Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO)

Youth organizing groups that the FCYO has funded include the New York State Youth Leadership Council, ISAIAH, 482 Forward, Dissenters, People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights, Youth vs Apocalypse, ⁵ Innercity Struggle, the Jolt Initiative, the Asian American Organizing Project, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, and the New Hampshire Youth Movement. ⁶

Background

The Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing was established in 2000 as a national funding intermediary focused on building up left-of-center youth organizing groups across the country. It is a collective of funders and youth organizers who work to increase the philanthropic investment in these groups and increase their capacities to organize. According to former executive director Supriya Pillai, the FCYO is the only national funding intermediary focused solely on building youth organizing. Its principal constituency is young racial minorities of high school age from low-income communities who are engaged in community organizing. ⁷ According to the FCYO, young people need to organize against “rampant environmental and social injustices” amid “increased wealth disparities, attacks on gender and reproductive justice, and a growing climate crisis.” ¹

The groundwork for the FCYO began with a briefing about youth organizing to advance “positive systemic changes” with several large philanthropic organizations including the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, and the Surdna Foundation. The group recognized the need for a collaborative funder effort to support youth organizing. ⁸

A 2024 article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review written by former FCYO executive director Monica Cordova and executive director of the Hyams Foundation Lisa Owens described the FCYO’s work and claimed that “progressive philanthropy” must actively support movement-led organizations to build political power and defend against “repressive, authoritarian policies.” ⁹

Programs

Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing provides youth organizing groups with funding and direct support through educational and networking opportunities. It produces research and tools to support both funders and organizers in advancing youth-led left-of-center change. ^{1  10}

Youth Organizing for Climate Action and Racial Equity (YO-CARE) 2 is a 2025 program focused on building leadership and power in youth organizing at the “intersections of a climate crisis and deep-seated racial inequities.” The program includes a $100,000 grant to participating organizations upon program completion, along with webinars, clinics, and participation in the FCYO Praxis Summit. ¹ Fifteen climate change organizations including the New York State Youth Leadership Council, ISAIAH, 482 Forward, the Semilla Project, Dissenters, People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights, and Youth vs Apocalypse were participants in the program. ⁵

The Organizing to Win Lab 3 is a one-year grantmaking initiative that brings together 15 youth organizing groups including Innercity Struggle, the Jolt Initiative, the Asian American Organizing Project, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, and the New Hampshire Youth Movement. The groups are trained to develop and advance long-term strategies. ⁶

In 2023, FCYO published The Power to Win Framework which outlines the basis of its grantmaking and youth-organizing leadership programs. The publication was developed with support from the Grassroots Power Project, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Alliance for Educational Justice, the Dream Defenders, Poder in Action, and Power California. It is based on the assertion that poverty, hardship, and poor health derive from a “system of racial patriarchal capitalism” that relies on “economic, racial, and gender oppression” and that massive social movements are required to achieve power and take control of society. ¹¹

Funding and Grants

The Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing is a managed project of Bend the Arc, a “movement of tens of thousands of progressive Jews across America” that supports left-of-center policy change. The FCYO does not file an independent tax return; all donations are processed through Bend the Arc. ^{12  13}

The Ford Foundation has been a large contributor to the FCYO over the years. Since 2009, it has granted over $10.5 million to Bend the Arc for core support of the FCYO. As of late 2025, its most recent grant was $600,000 in October 2024 to fund the FCYO YO-CARE climate action program. ² Other donors to the FCYO include the Surdna Foundation ³ and the Hill-Snowdon Foundation. ⁴

The FCYO and its philanthropic partners have provided over $35 million in grants to youth organizing groups. ⁸ In 2024, the FCYO granted over $5.5 million to 53 organizations. ¹⁴

Leadership

Laura McCargar is the executive director of the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing. She was a former FCYO board member and co-chair and became the executive director in November 2025. McCargar earned a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Yale University in 2002. She co-founded and led until 2010 the New Haven, Connecticut-based Youth Rights Media, which focuses on building youth power and leadership. At that time, she was awarded a Soros Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Foundations to research the role of alternative schools and adult education in Connecticut’s school-to-prison pipeline. In 2012, she joined the Perrin Family Foundation where she focused on expanding youth organizing in Connecticut. She became its president in 2016.  ^{15  16  17  18}

McCargar is board chair of the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut and vice chair of the board of the Connecticut Health Advancement and Research Trust. ¹⁹

The FCYO advisory board consists of a blend of practitioners and funders who are primarily 20 to 40-year-old racial minorities. ⁷ Participants include representatives from the 11th Hour Project, the Hyams Foundation, the Californians for Justice, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Democracy Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the San Francisco Foundation. ¹⁴