Can an Online Dating App’s Philanthropy Combat an IRL Loneliness Crisis?

If you feel like young people today are walking around with their eyes on their phones, you’re right: According to market research provided to the Los Angeles Times, Gen-Z spends half its waking hours staring at a screen. This is a problem because it not only leads to people crossing the street while watching YouTube, but also sabotages critical social interactions and the chance they provide to build social skills. Members of Gen Z — people born between 1996 and 2010 — are losing out on time spent talking, laughing and going to the boba shop with peers, which contributes to the generation's rising isolation and loneliness.

Isolation and loneliness are risk factors for all kinds of ills, and can increase the risk for premature death as much as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. As the U.S. Surgeon General recently put it in a new report, “Loneliness and social isolation increase the risk for premature death by 26% and 29% respectively.” Fraying social networks in the U.S. contribute to this epidemic of isolation, and Gen Z is not immune. “For this age group, time spent in-person with friends has reduced by nearly 70% over almost two decades, from roughly 150 minutes per day in 2003 to 40 minutes per day in 2020,” according to report. “The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends in declining social participation.”

This is exactly the kind of complex, multifaceted social problem that philanthropy is particularly suited to address. But while loneliness and social isolation are big topics among aging-related funders, the crisis of connection among younger adults has been largely ignored. Sure, some funders are focusing on social isolation without an aging lens, including Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Einhorn Collaborative, but philanthropy as a whole has yet to fully step in.

Enter Hinge — yes, the dating app — making its foray into philanthropy with a focus on social connection among young people.

The company, known for its phone-based dating app that lets users record a voice message in addition to uploading their best photos, just announced plans to donate $1 million to nonprofits and fiscally sponsored groups focused on helping members of Gen Z connect IRL (that’s “in real life” to those of us over 21). Called One More Hour, this “impact initiative” will give grants of up to $25,000 to organizations in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York City working on affordable, recurring opportunities for in-person connection and community for Gen Z. These grants are to boost nonromantic connection, a surprising turn for a dating company and a move that hopefully portends a broader societal awareness of this growing crisis.

Nonprofits can apply via an online application from January 8 through January 30. Hinge also is partnering with DoSomething Strategic (DSS), the social impact consultancy of the youth-activism-focused nonprofit DoSomething, and the social connection research and education organization Foundation for Social Connection to identify potential grantees and evaluate the program. A group of Gen Z judges will help select the final grantees.

As Josh Penny, Hinge’s director of social impact, said in a press release about the new fund, “Adding more time to connect in person with others is one of those things that’s easy to say, but is actually a little challenging to do.” The goal is to support groups that lessen the challenge.

“Step away from the phone,” says your phone-based dating app

This investment in real-time socializing among young adults is interesting when viewed through another, somewhat troubling lens. Research on isolation and loneliness has traditionally posited that young people are swimming in a sea of naturally occurring opportunities for connection: college classes and campus life, early jobs with big pools of hirees, social clubs and recreational sports — then marriage, parenting, Mommy and Me groups, etc.

Older adults, on the other hand, are, at increased risk for loneliness and social isolation because they generally lack these engagements and are more likely to live alone, to have lost family or friends due to death, and to have chronic illness that keep them home. But as the Surgeon General’s publication shows, the old standby social safeguards for young adults are not working like they used to. Hinge is addressing an important risk facing its key demographic.

Also, let’s face it: Corporate philanthropy can seem staid and perfunctory — often driven almost as much by the desire for good PR as by a passion for solving society’s ills. And there is something perhaps compensatory about a dating app stepping in to solve social isolation that seems driven, at least in part by, well… apps. But while helping 20-somethings find people to play Jenga with on weekends may not be top of mind for most as a social justice cause, Hinge has identified an underfunded area of real need. Its open RFP is a way to cast a wide net to help address it.

This fund is part of the company’s broader efforts to help people connect better, not only through its dating app, but also through other, smaller projects such as its Distraction-Free Dating Guide and an earlier guide on safe dating during the pandemic.

Hinge, which was acquired by Match Group in 2018, became the fastest-growing dating app in the world by 2022. As of June, 2023, it had a 22% share of the dating app market, below Tinder, Bumble, and lesser-known apps like Coffee Meets Bagel, but still sizable. Whether the company will continue to branch out into more ways to support in-person, non-romantic connection remains to be seen, but Hinge is clearly seeking to differentiate itself from the pack by facilitating real and varied relationships, not just hookups. With its target audience increasingly lonely and burned out on dating apps, supporting more nonprofits focused on friendship may be the company's own next right swipe.

Featured