Ryan’s House for Youth serves Whidbey Island’s youth and young adults experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Through emergency shelter, transitional housing, outreach, case management, and supportive services, the organization creates a safe place for young people while helping them build stability, independence, and hope for the future.
In 2025, the Whidbey Community Foundation was proud to support Ryan’s House through four grants totaling $17,000, reflecting both the breadth of their work and the interconnected needs of the young people they serve.
A $3,500 Nonprofit Capacity Building Grant is helping modernize the organization’s technology infrastructure. New equipment, cloud-based systems, data security improvements, and staff training are expected to recover more than 2,000 staff hours annually — allowing the team to spend more time serving youth and less time navigating outdated systems.
A $7,500 Community Health Grant supports the Ryan’s House Youth Advisory Board, giving young people with lived experience a meaningful voice in shaping programs and community solutions around housing, behavioral health, and social services. Funding supports facilitation, youth stipends, leadership development, and meeting expenses so that youth participation is both accessible and valued.
Ryan’s House also received a $5,000 Whidbey Food Resilience Fund grant to strengthen its food program and expand freezer and pantry capacity. With 30–40 youth and young adults accessing programs across the Ryan’s House campus, the organization provides three meals a day plus snacks — making reliable access to food an essential part of creating stability.
An additional $1,000 grant from the Holiday Sculpture Fund provided another layer of support for Ryan’s House and its work with young people in our community.
Together, these four grants are a great example of how community philanthropy can respond to an organization from multiple directions: strengthening the nonprofit itself, elevating youth voice, meeting an essential need like food, and connecting donor generosity directly with an organization doing critical work.
As the Whidbey Community Foundation celebrates its 10th anniversary, Ryan’s House represents the kind of community partnership that has defined our first decade — and that we hope to deepen in the decade ahead. Strong organizations need more than one kind of support, and strong community philanthropy gives us the flexibility to invest in the people, programs, infrastructure, and everyday needs that make their work possible.
Support Community Grants
WCF is able to provide grants like these with broad support from our community. If you are interested in supporting WCF Grant Programs, we invite you to make a contribution to WCF’s Foundation Fund, which holistically supports our grant programs, nonprofit trainings/workshops, and WCF operations. Our Board of Directors allocates funding each year to ensure nonprofits have access to critical resources. WCF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to Whidbey Island; all donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Learn about different ways to make a charitable contribution here.