Membership

About GTY

GTY is a dynamic, supportive community of funders continually exploring how to leverage their organizations’ resources and influence to support young people to thrive. Intentionally designed as a ‘big tent,’ GTY’s community includes a diverse range of grantmakers with a range of focal areas, approaches, geographies, and ideologies. Our diversity is a source of strength because we share a commitment to improving our education and youth development ecosystems to support all youth to thrive.

Learn more about our purpose, principles and commitment to equity.

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Why Join GTY?

Learn, connect and act with GTY’s dynamic community

GTY’s membership fee includes registration for any staff of the member organization to attend our spring and fall in-person meetings and our member-only virtual programming with no fees. Barring special circumstances, there is no limit on the number of staff per organization participating.

Our member-only meetings feature a mix of learning, skill-building and action-oriented conversations, routinely centering the voices of young people and other proximate leaders—with small group and social events designed to support members to connect with each other.

Access individualized consultation and networking

The GTY facilitation team provides individualized consultation to members, including connections to peer funders, field organizations and experts on local, regional and national levels.

GTY members join strategy share sessions, consultancies on problems of practice, and have access to our member-only directory, member-created summaries of their philanthropic strategies and investments, and GTY’s archives with resources from all of our meetings and events.

Deepen your understanding of what thriving looks like for all youth

Including:

  • physical and mental health 
  • social and emotional wellbeing
  • educational success
  • economic prosperity 
  • supportive social networks, connections and relationships
  • a sense of belonging to family, community and culture
  • a connection to spirituality, as defined by each person
  • access to a healthy physical environment

Above are some of the key domains that comprise thriving. GTY is a big tent, welcoming grantmakers focused on these or additional domains and the connections among them.

Because grantmaking priorities are often specific to one domain while young people’s life experiences are impacted by all, GTY members benefit from learning about domains central to and outside of their own focus areas and how connecting across silos is critical to supporting thriving youth.

Advance your commitment to equity

GTY is expressly committed to identifying and dismantling systemic obstacles that diminish young people’s opportunities to thrive based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability, and socioeconomic status. Our community offers multiple opportunities for funders to define and advance their commitments to equity, including member-only briefings, cohort engagements with expert coaches, and peer strategy and support sessions.

Invest in alignment and collaboration

GTY members often invest in alignment and collaboration, through creating pooled funds and/or informal collaborations or aligned funding efforts catalyzed by GTY’s convenings and supported by GTY’s infrastructure. For example, the Education Future Fund was formed through GTY’s Policy Workgroup, and the Fund for Education Success operates as a GTY workgroup in collaboration with the Youth Transition Funders Group.

What our members say

Eligibility

GTY welcomes all types of foundations, including private, operating, family, community, corporate giving programs, and individual philanthropists investing a minimum of $50,000 per year to join us. We also welcome regranting organizations or intermediaries for whom grantmaking is a substantial portion of the annual budget. All GTY members are asked to engage with GTY as grantmakers and not use the space to solicit grants.

We ask all potential members to read and affirm alignment with our equity commitment.

Our Equity Commitment

Annual Member Contribution

Foundation’s Total Annual Grantmaking BudgetMinimum
Annual Contribution
Up to $2M$5,000
$2M – $10M$7,500
$10M – $20M$12,000
$20M – $30M$15,000
$30M – $40M$20,000
$40M + $30,000

Donor-advised and agency funds are excluded from total annual grantmaking budgets.

Questions?

Please reach out to Kathleen Traphagen if you have any questions about membership.

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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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