New collaborative philanthropy fund pairs its founding donors with ICONIQ Impact to support 18 organizations helping boys and men nationwide build stronger connections, families, and futures.
NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- ICONIQ Impact, ICONIQ Capital's platform for collaborative philanthropy, today announced the launch of the Boys & Men Co-Lab, a collaborative philanthropy fund aiming to mobilize $30 million in support of 18 organizations working to help boys and young men by investing in community, fatherhood, and education and skill building for boys and men across the United States.
The Co-Lab's founding donors include Chris Larsen, philanthropist and American business executive, and Lyna Lam; The David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Mo and John Pritzker, co-trustees of the Mojo Philanthropic Fund; Richard V. Reeves, founding president of the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM); Jessica Sieja and Andrew Sieja, co-founders of Alta Futures; Dennis Troper, president of Troper Wojcicki Philanthropies; and Maggie and Teddy Vlock, of the Vlock Family Foundation, alongside ICONIQ partner Matt Jacobson and Salima Jacobson. The Co-Lab took shape through a series of conversations among philanthropists, researchers, and practitioners, and reflects the founding donors' shared conviction that boys and men deserve dedicated, evidence-based investment in their own well-being. ICONIQ Impact welcomes additional philanthropists to join the Co-Lab's founding donors in supporting this work.
Boys and men in the United States are navigating a well-documented set of challenges: troubling suicide rates, rising rates of loneliness and social isolation, a widening gap in educational attainment, and children growing up without a father at home. Men account for nearly 80% of U.S. suicide deaths1 and roughly one in four young men report feeling lonely a lot of the previous day2. Men are 17 percentage points less likely than women to earn a bachelor's degree3. Nearly one in four children in the U.S. — 18.2 million — live without a father figure at home[4].
Such a diverse set of challenges calls for multiyear, evidence-based investment in solutions that already work, along with support for promising new approaches. Despite that need, very little U.S. philanthropic giving is designated specifically for boys and men5.
"Boys and men are struggling — in classrooms, in the labor market, and in their sense of connection to the people around them — and solving that requires philanthropy willing to fund what's working and what's promising for boys and men, without strings attached," said Matti Navellou, head of ICONIQ Impact. "On behalf of ICONIQ Impact, we're grateful to our founding donors for stepping up to make this work possible."
The portfolio spans organizations at different stages of growth, many of which have historically been overlooked and underfunded. Consistent with ICONIQ Impact's trust-based approach to grantmaking, each grantee receives unrestricted, three-year funding, with a particular interest in programs built around person-to-person connection.
"As a mother and a philanthropist, I want to help move the conversation about boys and men from documenting the challenges to investing in solutions. There are bright spots across the country, with organizations helping boys and men build connections, find purpose, and create opportunities for their futures," said Jessica Sieja, founder of Alta Futures. "This Co-Lab gives us a chance to back that work together and help shape a more hopeful narrative."
"Men and boys are increasingly disconnected from family and community, frustrated by school, and anxious about their economic prospects. Such feelings, and the legitimate grievances behind them, lead some to conclude that democracy is failing them," said Ben Chou, Interim Director for Democracy, Rights, and Governance at The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. "That's why we're proud to join the Boys & Men Co-Lab as a founding donor — it reflects the kind of collaborative, evidence-based philanthropy we believe in, and we're glad to stand alongside ICONIQ Impact and our fellow donors in this work."
ICONIQ Impact will lead the Co-Lab's ongoing grantee engagement and impact measurement over its multiyear grant period and is inviting additional philanthropists to join the Co-Lab's founding donors in building out the portfolio.
The Boys & Men Co-Lab is the newest addition to ICONIQ Impact's broader portfolio of Co-Labs, which spans issues from ocean conservation and climate equity to youth mental health and women's health.
