Reflections from #JEDGala2026
Recently, the Flawless team attended the JED Foundation Gala in New York City.
We came as attendees. We left thinking about what it means to stand alongside people who have decided that youth mental health is worth fighting for, and what each of us owes to that commitment.
The evening opened with a number that should stay with anyone who cares about the ongoing mental health crisis.
Less than 2% of philanthropic giving in the United States goes towards mental health.
More than 3 million people attempt suicide each year.
Those figures are not new to us. But hearing them in a room full of people who had come specifically to make meaningful change gave these figures a different weight.
Liza Green, accepting the Corporate Voice of Mental Health Award on behalf of UBS Optimus Foundation, set the tone for the night. “Tonight is a celebration,” she said, “but it’s also a reminder of what is at stake. She named the gap between the scale of the problem and the scale of the response with precision:
Mental health is one of the defining challenges of our time, and funding remains fragmented and insufficient.
Her call was specific. Strengthen early intervention in schools. Ensure equitable access to 24-hour crisis support. Make digital environments part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
“We will not solve this crisis through fragmented efforts,” she said. “We need early, effective, and coordinated support for young people at the moments and at the places where they need it most.”
Phil Satow, who founded The JED Foundation with his wife Donna after losing their son Jed to suicide, spoke about the foundation’s upcoming merger with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He described the inroads JED has made over twenty-five years and the opportunity this partnership presents to broaden these efforts into “a multi-lane highway,” one that would offer more pathways to save more lives.
“Combining the resources of both organizations will achieve more than either organization’s original goals,” he said.
His call to action, like Green’s, was direct:
Take advantage of this rare opportunity to support, help, and protect the mental health of millions of people throughout their lives.
It was a moment that only carries weight when the person making it has already given more than most people will ever be asked to give. Phil Satow has.
Sarah Shelke offered a thought that stayed with our team through the rest of the evening:
“There are countless young people with stories, strengths, and struggles that deserve to be heard.”
We thought about our own work when she said it. The young people we have sat with in our wellness workshops and conversations. The ones who showed up carrying something heavy and left a little lighter. The ones who needed someone to stay in the room with them long enough to listen.
At Flawless Foundation, we understand this work is a shared responsibility. The gala made that concrete.
The problem is too large and too urgent for any single organization to absorb.
What JED has built over twenty-five years, and what the merger with AFSP represents for what comes next, points toward the kind of coordinated, sustained effort that can actually move the numbers. Change is already happening. The work is showing that.
We left Cipriani Wall Street grateful to the JED Foundation, to the speakers who named the stakes plainly, and to the room that chose to show up. We carry last night’s conversations into our own work and into every young person we are still working to reach.
Thank you to the JED Foundation for an evening that reminded us why we do this and for continuing to build an advocacy community that makes it possible for all of us to do more.
Watch our recap video and some of our favorite moments:
