Suicide Is at Epidemic Levels in the U.S. Philanthropy's Response Has Been Underwhelming

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Someone in the United States dies from suicide every 11 minutes. In 2021, suicide was one of the top nine leading causes of death in the country, and the second most frequent cause of death for people aged 10 to 14 and 20 to 34. Just over 48,000 people died of suicide in 2021. That’s an eye-popping number, but it’s a small fraction of the more than 12 million who seriously thought about suicide, the 3.5 million who made a plan to die by suicide, and the 1.7 million who made a suicide attempt. Overall, the U.S. has the highest rate of death by suicide among its fellow wealthy nations.

Given the scope, severity and fairly prominent mainstream media coverage of the problem, it would be logical to assume that philanthropy has responded accordingly. That assumption would be wrong. Instead, my survey of Candid data and outreach to organizations and experts in the field found that in the place of a national philanthropic reaction to this country-wide epidemic, what we have instead is a significantly underfunded response that’s heavily dependent on small-dollar grants from local funders and community foundation donors.

Limited funding, smaller donors

Looking first at the Candid results, I found 30 funders that are currently accepting applications and have moved over $1 million to the category Candid calls “suicide crisis intervention” since 2020 — effectively, for the years from 2020 through 2022. That seems like a solid number of funders, and it would be if the grants involved weren’t both so comparatively small and seemingly so locally based. Seventeen of those 30 funders, for example, moved less than $2 million in total during that time. My tally also includes the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Missouri Foundation for Health, whose totals of $991,966 and $983,381 came close enough to be included as a sort of honorable mention. 

There are three top funders in the field. The California Community Foundation’s $51.2 million, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s $12.8 million, and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin & Sonoma’s $10.9 million put them ahead of the fourth-highest entry, the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, at $7.8 million, and the fifth, the North Carolina Community Foundation, at $5.1 million. 

If you’re in the field of suicide prevention as either a direct service provider or researcher, your chances of receiving funding seem at least somewhat predicated on your location. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) is the only obviously national player in the field; otherwise, the majority of funders seem very place-based, with heavy representation from donors giving through community foundations. 

Looking at the recipients of these mostly small community foundation gifts, three organizations stand out — AFSP, the Jed Foundation and the Trevor Project. AFSP is a public foundation with a broad mission encompassing support for research, public awareness and policy advocacy. But its resources are relatively limited — it reported program services spending of just under $29 million in 2022 and total net assets of around $60 million.

The Jed Foundation and the Trevor Project also have national scope, and both focus on suicide prevention and mental health among youth, with the latter focusing specifically on LGBTQ youth. But again, much of their support in this area seems to come in the form of smaller-scale gifts.

I should also note that there’s certainly some suicide prevention support out there that a targeted Candid search may not cover, such as broader or unrestricted mental health grants that may end up partially going to suicide prevention, or funding labeled under other categories. Nevertheless, given the scale and severity of the crisis, this scarcity of suicide-specific support from national grantmakers is discouraging at best.

Going beyond Candid, my own research and outreach led to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, which has moved $4.5 million to suicide prevention research since 1987. BBRF, which reported net assets of $26.7 million in 2022, awards grants to researchers throughout their careers who conduct studies relating to mental health, and also gives prizes and awards to scientists, officials and notable lay people in the field. There is no set grant cycle. Instead, BBRF’s website says that each of its grant programs “may be offered annually” and encourages researchers to join the funder’s email list to receive notice of upcoming grant application periods. The foundation solicits donations, 100% of which are moved to its grants and awards. A spokesperson said that two family foundations, which have chosen to remain anonymous, support BBRF’s operations. 

A “largely underfunded” field

Speaking of the available money for suicide prevention research alone, Dr. Jill Harkavy-Friedman, AFSP’s senior vice president of research, called the field “largely underfunded,” specifically citing the federal government’s allocation of $174 million for suicide research for 2024. While she was speaking only about federal funding and about suicide prevention research specifically, my own research shows that her words apply far more broadly. 

But while the results of my reporting were disappointing, they also weren’t surprising. Despite huge strides in awareness over the past several years, mental health issues are still stigmatized — suicide in particular. This was amply demonstrated by the general news coverage I encountered while reporting this piece, much of which still uses language that places the responsibility, if not outright blame, for death by suicide on its victims. 

Perhaps the philanthrosphere, like many institutions outside the mental health and suicide prevention sectors, is still struggling with the complications, nuances and particularly the politics of combating death by suicide. However, there’s nothing complicated or nuanced about the fact that someone will lose their life to suicide in the time it takes to read this article — in fact, at least a few dozen died during the time I spent researching and writing it. Given that this is a national problem, we can only hope that national funders will open their checkbooks sooner rather than later.

If you or someone you love is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988. You can also receive help via chat at the hotline’s website.