"For too long, the challenges facing boys and men have been treated as a footnote in philanthropy instead of a priority," said Richard V. Reeves, author of Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It, and a leading expert on the issues facing boys and men in America. "The evidence on what boys and men need — belonging, purpose, engaged fathers, schools that work for them — is not new. What's been missing is philanthropy willing to invest in it. The Boys & Men Co-Lab is that investment."
The Boys & Men Co-Lab's initial portfolio spans the following three pillars:
1. Community
The Co-Lab's community partners are strengthening friendships through shared activities and gathering spaces and creating new opportunities for boys and men to build purpose through civic engagement.
Grantees:
Fishing the Good Fight, National Compadres Network, Young Man with a Plan, Walking Talking Men, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County and the Inland Empire, and Civic Valor (The Brickyard).
Impact:
- In a four-year, randomized controlled trial, youth mentored through Big Brothers Big Sisters were 30% less likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system and 42% less likely to use illicit substances.
- At Young Man with a Plan, a Boston mentoring program led by Executive Director Dr. Jaykyri Simpson, that same sense of belonging takes shape in its 6,720-square-foot afterschool "home" where members share study spaces, fitness area, a kitchen, and a standing community of mentors and peers. Every young man builds an individualized success plan, and seniors consistently graduate from high school at a rate of 100%.
2. Fatherhood
The Co-Lab's fatherhood partners are strengthening fatherhood education and peer support and working to remove structural barriers to engaged fatherhood.
Grantees:
Fathers' UpLift, Dad Guild, Fathers, Families & Healthy Communities, Center for Urban Families, Fathers Incorporated, and National Parents Organization.
Impact:
- Dad Guild, a grassroots father network founded in Vermont, has grown from a single group of new dads into a statewide movement. In its most recent survey, 67% of fathers who attended three or more events said they'd made new friendships through the program, and participants named an average of more than five people they could turn to for support.
- In Chicago, Fathers, Families & Healthy Communities — led by Dr. Clinton Boyd Jr. — is building on more than a decade of trusted work with Black fathers through Fathers United, a 25-session peer cohort. In its first year, the program helped roughly 80 fathers strengthen their relationships with their children.
- Fathers Incorporated is working to remove the legal and administrative barriers that can keep noncustodial fathers from staying involved in their children's lives. That work has helped move legitimation reform for unmarried fathers into active legislative consideration in Georgia.
3. Education and Skills
The Co-Lab's education and skills partners are improving belonging and supportive relationships in schools and making educational environments more responsive to how boys learn and succeed.
Grantees:
100 Black Men of America, Boys to Men Mentoring Network (San Diego and Virginia), Journeymen, Eagle Academy Foundation, Boys Who Write, and Call Me MISTER.
Impact:
- In North Carolina, Journeymen brings boys from different backgrounds together in peer-led mentoring circles and rites-of-passage weekends. In a recent survey, 100% of participants reported feeling more hopeful about the future, and more than 80% said they'd improved their ability to set goals and express their emotions.
- Boys to Men Mentoring Network, which pioneered the mentoring-circle model in San Diego and has since expanded into Virginia, is now building the shared training infrastructure to bring that model to communities nationwide.
About ICONIQ Impact
ICONIQ Impact is ICONIQ Capital's platform for collaborative philanthropy. Guided first and last by the communities it works with, ICONIQ Impact convenes its community to tackle some of the world's most urgent challenges, prioritizing learning, collective action, and equity at every step. Since launching in 2019, ICONIQ Impact's community has directed more than $1 billion toward the world's most pressing challenges through its Co-Labs, Impact Portfolios, Awards, and philanthropic advisory services. ICONIQ Impact serves as a philanthropic advisor to the third-party sponsoring the Boys & Men Co-Lab and receives compensation for its advice.
Media Contact:
For additional comment or impact statistics about any of the grantees above, please contact:
Amy Enright, Newton Street, [email protected]
(AIBM)
(National Fatherhood Initiative, citing U.S. Census Bureau data).
(Candid)
SOURCE ICONIQ Capital
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