Collaborative Philanthropy to Support Youth Mental Health

With Xin Liu from Enlight Foundation

To find out more about ICONIQ’s Youth Mental Wellbeing Co-Lab and the 25 organisations that they support, please click here!

TRANSCRIPT

Xin Liu: Two years ago, I teamed up with ICONIQ Impact Team to launch the Youth Mental Wellbeing Co-Lab. It's a $200 million, collaborative philanthropy fund supporting organizations addressing youth anxiety and depression around the world. Our vision for this Co-Lab is to help shape the trajectory of depression and anxiety for a generation and beyond. We want to support solutions that elevate agency.

For resilience and a sense of belonging among young people, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalized young people. In fact, more than 60% of the funding is directed towards organizations in the Global South, where it's mostly needed. So over the course of several months, I and my fellow philanthropists met with experts to learn about the global youth mental wellbeing landscape and what solutions could be most effective.

We learned that a Co-Lab had to address two critical components. On one side, the increase in risk factors causing anxiety and depression, such as, you know, the worsening climate and harmful use of technology and economic uncertainty that just listed. On the other side, the decreasing things that protect against anxiety and depression, like community and mental health, education and support.

We like evidence based interventions, have a track record of success. And, they're informed by young people. So there are two things I'm very proud of this Co-Lab. Number one, we sought feedback from a group of young advisors who reflect a diverse range of nationalities, genders, ethnicities, and mental health expertise. Another thing is, we're proud that the Co-Lab employs, trust based model.

We provide the organizations with unrestricted five year funding. Ultimately, we selected 25 organizations that became the Co-Lab grantee portfolio. And these organizations are working on a range of solutions types. Some provide direct support like Artolution, which brings art programs to refugee camps around the world and Grassroots Soccer and Waves for Change, bring services to young people through sports, some other organizations do systems strengthening, like the World Health Organization was developing the first ever global guidelines that outline how to protect young people's mental health online.

And, others, you know, provide peer group and community, have Our Herd in the portfolio, which is the story telling app that allows young people to discuss their mental health struggles with each other on a safe and monitored platform. As donors in this Co-Lab, we see youth mental health is a catalytic space for new investment.

Every time you invest in scaling interventions for depression and anxiety returns four times its value in terms of improved health and productivity. So through collaborative funds like this, we can drive philanthropic dollars into highly effective practices.