Organizations We Support
The Austin Germani Memorial Fund supports nonprofit organizations doing meaningful work to improve the mental health and well-being of youth and young adults.
Our giving is intentional. Each organization we support reflects some part of what Austin's life and experiences taught me about the importance of connection, belonging, mentorship, mental health resources and having the right support at the right time.
Since the Fund was established, we have donated more than $50,000 to organizations doing this work.
Below are some of the organizations we are proud to support. We encourage you to learn more about their work, attend their events, volunteer and support them directly.
Comfort Zone Camp
What They Do
Comfort Zone Camp provides free bereavement camps and programs for children, teens and young adults who have experienced the death of someone close to them. Through a combination of traditional camp activities, peer connection and grief support, young people are given a safe place to have fun, connect with others who understand their experience and learn healthy ways to navigate grief.
Comfort Zone also offers specialized programs for young people and families who have experienced a loss to suicide or overdose.
Why We Support Them
When Austin died, his brother was too old to attend Comfort Zone Camp. But in the years since, I have had the opportunity to experience his journey through grief and to understand more deeply how the loss of a sibling continues to affect a young person long after the initial loss.
Grief doesn't end when the immediate crisis has passed. It changes and resurfaces as young people grow, reach milestones and experience different stages of their lives without the person they lost.
That is one of the reasons Comfort Zone Camp's work is so meaningful to me. They give grieving young people something that can be difficult to find elsewhere: a place to be surrounded by others who understand what it is like to lose someone important to them.
They can talk about their grief, learn healthy ways to cope and feel understood — while also having the opportunity to laugh, make friends and simply be kids.
Austin's brother didn't have the opportunity to experience Comfort Zone Camp, but watching his journey has made me appreciate just how valuable that kind of support and connection can be for another young person grieving someone they love.
Boys to Men Mentoring Network of Virginia
What They Do
Boys to Men Mentoring Network of Virginia provides boys and young men with safe, supportive spaces where they can talk openly about what is happening in their lives.
Through school and community-based mentoring circles, caring male mentors and peers show up consistently to listen, encourage and support young men as they navigate the challenges of adolescence. The program helps participants build meaningful relationships, develop confidence and learn to make healthy choices as they grow into adulthood.
Why We Support Them
Boys to Men reflects something at the heart of Austin's Fund: young people need places where they feel safe enough to talk honestly about what they are experiencing.
The program doesn't wait for a young man to reach a crisis before giving him someone to talk to. It creates consistent relationships with trusted adults and peers and makes talking about emotions, challenges and life a normal part of growing up.
That kind of connection and early support is exactly the kind of change we want Austin's Fund to help create.
VCU Center for Human-Animal Interaction / Dogs on Call
What They Do
The Center for Human-Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University works to improve health and well-being through the human-animal bond. Its Dogs on Call program brings trained therapy dogs and their volunteer handlers throughout VCU Health to provide comfort, connection and moments of relief to patients, families and staff.
Dogs on Call teams also visit the Virginia Treatment Center for Children, bringing the comfort of therapy dogs to children and adolescents receiving mental health care.
Why We Support Them
Austin loved dogs. They were a constant source of comfort, companionship and unconditional love for him, particularly during difficult times.
Austin spent two weeks at the Virginia Treatment Center for Children while struggling with his own mental health. Dogs on Call was not part of the experience there at that time.
Today, therapy dogs are part of the environment at VTCC, including during the intake process and through regular visits with the young people receiving care there. Knowing Austin and how much comfort he found in dogs, I know those visits would have given him something to look forward to during his stay.
Their presence during intake is especially meaningful to me. Entering a treatment facility can be an incredibly difficult experience for a young person and their family. A dog can't change what brought a family there, but it can provide a moment of comfort, connection and calm when those things are very much needed.
Supporting Dogs on Call allows Austin's love of dogs — and what I learned from the comfort they brought him — to help create those moments for other young people and their families.
Visit the VCU Center for Human-Animal Interaction & Dogs on Call →
Cameron K. Gallagher Foundation
What They Do
The Cameron K. Gallagher Foundation works to increase awareness and understanding of teenage depression and anxiety while helping young people develop the knowledge and tools to care for their mental well-being.
Through mental wellness education, digital toolkits, journals, peer-led SpeakUp Clubs and community programs, CKG reaches teens directly and works to make conversations about mental health a normal and accepted part of their lives.
Why We Support Them
There is a natural connection between Cameron's legacy and Austin's.
Cameron wanted young people to be able to speak openly about mental health without the stigma that so often surrounds it. Years later, one of the questions Austin asked me during his own struggle with anxiety and depression was, “Why don't people talk about mental health?”
That question became an important part of Austin's legacy and the work we do in his memory.
CKG doesn't just encourage young people to talk about mental health. They give teens practical tools to better understand their mental well-being, manage stress and challenges, support one another and know when and where to seek help.
Helping young people develop those skills before they reach a crisis is exactly the kind of work Austin's Fund wants to support.
2 End The Stigma
What They Do
2 End The Stigma works to reduce the stigma surrounding addiction and mental health and to help individuals and families connect with resources and support.
An important part of their work takes place in high schools and colleges, reaching young people where they are. Through initiatives such as Scott's Corner, they create dedicated spaces where students can step away, sit, decompress and take a moment to manage stress and their mental well-being.
Why We Support Them
Mental health and substance use are often closely connected. For some people, drugs or alcohol become a way of coping with anxiety, depression or other mental health challenges when they don't have healthier ways to manage what they are experiencing.
That connection is especially important to us when it comes to teens and young adults.
2 End The Stigma is doing more than talking about stigma. They are bringing mental health and substance-use conversations directly into high schools and colleges and creating resources and spaces that young people can actually use.
Scott's Corner is a great example. Giving a student a place to step away, decompress and manage stress may seem simple, but creating environments where young people are encouraged to recognize and care for their mental well-being is exactly the kind of change we want to support.
Their work reflects something central to the mission of Austin's Fund: difficult things become harder when we feel we can't talk about them.
Green Dogs Unleashed
What They Do
Green Dogs Unleashed is a Virginia nonprofit that rescues, rehabilitates and trains animals with a focus on creating meaningful connections between animals and people with special needs.
Their work includes professional training, therapy work and placing trained dogs with individuals who can benefit from the independence, companionship and support these relationships can provide.
Why We Support Them
Austin's love of dogs and the comfort he found in them have always been an important part of the Fund's mission.
Our support of Green Dogs Unleashed was specifically directed toward dogs being trained and placed as service dogs with individuals who needed them. This gave Austin's Fund an opportunity to help create the kind of ongoing, one-on-one relationship between a person and a dog that we know can have a profound impact on someone's daily life.
Austin understood the companionship, unconditional love and sense of purpose a dog can bring. Supporting the training and placement of these dogs was a meaningful way to carry that part of Austin's life forward while helping someone else experience the difference the right dog can make.