with the stages of our annual grantmaking cycle. Investment committee members will share input on grant prospects at the following stages: sourcing, curation, and diligence.
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished this year but need your help to continue to grow our impact in 2025. We hope you’ll join us! Together, we can accelerate real progress on the youth mental health crisis.
Happy holidays,
Celine
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If you have any questions or would like additional information, please reach out to our team at:
info@thegoodnessweb.org
As members of The Goodness Web, your family joins a diverse community of results-oriented donors and partners who pool their resources and expertise to accelerate the most promising mental health initiatives to improve lives.
Elizabeth Binder has been named Chief Operating Officer (COO) of The Goodness Web (TGW). In this role, Binder will focus on operations, finance, and grantmaking strategy. Binder brings over 15 years of social sector leadership and experience to TGW. Prior to joining TGW, she was a partner at The Bridgespan Group, a global nonprofit consultancy, where she advised social sector leaders on strategy, grantmaking, and operations. In that role, she worked with a broad range of organizations, including philanthropic collaboratives, foundations, and NGOs. Before she joined Bridgespan, Binder spent five years at Bain & Company, working primarily with Fortune 500 companies. Binder has had a passion for and commitment to improving youth mental health throughout her career. She believes that transforming mental health for young people is one of the most important issues our society faces and has worked extensively with leading organizations in the field. Binder holds an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where she also earned a Certificate in Public Management. As an undergraduate, she studied commerce and psychology at the University of Virginia. The Goodness Web (TGW) connects a diverse community of results-oriented donors who pool their resources to accelerate the most promising mental health initiatives with the goal of improving the lives of youth and those who care for them. In just a few years since its launch, TGW has raised over $18M to grant to nonprofits capable of driving systems change and increasing access to support across the adolescent mental health ecosystem. TGW will award $4M in new grants in 2025. TGW was founded by Jan and Rob Swartz and Mark and Gina Verdi. “Elizabeth has dedicated her career to helping organizations build and execute on strategies to tackle social issues at scale. She brings the strategic and operational skillset we need to continue to grow our impact,” said TGW Co-Founder and Board Chair Mark Verdi. “Elizabeth’s experience in business, strategy, and philanthropy, combined with her passion for supporting youth mental health, is exactly what we need to help TGW expand into its next chapter. I am excited to partner with her to accelerate our growth and impact,” added TGW CEO Celine Coggins. Of her new role, Elizabeth reflected, “I believe deeply in The Goodness Web’s mission to address the youth mental health crisis. I couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity to build on the incredible work that The Goodness Web has already done.”
The Goodness Web 2024 Annual Report
Dear TGW Supporters,
Our Board of Directors has approved almost $4M in grantmaking for 2025 based on your generous contributions. We expect to make 5 grants with those funds in 2025. We are grateful to you for trusting us to invest these donations wisely in nonprofits poised to make a transformative impact on youth mental health.
Reach University, a nonprofit university advancing apprenticeship degrees in care industries, today announced its plans to launch a stackable “Behavioral Health Pathway,” beginning with its existing Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree.
In our February 2025 Insider Briefing, TGW's CEO Dr. Celine Coggins interviewed Anna Bobb, Executive Director of Path Forward, one of TGW's inaugural grantee partners. As a coalition of healthcare purchasers, clinician associations, health systems, philanthropists, and health-related nonprofits, Path Forward works to ensure equitable access to mental health and substance use care for all Americans.
As members of The Goodness Web, your family joins a diverse community of results-oriented donors and partners who pool their resources and expertise to accelerate the most promising mental health initiatives to improve lives.
View the entire interview by TGW CEO Celine Coggins with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy
In our first Insider Briefing, TGW's CEO Dr. Celine Coggins interviewed Katya Hancock, Executive Director of Young Futures, TGW's most recent grantee partner. Her organization, funded in partnership with TGW, Melinda French Gates's Pivotal Ventures, and the Susan Crown Exchange, helps young people navigate a social media driven world and build real connections.
As members of The Goodness Web, your family joins a diverse community of results-oriented donors and partners who pool their resources and expertise to accelerate the most promising mental health initiatives to improve lives.
