Young people are the experts of their own lives and we’ll make better decisions about how to support their wellbeing if we do it with them, not just for them. This International Youth Day, I’m celebrating and reflecting on what would change if philanthropy treated young people not as a group it seeks to support, but rather as partners in deciding where resources are directed.
Through my work and role as chief operations officer of Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit co-founded by Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, focused on youth mental health, I speak with a lot of caring adults about what challenges they see young people encounter and what solutions they think would be helpful. I also have the privilege of hearing directly from young people themselves about what they actually need.
And there is consistently a gap between the two.
Those of us committed to the wellbeing of young people need to intentionally address this divide that happens in our work when well-meaning adults make decisions based on incomplete information that is missing youth perspectives. Caring adults bring their own valuable expertise and resources. And young people are the ones who are living their lives. They know what challenges they are facing and they want to be connected with supports that reflect their lived experiences. Our work is strongest when we bring those strengths together and create meaningful opportunities for young people to shape the decisions that affect them.
For Born This Way Foundation, that means not only asking young people what they need, but also understanding where they find support where it’s already happening. Again and again, through research and anecdotally, they point towards community-based organizations they know and trust, including the grassroots organizations and caring adults deeply connected to the communities they serve. For nearly 15 years, their guidance has shaped our approach to building programs that fill their learning gaps, research that answers questions they’re most curious about, and directing funding to organizations already showing up for them in meaningful ways.
Young people’s unique perspectives and passion effectively shape the direction of our work for the better:
- Young people have real-time understanding about what kind of support they need, which we draw through our Youth Advisory Board, partnering with us to constantly refine our programs as well as guide our grant recipient selection process for our Kindness in Community Fund.
- Young people have lived experiences and fresh perspectives that help our research team develop more impactful research questions and parse data into actionable takeaways.
- Young people are more effective messengers when trying to reach other young people, so we center their stories to push against mental health stigma, normalize safe and informed mental health conversations, and inspire kind action.
The impact of this work is best understood through the perspective of someone it is designed to serve. In the following reflection, our Communications Intern and youth mental health advocate, Livia Koh, shares in her words what she has learned about how young people’s perspectives shape our programs and funding decisions.
At Born This Way Foundation, I’ve had the opportunity to experience first-hand how the Kindness in Community Fund is guided by young people rather than assuming what they want. Thanks to young people’s input, the Kindness in Community Fund is able to fund organizations that are informed and or led by young people, rooted in equity & inclusion, provide free and accessible resources, local, community-based, under-resourced, and provide in person services.
One aspect I particularly admire about the Kindness in Community Fund is the significant stake young people have in the nomination and selection process for grant recipients. The process begins with an open, global call from Born This Way Foundation to young people to share about and nominate the community organizations actively supporting them and making a difference in their lives. In 2025, that public invitation led to more than 4,000 nominations from over 80 countries, grounding the Fund in young people’s firsthand knowledge and connections to the organizations and resources around them. From there, each nomination was vetted against scoring criteria that was co-designed with our Youth Advisory Board, which helped turn those nominations into a shortlist of 145 organizations invited to apply. Finally, Born This Way Foundation worked alongside our youth network to review each of the applications to grant $5,000,000 to 55 organizations across 11 countries.
What makes this model unique is not simply that young people are consulted, but that they are given significant decision making power. As one Youth Advisory Board member stated, “Getting to have a direct say in which organizations doing this work might receive support that felt like democracy in its truest form.” And another reflected, “There was real weight to the scoring, the sense that our perspectives actually shaped where resources would flow.” By giving young people a role in determining which organizations receive funding, the team moves youth engagement beyond solely providing feedback or serving as representatives and toward shared power.
Listening to young people is most meaningful when institutions build structures that allow their perspectives to influence consequential decisions, including where resources are directed. That means creating clear roles for young people within decision making processes, giving their input weight, and providing the support they need to participate fully. Funders looking to put these principles into practice can start by partnering with and investing in organizations that have a demonstrated track record of working alongside young people, building trusted relationships with them, and creating real opportunities for their perspectives to shape decisions.
We invite philanthropists and community leaders on this International Youth Day and beyond, to rethink what it means to invest in young people. That means creating philanthropic support structures that not only fund youth wellbeing programs, but also give young people opportunities to shape the decisions, priorities, and solutions that affect their lives.
