Image(s): Left/Wikipedia/Right/BTWF
The foundation invested five million United States dollars in 2025 across fifty-five youth-centred organisations in eleven countries, according to the Kindness in Community Fund page on the Born This Way Foundation website. Lady Gaga and her mom, Cynthia Germanotta (Image: Dimitrios Kambouris) The recipient list published by Channel Kindness, a Born This Way Foundation platform, in 2025 shows how varied the supported mental health work is. The 2025 investment builds on two earlier rounds of grants. In 2022, Born This Way Foundation invested one million dollars in the Kindness in Community Fund, supporting twenty-two organisations in coordination with Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Ball Summer Stadium Tour, as the foundation’s fund page explains. In 2023, the foundation opened a global invitation to organisations in ten countries, offering up to one hundred fifty thousand dollars per country to help them meet the diverse needs of young people in their communities. Seen together, the three rounds clearly show the programme expanding from twenty-two organisations in 2022 to fifty-five in 2025.
Young people all around the world are asking for mental health support that is easy to reach, respectful and rooted in their own communities. Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation has answered with a major commitment: five million dollars shared among fifty-five youth-centred organisations across eleven countries. The Kindness in Community Fund behind it is made possible with support from partners including Pivotal, Cotton On Foundation, Sephora, Haus Labs and others. The fund was created to give grants to grassroots organisations that meet the needs of young people in their communities. Rather than backing a single type of programme, it supports a wide mix of work such as direct mental health services as well as services that address housing, food and safety. The foundation explains that, together, these organisations support youth mental health while helping nurture a culture of kindness. For readers following philanthropy and wellbeing, the scale matters, and so does the model: money goes directly to community groups already working with young people. Born This Way Foundation states that it prioritises funding organisations that meet three conditions. First, they are informed or led by young people, which places youth perspectives at the centre of the work. Second, they are rooted in practices of community, inclusion and equity at every level. Third, they provide accessible mental health resources, so support is within reach of the young people who need it. These criteria, published on the foundation’s Kindness in Community Fund page, show exactly what the foundation looks for when choosing grantees. For community groups of every size, charities and advocates reading this, the message is clear: organisations that put young voices in charge, welcome different communities and make help easy to reach match the stated priorities most closely. In London, the Brent Centre for Young People delivers free, evidence-based psychodynamic therapies to adolescents aged eleven to twenty-five. In South Africa, Khululeka Grief Support helps children, adolescents and caregivers through trauma, grief and loss. In the United States, Our Minds Matter runs a school-based, peer-led model aimed at preventing teen suicide, while the Ryan Bartel Foundation focuses on awareness and educational programmes, and Spill The Tea Cafe in Honolulu pairs free therapy with youth leadership. Body Banter in Hong Kong, meanwhile, helps young people talk openly about body image and mental health. Together, these examples show that support ranges from clinical therapy to peer connection. The Channel Kindness list groups the fifty-five organisations under eleven locations, which include Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Italy, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, which accounts for the largest share with thirty-three recipients. Many describe a focus on LGBTQIA+ young people, including Prague Pride in the Czech Republic and Warsaw House Foundation in Poland, which works to protect young people from homelessness and exclusion. Others serve different groups, Instituto Fazendo História in Brazil supports children and adolescents living in shelters, Sister System in the United Kingdom mentors girls affected by the care system, and Cafe Momentum offers life skills, education and employment opportunities to justice-involved youth. Taken together, they show support shaped by local realities. That global fund supports non-governmental organisations based in Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
Learn how the funding works, which priorities guide the grants, which mental health projects are receiving support, and how earlier rounds shaped the programme over time.
