GreenLight Fund Atlanta

08/04/2026

As part of our commitment to breaking down barriers to opportunity, GreenLight Fund Atlanta selected Inner Explorer in 2022 to bring its evidence-based mindfulness program to schools across the region. Since then, the results have been powerful: reduced stress, stronger emotional resilience, and thriving school cultures.

In this video feature, Royal Phillips, Regional Director for Metro Atlanta at Inner Explorer, shares how mindfulness is transforming classrooms...and lives! From students using breathing techniques to navigate conflict to new efforts that integrate mindfulness into STEM learning, this work is showing what’s possible when we support the whole child.

🎥 Watch the video:

As part of GreenLight Fund Atlanta’s commitment to investing in sol...

07/24/2026

The challenges facing children and families may be widespread, but they do not look the same in every community. That is why GreenLight Atlanta starts by listening to residents and local leaders, then brings in proven programs that respond to the needs they identify.

Read more about why GreenLight’s locally driven approach is built for this moment:

We actively engage with local communities to identify needs not being met and invite in best-in-class nonprofits uniquely suited to address them.

06/30/2026

What does it take to create lasting change?

For GreenLight Fund co-founders Margaret Hall and John Simon, it started with listening to communities, identifying unmet needs, and connecting those needs with proven solutions that could make a measurable difference.

In this conversation, Margaret and John reflect on GreenLight’s early days, the lessons learned along the way, and how a local idea grew into a national network committed to removing barriers to inclusive prosperity and driving meaningful impact.

Read more: https://greenlightfund.org/20-years-of-community-driven-change/

06/16/2026

At GreenLight Fund, we are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB), recognizing and celebrating all LGBTQIA+ identities this month and every month. 🌈

06/02/2026

In Atlanta, Inner Explorer is helping bring mindfulness into the school day through short, audio-guided practices that give students and teachers simple tools to pause, breathe, reset, and return to learning with greater focus. During the 2024–2025 school year, Inner Explorer reached nearly 130,000 individuals across Atlanta, Charlotte, and the Twin Cities.

Read more about how GreenLight is bringing mental health and well-being inFocus: https://greenlightfund.org/infocus-mental-health-well-being/

This Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re bringing mental health and well-being inFocus.

Across the GreenLight Fund network, portfolio organizations including Fathers' UpLift, Inc., Inner Explorer, Becoming a Man, and Working on Womanhood are helping expand access to support that builds trust, strengthens relationships, and creates more pathways for children and families to heal, grow, and thrive.

Read more about how GreenLight is bringing mental health and well-being inFocus: https://greenlightfund.org/infocus-mental-health-well-being/

05/26/2026

Artificial intelligence is creating new opportunities and new risks. In a new article for Youth Today, GreenLight Fund CEO Ali Knight explores what it will take to ensure young people aging out of foster care are not left behind.

Drawing on lived experience and GreenLight’s work alongside communities nationwide, Ali highlights three priorities:
1. Building real infrastructure for independent adulthood.
2. Treating AI and workforce readiness as essential skills.
3. Strengthening relationships while using technology to support, not replace, human connection.

GreenLight portfolio organizations, including First Place for Youth, Hopeworks, and Youth Villages, are helping young people build stable, fulfilling futures in a rapidly changing world.

“Foster youth should not be left behind; they should have every opportunity to move forward in a changing world.”

Read the full article: https://bit.ly/4dFzx6V

04/28/2026

What does it look like to move from listening to action in philanthropy? In this piece by Ben Gose for The Chronicle of Philanthropy our model comes into focus as a way to translate community insight into action- supporting the spread of proven programs and driving locally rooted, scalable impact across its network of cities.

Read the article: https://www.philanthropy.com/news/lilly-gose-greenlight-0426/

For GreenLight Fund, this process starts with communities themselves– local leaders identifying where gaps exist and what’s needed most. From there, the work is about finding solutions that have already demonstrated impact and partnering to bring them to where they’re needed with the support they need to take root and grow.

As shared by CEO, Ali Knight, “We are in these cities to stay. We’re not going to bring some things and leave. We really intend to be a core part of the social fabric — the service fabric — of each city. And that’s a core tenet of place-based philanthropy.”

Thank you to Ben Gose and The Chronicle of Philanthropy for sharing this thoughtful piece on our approach.

04/22/2026

As part of our commitment to breaking down barriers to opportunity, GreenLight Fund Atlanta selected Inner Explorer in 2022 to bring its evidence-based mindfulness program to schools across the region. Since then, the results have been powerful: reduced stress, stronger emotional resilience, and thriving school cultures.

In this video feature, Royal Phillips, Regional Director for Metro Atlanta at Inner Explorer, shares how mindfulness is transforming classrooms...and lives! From students using breathing techniques to navigate conflict to new efforts that integrate mindfulness into STEM learning, this work is showing what’s possible when we support the whole child.

🎥 Watch the video:

As part of GreenLight Fund Atlanta’s commitment to investing in solutions that break down barriers to opportunity, Inner Explorer was selected in 2022 to bri...