From seeds to gardens: How Pinterest Impact Lab is growing a community of care

For Pinterest, inspiration and emotional wellbeing go hand in hand. Five years ago, Pinterest made a commitment: to not just fund organizations working on youth mental health and wellbeing, but to show up as a true partner. This year's Pinterest Impact Lab Summit was the clearest proof yet of what that commitment looks like in practice.

Pinterest Impact Lab is a program that started with a seed of a question: how can we best help our Impact Partners grow and sustain their impact? We designed this program with an emphasis on emerging organizations testing new, community-rooted approaches to emotional wellbeing. This year’s program culminated in the Pinterest Impact Lab Summit, which brought together 18 organizations, 15+ Pinterest employees and community partners for two days of connection, learning, and honest conversation.

This year’s event was special because of what it represented: years of trust, sustained partnership, and deep investment. And because, as always, it was built in partnership with our community.

Designed with, not for

What makes Pinterest Impact Lab different starts before anyone sets foot in a room. Each year, we gather insights through surveys, conversations and reflective exercises to understand what Impact Partners are facing, what they need most and how the landscape has shifted since the last cohort. Every session theme, workshop and discussion format is designed in direct response to what partners say.

This iterative approach means the program evolves from year to year. This year, leaders told us they needed support in storytelling and communications, navigating funding in a challenging environment, and building organizational resilience. The 2026 curriculum was built around exactly those priorities. 

What the seeds have become

One of the things that became visible at this year's Summit was how far some of Pinterest Impact Lab's earliest partners have come. Organizations that joined in its first years, when the program was just finding its footing, have since grown in visibility, scale, and influence within the youth mental health and wellbeing space.

A few examples of this growth from our inaugural Pinterest Impact Lab cohort were on display at this year’s Summit: 

• Our Own hosted a peer site visit on the first day of the Summit and has significantly grown their revenue, team, and impact on students in LA and Oakland in the last few years. 

• #HalfTheStory has become a recognized authority in the digital wellness space, serving as a source of inspiration for newer Impact Partners like FlippGen and Generation Remix. 

• BEAM’s Founder and Executive Director sat on the Summit stage as a panelist, providing wisdom and inspiration to the audience drawn from their deep work in communities across the US.

What Impact Partners said in their own words:

The impact showed up in small moments too. Two partners left the Summit ready to measure the ripple effects of their work for the first time. Another said he wants to keep working with Pinterest for many years to come. These are the meaningful outcomes that don't fit neatly into a report but small shifts like these are often where the deepest change begins.

In recognition of the role that different stakeholders play in creating change, the Summit created intentional ways for Pinterest employees and external guests to engage with Impact Partners. 100% of Pinterest employees surveyed rated the Summit as exceeding their expectations, and shared that hearing from Impact Lab leaders expanded their perspective on emotional wellbeing. 100% of external guests surveyed came away with a stronger sense of Pinterest's commitment to this space. And every single respondent said they plan to stay engaged with the community.

Pinterest as platform and partner

One of the most distinctive elements of this year’s program was how we wove in the Pinterest platform itself. Throughout the cohort sessions, Impact Partners built Pinterest boards as living strategic narratives to articulate their missions, track their organizational thinking and prepare visual stories they could share with funders and collaborators.

At the Summit, those boards came to life in the small advising groups, anchoring conversations and showing—concretely and visually—what reflection and growth can look like.

Through this year’s Pinterest Impact Lab program, Pinterest boards have become tools partners return to, share with board members and reference in funding conversations. Several participants noted in their feedback that learning to use Pinterest as an organizational storytelling asset was among the most practically valuable elements of the program.

Pinterest executives and employees also showed up not just as attendees, but as thought partners, listeners and community members. Their presence reflected the highest level of employee engagement the program has seen.

Looking ahead

The growth of Pinterest Impact Lab is visible in the Impact Partners that have grown from young organizations into sector voices, the unexpected collaborations and connections that formed across cohorts, and the leaders who now show up knowing exactly who they are and what their work requires.

We'll take what we heard this year and use it to shape the next iteration. That’s our commitment: to keep listening, to keep evolving and to keep showing up as a trusted partner to the leaders and organizations leading the way in youth mental health and wellbeing.