Seasons greetings from The Goodness Web! We are reflecting, with deep gratitude, on our biggest year of grants to date. We made six major grants so far this year, while continuing to fund several other multi-year grant partners. We have one more exciting grant to announce in December! Our 2025 grantmaking budget was $4 million, and we have surpassed $21 million in total funds raised for youth mental health since we began just a few years ago! 

We hope this message offers a window into the momentum building across the country and invites you to consider joining us in the year ahead. The impact is powerful and measurable. Our grants are reaching tens of millions of young people, and our policy partners have helped secure nearly $1 billion in new mental health funding at the state level – critical progress at a time when federal funding has declined. A few highlights include: 

Launching evidence-based innovation in mental health. 

• Reach University will begin training its first cohort of students in behavioral health through their apprenticeship-based model in January, and has plans to scale rapidly. 
• The Institute for Youth Mental Health, a partnership of The Jed Foundation (JED) and America’s Promise Alliance, is underway with its first cohort of community-based organizations (mostly afterschool and summer programs like the Boys & Girls Clubs of America) training them in JED’s research-driven model. This partnership will ensure better mental health supports and training throughout programs serving more than 1.8 million young people. 

Using AI for good and mitigating against its potential mental health harms. 

• Koko uses AI to detect when individuals are in distress when using social media sites and offers immediate human intervention. Every 53 seconds, a young person is using their mental health supports online. 
• Young Futures launched a challenge to find innovators working at the intersection of AI and mental health. From over 200 applicants, they are identifying a small group to support in advancing youth-driven AI solutions. 

Driving greater funding and access to mental health care through policy change. 

• Think:Kids and the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI). For several years, we have funded implementation of Think:Kids’ Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) model in Texas. In an exciting connection between direct service and policy, MMHPI worked with the Texas legislature to make it possible for providers to now bill for this intervention, ensuring continued growth of its use. 
• Both Inseparable and Path Forward are playing instrumental roles in ensuring that federal Medicaid cuts are mitigated by state-level policy and funding progress. 

Beyond grants, we launched our first Youth Advisory Council – 18 young leaders representing 15 states – and added two senior leaders to our team, including a new Chief Advancement Officer beginning in January. 

Looking Ahead to 2026: 

We have an exciting calendar of events shaping up for 2026 and one audacious unifying goal. Next year will bring a robust calendar of opportunities to learn and engage, including our second national donor retreat on October 5-6 (location coming soon). Our first retreat brought together families from thirteen states for two days of deep connection and shared purpose. 



Our events calendar includes:

We ask for your help in reaching an audacious goal for 2026. We are on a mission to make over $5M in grants next year. In doing so, we will become one of the top 10 funders in the youth mental health space (based on 2025 research1). We hope this sparks two reactions for you: first, outrage that this critical issue still receives so little philanthropy; and second, a sense of possibility, because together we can change that. Please help us get there and be a transformational force in youth mental health! 

Happy holidays, 

Celine 

¹ New Profit (2025). Beyond The Headlines: An Executive Summary of Trends and Opportunities in Youth Mental Health in the US. p age 28.