webinar

Beyond Collaboration

PAST EVENT
April 27, 2026

Building the Infrastructure for Thriving Youth

On April 27, GTY talked with the founders of the Coalition of Youth Development Intermediaries in New York City. This “network of networks” emerged in 2025 to help nonprofit youth-serving organizations withstand the severe strain of sudden funding cuts; immigration enforcement actions; attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion; cyber and physical safety concerns; and the need to safeguard the mental health and wellbeing of leaders, staff and participants. We discussed early wins, lessons learned, and the coalition’s evolving focus on the long-term health and vitality of the sector.

Watch recording

Top Takeaway

Conditions for the Coalition’s success in year one: 1) listening to nonprofits; 2) disseminating fast and flexible funding; 3) a willingness to experiment; and 4) a commitment to a collaborative approach.

More Takeaways

  1. Disseminating timely news of federal actions relieved the pressure on individual nonprofits to sift through overwhelming amounts of information.
  2. A centralized resource hub of trainings and tools and a training fund supported organizations to find assistance and more broadly disseminate their own expertise.
  3. Convenings strengthened coordination, morale and community; collective insights for philanthropic partners uplifted high-leverage investment opportunities.
  4. The Coalition’s current focus is to improve the sector’s stability by elevating the voice of youth-serving providers; strengthening nonprofit capacity; building community; and jointly advocating for equitable funding.

Resources

PPT Deck: Beyond Collaboration: Building the Infrastructure for Thriving Youth

What Can Philanthropy Do?

  • Invest in leaders with deep connections to the provider community as they step up to organize and respond to urgent needs.
  • Consider grantmaking above the 5% payout. Going to 9% enabled a coalition funder to maintain their existing investments and provide additional responsive resources.
  • Keep your Board members informed by sharing quotes and stories and bringing them into conversation with organization leaders, staff and participants.
  • Consider how your funding is helping the nonprofit youth-serving sector in your geography or discipline build a collaborative, strengths-based mindset to withstand an uncertain future.

Memorable Quotes

This is not just about how we respond in moments of crisis, but also how we reimagine the ways in which organizations can leverage their resources going forward.

I’m so impressed with the speed and agility of this group and its partners, how their approach is informed by the organizations closest to the work on the ground, and the ways in which the creativity just hasn’t stopped.

—Itai Dinour, Carmel Hill Fund

We are thinking about what the youth-serving ecosystem will need to survive and thrive in the coming years. Unfortunately we can expect continued resource constraints. Philanthropy-driven conversations about this can jump very quickly to mergers, closures and other big structural changes. We thought there needed to be a whole other set of conversations before that: what does it look like for organizations to come up with creative, innovative, fractional models or collaborative partnerships from a place of possibility and a desire to strengthen the work?

—Laurel Dumont, Summerfield Foundation

The opportunity to collaborate on supporting the workforce has been helpful — including shared professional development initiatives, sharing practices that support staff, developing ideas around supporting mental health and wellness for staff. There is so much going on for the workforce that we all need to work together.

—Jen Curry, Impact Change

We have embraced the reality that this is emergent work. The willingness to experiment and build the plane while flying has been key. We don’t have this perfect blueprint and we also know we can’t wait to build one.

—Lucy Herz, Student Success Network

The first year of our work was about bringing the sector together during a moment of urgency: moving very fast, because of necessity. And in year two, we are building on that collective energy and moving towards longer term coordinated action in support of the sector.

—Sarah Joseph-Donnolly, Opportunity Network

Contact the Speakers

If you’d like to follow up with any of these speakers, please reach out to GTY.

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.

Laurel 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.

Sarah Joseph-Donnelly

Chief Innovation Officer, The Opportunity Network

Sarah Joseph-Donnelly is a mission-driven leader working at the intersection of educational equity, workforce development, and innovation. As Chief Innovation Officer at The Opportunity Network, Sarah leads initiatives that strengthen the capacity of schools, employers, and community partners to support first-generation college students and talent of color. She oversees OppNet’s Career Fluency® Partnerships program, which supports more than 90 institutions and reaches over 100,000 students nationwide.

Presented by

Grantmakers for Thriving Youth

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