Published On: October 1, 2026

On September 24, over 40 SV2 Donor Partners, Grantees, youth, and other community leaders gathered to launch our Fall 2026 grant round. The evening reminded us why we do this work: to invest in young people as leaders, neighbors, and catalysts for change.

Landscape Learning Insights

SV2’s grant round process begins with immersive learning. This year, our Landscape Learning Team interviewed 14 leaders of youth-serving organizations and three former youth participants to understand the current youth development landscape better.

Key Takeaways

• Prevention Over Remediation: Youth development is relational, positive, and forward-looking. It aims to alter a young person’s trajectory before crisis, academic difficulty, or justice-system involvement occurs. High school years are critical for building belonging, leadership, and critical thinking.
• Relationships Built on Trust: Across every conversation, trusted relationships emerged as the single most vital factor. As one youth stakeholder shared, “The staff cares, and they make us care.” Experienced staff and alumni returning as mentors create a cascading impact for each new cohort.
• Meeting Youth Where They Are: Successful programs ensure accessibility and give young people true ownership through youth-led projects, leadership roles, and direct input into program design.
• A Ripple Effect: Investing in youth lifts entire communities. Families, siblings, and friends benefit as participants gain lifelong resilience, confidence, and civic engagement. Many go on to become engaged citizens and community leaders.
• Funding for the Long Haul: Standard 1-to-2-year grant cycles are often too brief to measure long-term impact or retain the staff whose consistent presence makes mentorship work. Stakeholders emphasized the need for sustained, unrestricted, flexible funding shaped by what youth and staff actually need on the ground.

Systemic Focus & Panel Insights

Our organizational research highlighted that the strongest nonprofit nominees actively position young people as organizers, directors, and decision-makers. Rather than focusing solely on short-term fixes, these organizations address root systemic causes through civic engagement, youth-led advocacy, wellness, and community-centered approaches to safety.

We were honored to host a panel discussion moderated by Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Host/Producer of The Bay podcast. 

Panelists included: 

• Margaret Libby, Founder & CEO, MyPath
• Gabriel Ochoa, Youth Leader, MyPath
• Patty Barahona, CEO at YLI (Youth Leadership Institute)
• Elizabeth Prado, Youth Leader in VOICE, a program of YLI.

Together, they explored what effective youth development looks like in practice, the challenges young people navigate today, and how SV2 and other grantmakers can best offer support.

“The event offered the SV2 community great insight into various non-profits focused on creating opportunities to help tomorrow’s leaders begin achieving success today.” 

— Adam Glick, SV2 Donor Partner

“Such an energizing time at the SV2 Youth Development Kick-off Event! Learning about the work MyPath and YLI are doing was inspiring, and seeing leaders and youth changemakers passing the mic and speaking as true partners was an even bigger highlight!”

— Divya Mangotra, SV2 Donor Partner

Next Steps

From an initial pool of 72 nominees, we are excited to move forward with our five finalist organizations. 

A special thank you to our dedicated Landscape Learning Team, led by Grant Round Co-Leaders Charity Silkebakken and Joey Gutierrez, alongside Mamta Bhandari, Divya Mangotra, Tatiana Mejia, Sophie Vong-Karlage, and Nhi Chau (Executive Director, Friends for Youth, SV2 Grantee). Thanks also to SV2 Staff Linda Prieto and Jasmine Estela for their initial diligence that got us to the top finalists.

The grant round now enters its “deep dive” phase. In November, two selected organizations will receive $90,000 in unrestricted funds, long-term funding over three years ($30,000/year), paired with SV2’s signature “Beyond the Dollars” organizational support.