webinar

Beyond Collaboration

DATE

April 27, 2026

TIME

1-2p ET / 10-11a PT

LOCATION

Virtual

Building the Infrastructure for Thriving Youth

Many of the biggest challenges nonprofits face (funding instability, data capacity, staffing, space) aren’t individual problems, but shared ones. This session explores how an emerging “network of networks” in New York City is helping organizations tackle these challenges collectively — and what it might look like to apply this model in other regions.
Register

Across the country, youth-serving organizations are navigating a common set of pressures — from funding instability and staff burnout to growing demands for data, coordination, and impact. While these challenges often show up at the organizational level, many are shared across the field, raising questions about whether they can be more effectively addressed collectively rather than individually. This webinar brings together leaders from a regional network of networks to explore emerging approaches that strengthen connection, reduce duplication, and build shared capacity across organizations.

Attendees will gain insight into how these approaches are taking shape in practice, what it takes to coordinate across organizations with different missions and constraints, and where early lessons are beginning to surface. The conversation will also explore implications for philanthropy, including how funders can support not just individual programs, but the broader conditions that enable organizations — and the field as a whole — to thrive.

Event tile photo credit: Allison Shelley, All4Ed.org / license

This program is free and open to grantmakers and others in the thriving youth community. GTY’s webinars and funder learning opportunities are made possible through the time and expertise of presenters from the field.

In the spirit of transparency, GTY will make available the list of webinar participants to presenters upon request, unless the registrant requests to remain anonymous (please indicate your preference via the registration form).

Speakers

Jen Siaca Curry, Ed.D.

Founder, Change Impact

Jen Siaca Curry, Ed.D. (she/her) founded Change Impact in 2017 to help social impact organizations achieve results and advance equity. Prior to starting Change Impact, Jen was the inaugural NYC Director of Samaschool, an innovative job training program, and COO of ExpandED Schools, an intermediary that supports schools and community organizations to design and operate after-school programs. She was named a 2018 Rising Latino Star by the NYS Hispanic Coalition and received the 2023 NYU Distinguished Young Alumni Award.

Laura Dumont

Strategy Committee Member, Coalition of Youth Development Intermediaries

Laurel Dumont is a philanthropy advisor, grantmaker and nonprofit coach. Laurel is responsible for advising on and directing the grant portfolios of several charitable foundations, totaling approximately $20M per year. Laurel provides technical support to nonprofit executives and also staffs and advises several foundations through Intentional Philanthropy and Collaborative Strategies.

Lucy Herz

Co-Founder and CEO, Student Success Network

Lucy Herz is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Student Success Network, where she leads efforts to help youth-serving organizations collaborate, use data more effectively, and improve outcomes for young people. Her work centers on the power of partnership: bringing diverse stakeholders together around a shared vision and supporting them to work more effectively across organizational and system boundaries.

Presented by

Grantmakers for Thriving Youth

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GTY is a funders’ forum promoting equitable systems, structures and opportunities for young people to thrive in learning, work, citizenship and life.

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