2025: A Look Back on Meaningful Impact and Changed Lives 

As the YMCA of Greater Seattle closes 2025 and looks toward a milestone year for our non-profit organization, we pause to celebrate how far we have already come. Our daily commitment to advancing Equity and Justice for All through whole-person health, belonging, connection, and community truly matters. By working together, we have touched lives across the region, and your support is helping sustain our impact into the future.

There is so much we have accomplished together in 2025 including: 

• Expanding outdoor learning and access to nature by opening the Robinson Education Center at Camp Orkila on Orcas Island — a modern covered space for science, discovery, learning, and gathering in all Pacific Northwest weather — and by officially reopening Camp Kilworth, a restored 25 acre forested shoreline in Federal Way that welcomed its first Y day campers in July. 

• Walking alongside young people and families through our Y Social Impact Center, which expanded trauma-informed services, resulting in more than 75 percent of youth in foster care programs achieving stable housing or kinship reconnection, 96 percent of housing participants have remaining housed, and nearly 80 percent of obtaining stable housing for the long-term. Behind each of these numbers is a young person who is safer and more secure because the Y is here. 

• Serving a larger population of families and guardians with the grand opening of our Early Education Center at Eastgate. The enriching and positive environment enables children to learn, grow, and thrive with a strong educational foundation that reflects the core Y values of caring, honesty, respect, and responsibility. 

• Honoring members of our community at our annual Changemakers Luncheon. The sold-out crowd of 850 community leaders, partners, and supporters gathered to celebrate the Y’s “Hero Everyday” impactful volunteers and leaders Adrian Hanauer, Julia Calhoun, and Doug Baldwin Jr., who embody justice, equity, compassion, and love. 

• Further improving risk and safety practices by completing our Praesidium Accreditation, helping us keep children, teens, and vulnerable adults even safer in our care. 

• Building philanthropic momentum with our community, raising 15 million dollars in total this year for our non-profit organization, including 9.6 million for operations, 5.2 million for capital, and 0.25 million for endowment. Strengthened our financial footing by completing our 2024 annual audit with no material findings and reducing Business Risk and Liability insurance costs by about 800,000 dollars year over year. These savings help us invest more directly in mission. 

These accomplishments translate into meaningful impact and changed lives in our community. They also represent thousands of moments where members, participants, and neighbors experienced the Y as a welcoming place of belonging, possibility, and connection. 

As we look ahead to 2026, we recognize that we are navigating real financial and social headwinds that are likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Some programs have been defunded or placed in jeopardy, other funding has been delayed, and many programs are facing under-enrollment due to economic challenges that families are facing. These realities require us to make difficult decisions to protect the long-term sustainability of our programs and services. We approach these decisions with care, guided by our mission to build a community where all people, especially the young, are encouraged to develop their fullest potential in spirit, mind, and body. 

Delivering on our mission — especially in this moment —requires daily, consistent action across our organization and our community. As we work to finish 2025 strong and build a foundation for meaningful impact in 2026, we invite you to: 

• Give by supporting the Y with a year-end gift ─ so more children, teens, families, and neighbors can experience belonging and Whole-Person Health. 

• Invite others to join the Y as donors, members and volunteers by encouraging your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and network to get involved at the Y and experience what it means to be part of a community caring for community. 

• Share your story by telling others how the Y has touched your life or the life of someone you know ─ helping more people see the impact that this community makes every day. 

Thank you for your trust, partnership, and support throughout 2025. Because of your commitment, the Y is delivering meaningful, life-changing work every day. With your support and engagement, we look forward to making our 150th anniversary year the best chapter ever in our story about community we are writing together. 

In gratitude and community, 

Loria Yeadon 

President & CEO      
YMCA of Greater Seattle