The Hidden Healing Fund (“HHF”) is a collective impact fund that elevates culturally grounded healing practices to emphasize the important role of community, culture, and connection in the process of healing and improved mental health outcomes for young people. The HHF was co-created with young people, inspired by the Hidden Healers Campaign at MTV’s 2022 Mental Health Youth Action Forum, which uplifted cultural traditions as hidden sources of healing. The HHF builds on this success by providing catalytic funding and support to emerging community-based organizations serving young people through culturally rooted ‘hidden healing’ approaches such as art and creative expression, mentorship, outdoor recreation, movement, and more.
Founding partners Pinterest and lululemon have invested $1M+ in seed capital, with MTV as the founding media partner and The Starbucks Foundation and Kate Spade New York as supporting partners. The HHF recognizes that healing can emerge from unexpected places, including traditions and cultural practices, and responds to today’s mental health challenges by addressing:
Goals:
From the start, the Hidden Healing Fund recognized that process is as important as outcomes. We began with a comprehensive landscape analysis, stakeholder interviews, and focus groups with field experts and community leaders. This discovery phase surfaced a critical gap in youth mental health and underscored the potential of a collective fund to make the “invisible” visible, ensuring young people can access culturally grounded approaches to healing.
To meet this challenge, the Fund was built on a shared leadership model, guided by an Advisory Committee of brands and funders, field experts, and youth community leaders. Through a participatory process, decision makers reflect the very communities the Fund is designed to serve, keeping the process deeply community-centered.
What sets the Hidden Healing Fund apart is its corporate–community partnership model, where diverse stakeholders share in both design and decision-making. One of our greatest challenges was balancing the pace of relationship-building with the urgency of fundraising, outreach, and grant distribution. By navigating this tension, we successfully launched our inaugural cohort of 11 grantees (“community partners”), demonstrating what’s possible when collaboration drives action.
Today, we continue uniting youth, community, field, and funding partners to harness their unique strengths, capital, and networks. By aligning efforts, we are building a transformative collective impact, amplifying a shared commitment to youth mental health and reimagining what healing can look like when care, connection, and culture come together.
For the 11 HHF community partners, unrestricted funding affirms trust in their vision. It allows them to meet community needs, strengthen culturally rooted healing, and take bold steps for young people. From Black Girls Jump’s preservation of double dutch to Play for Progress’s trauma-informed arts for asylum-seeking youth, partners show how culture and creativity drive healing.
In 2024, HHF was a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action Maker, amplifying our global visibility and credibility. The brands who served as funding partners activated in unique ways—from a collaborative Pinterest board visualizing hidden healing to MTV-led PR coverage. lululemon spotlighted HHF at a dinner hosted during UNGA and at a Social Innovation Summit panel, while lululemon and Starbucks also provided gift card contributions to community partners.
We deepened this momentum of corporate-community partnership by welcoming community partners with a kickoff convening this summer alongside funding partners and the Advisory Committee. The gathering built a foundation of shared purpose, laying the groundwork for a year of connection, learning, and collective impact.
Looking ahead, we’re planning a Starbucks-hosted NYC activation—an immersive healing experience where attendees can see and feel “hidden healing” in action. These moments elevate awareness while engaging philanthropic and community partners directly, leveraging their capital, networks, and influence to extend reach and impact.
Throughout, the Fund has advanced trust-based philanthropy—moving resources quickly, making space for diverse perspectives, and fostering open, often challenging dialogue. Together, partners are strengthening relationships and building momentum toward lasting collective impact in youth mental health.
