GENNOW was founded to close a gap its founder has seen from every side of the table: the distance between funders who want to invest in young people and the youth-serving organizations doing the work on the ground.
For over a decade, he has built and led mission-driven organizations, rising through the ranks of a statewide youth organization, rebuilding a nonprofit from near-collapse, writing and winning the grants that kept programs alive, and helping decide how community dollars are invested. GENNOW is where that experience points in one direction: getting good capital to good youth work, efficiently and with trust on both sides.
He has spent his career organizing with and for young people, directing youth-engagement networks at the national level and leading youth-led programming across a statewide organization. He knows what real youth impact looks like, not just how to describe it.
As an interim executive director, he rebuilt a nonprofit from near-collapse, restoring its standing, its finances, and a long-term strategy built to last. He understands the operational reality of the organizations GENNOW funds, because he has lived it.
He has grown organizations’ funding many times over, built funder pipelines from the ground up, and turned scattered, program-by-program grant writing into unified narratives that win. Identifying and securing the right funding is the work GENNOW exists to do at scale.
He has also sat on the funding side, helping decide how community investments are awarded and what funders look for before they give. He knows the conversations happening in those rooms, and the challenges organizations face in meeting them. That dual view is exactly the bridge GENNOW is built to be.
“In a crisis, clarity of priority is more valuable than abundance of resources. The work deserves the right foundation, and that’s what GENNOW is built to give youth organizations.”
Justin’s perspective reaches beyond the nonprofit sector into public and civic leadership, where he has worked to tie new investment to youth programs, workforce development, and stronger communities.
It’s the same conviction that drives GENNOW: young people thrive when capital, systems, and community accountability point in the same direction.