Funder Community, 2022
Child Behavioral Health Fund
The GMA Funder Community established the Child Behavioral Health Fund (“the Fund”) to explore the behavioral health impact of the COVID pandemic on children and youth, and to identify philanthropy’s role in reducing known stressors and strengthening a growing network of supports.
The unprecedented crisis has challenged education, health, and social services funders to apply a behavioral health lens in their grantmaking. Stressors like lack of childcare, remote schooling, loss of employment, illness, and loss of life have disproportionately affected low-income children and youth.
Focus on local action
UPDATE: The Fund has concluded with unexpected and unrestricted grants to exemplary organizations in the Greater Boston area that are amplifying the effort to improve child behavioral health at this pivotal time.
A total of $185,000 has been distributed to:
- Boston Community Pediatrics
- Boston’s Higher Ground
- Chica Project
- Friends of the Children-Boston
- Louis D. Brown Peace Institute
- BRYT program at Brookline Center for Community Mental Health
- Thriving Minds program at Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy
- West End House
- The Wily Network
What did we learn about philanthropy’s role?
Build up an interlocking and impenetrable shield of support. Provide funding for approaches that integrate behavioral health interventions into high-quality programs for all children and the adults in their lives. Find three practical ways funders can help in this brief article on our blog.
Fund Participation
GMA’s six-month pooled giving and comprehensive learning experience is open to donors eager to identify and fund community-driven solutions to a large-scale problem affecting families across the country.
The Fund is a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Philanthropy Massachusetts. Participation is open to private foundations, corporate giving programs, donor-advised fund accounts, and individual donors. It is a funder-directed initiative that does not accept unsolicited applications.
Participants in the 2022 Child Behavioral Health Fund are:
Louis and Anne Abrons Foundation, Paul and Edith Babson Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA Foundation, Fuller Foundation, Liberty Mutual Foundation, Lookout Foundation, Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, Nordblom Family Foundation, the Schrafft Charitable Trust, and Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation
We are grateful to the experts who guided the Fund’s learning:
Dana Mauch, Massachusetts Association for Mental Health; Dr. Jason Sachs and TeeAra Dias, Boston Public Schools’ Department of Early Childhood; Dr. Mary Walsh and Claire Foley, City Connects; Peter Ducharme, Bridge Over Troubled Waters; Jennifer Clammer, The Roca Impact Institute.
Contact GMA Director Phil Hall by phone 617-391-3097 or email phall@gmafoundations.com to learn more about the GMA Funder Community.
Following the conclusion of the Child Behavioral Health Fund, we shared three practical approaches for funders in this brief article on our blog.