GiveBetter x SF

California Coalition for Youth

California Youth Crisis Line, youth-homelessness advocacy and member support

Research time: ~25 min on GPT-6 Astra Lite + GPT-5.6 Sol
  • Source audit — checked claims, assumptions and calculations.
  • Research — reviewed programs, finances and impact evidence.

Published: 10 September 2026.

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Summary

What do they do? The full legal entity runs the crisis line, statewide policy and legislative advocacy, member networking, youth leadership, public education, and the Youth Empowerment Summit. More

Why this approach interests us

  • CalHHS reports 16,740 annual calls averaged over 2014–2023, and external studies observe proximal distress reductions during crisis calls.

Our main reservations

  • Calls are not people or resolved crises; mortality credit is zero; repeat overlap, 988 displacement, marginal use and local shares are unresolved.

What do you get for your dollar?

A $100,000 signed illustration is $440,440 donor and $527,427 illustrative gross resources per 10 QALYs. Central is $541,791. The only sub-$100,000 result is a favorable stress case. Inspect the model, assumptions and scenarios.

modeled ordinary gift
$440K — donor cost per 10 signed modeled QALYs; 45% null, 10% harm
central
$542K — donor cost per 10 modeled QALYs
favorable stress
$60.6K — 10% weight; 72.69% of weighted benefit
bay / sf
20% / 2% — rounded unsourced analyst priors; nine-county Bay; SF nested
rfmf
Unverified, unpriced — plausible hotline capacity, unknown grant substitution

1. What do they do?

The full legal entity runs the crisis line, statewide policy and legislative advocacy, member networking, youth leadership, public education, and the Youth Empowerment Summit.

Answer crisis contacts

Staff and trained volunteers provide 24/7 counseling.

Connect youth to services

Referrals and warm connections use a statewide resource directory.

Change youth systems

Policy, member advocacy, conferences and youth participation.

Scope of this review. All FY2025 expense is charged. Only conditional finite crisis-contact morbidity receives QALYs; mortality and every other pathway receive zero.

2. Monitoring and information sharing

California youth 12–24 and families

CalHHS administrative summary. 16,740 annual calls averaged 2014–2023; 14:57 average duration.

Our assessment. Calls may repeat and do not establish outcomes.

Crisis-line users

33-study systematic review. Most level-four evidence; 80% high risk of bias; high-quality effectiveness evidence lacking.

Our assessment. No CalYouth-specific effect.

1,085 suicidal callers; 380 follow-up

Uncontrolled eight-center cohort. Suicidality fell during calls; hopelessness and psychological pain continued falling.

Our assessment. No counterfactual; selection and attrition.

Whole organization

IRS FY2025 filing. $1.214M expense, $135,884 surplus, $432,706 net assets.

Our assessment. Full expense charged; marginal allocation unknown.

3. Qualitative assessment

CalHHS reports 16,740 annual calls averaged over 2014–2023, and external studies observe proximal distress reductions during crisis calls.

Key reservations

  • Calls are not unique people
  • No CalYouth-linked distal outcomes
  • Zero mortality credit
  • Repeat-contact overlap unresolved
  • No priced marginal gift
  • 988/public-funding substitution
  • Gross resources incomplete
  • Bay/SF shares assumed

Benefits not included in our estimate

  • Suicides or deaths prevented
  • Policy and legislative wins
  • Housing and shelter outcomes
  • Referral-provider treatment
  • Education and conferences
  • Youth leadership
  • Member capacity
  • Family spillovers

4. What do you get for your dollar?

Weighted $440K donor / $527K illustrative gross per 10 QALYs.

The model uses calls, never unique people. QALY/contact is a finite net episode sensitivity after repeat overlap, not a study estimate.

A better life is our comparison unit of 10 additional quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), potentially spread across people. These are uncertain estimates, not measured returns or verified donation offers.

How we calculate the estimate

CENTRAL: 16,740 calls × ($100K/$1.214M) ×45% deployability ×35% non-displaced access ×85% realization ×.010 QALY
1.84573 gift QALYs; $541,791/10

Model inputs and assumptions
Annual crisis contacts
16,740 (range: Historical 2014–2023 annual average). CalHHS; calls, not unduplicated callers. Medium.
Deployability
45% (range: 20–70%). Donation names line; no priced marginal allocation. Very low.
Non-displaced access
35% (range: 0–60%). 988, county lines and other supports create substitution. Very low.
Finite net QALY/additional contact
.010 (range: −.005 / 0 / .010 / .030). Zero mortality credit; 1.83-day harm to 10.96-day favorable morbidity equivalent. Very low; sensitivity.
Gross-resource proxy
1.20× (range: 1.15–1.30×). Illustrative volunteer/training/referral resources; not audited or a lower bound. Very low.
Bay / SF impact share
20% / 2% (range: Not measured). Rounded analyst population-share priors. Bay means Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma; SF is nested. Very low; unsourced prior.

Illustrative $100,000 unrestricted gift

  • Harm 10%: Net harm. −.25851 QALY
  • Null 45%: Not defined. No positive QALY
  • Central 35%: $542K donor / $650K gross. 1.84573 QALY
  • Favorable 10%: $60.6K donor / $78.8K gross. 16.5030 QALY
  • Weighted: $440K donor / $527K gross. 2.27046 QALY
  • No favorable: $1.45M donor / $1.72M gross. .68906 QALY

Uncertainty. Favorable stress supplies 72.69% of signed expected QALYs; no causal mortality estimate is used.

5. Funding and previous grants

Obtain current unique/repeat contact structure, answer rates, severity, warm handoffs, follow-up outcomes, funding restrictions and a next-$100K staffing plan.

Health-producing marginal RFMF is plausible but unverified and unpriced.

This review does not establish a verified marginal funding offer or a complete history of grants.

Donate

Opens the organization’s giving page. A general donation may not fund the specific activity modeled here; confirm allocation with the recipient.

6. Sources

  1. Youth Crisis Line. California Coalition for Youth. Official program. Published: Current; retrieved: 2026-09-10.
  2. Donate. California Coalition for Youth. Official donation. Published: Current; retrieved: 2026-09-10.
  3. Volunteer. California Coalition for Youth. Official staffing. Published: Current; retrieved: 2026-09-10.
  4. AB 988 Chart Book. California Health and Human Services Agency. Government throughput. Published: 2024-11-05 draft; retrieved: 2026-09-10.
  5. California Coalition for Youth, EIN 94-2607710. IRS via ProPublica. IRS filing. Published: FY2025; retrieved: 2026-09-10.
  6. The Effectiveness of Crisis Line Services: A Systematic Review. PubMed. Systematic review. Published: 2020-01-17; retrieved: 2026-09-10.
  7. An Evaluation of Crisis Hotline Outcomes, Part 2. PubMed. Uncontrolled cohort. Published: 2007; retrieved: 2026-09-10.
  8. History of Funding for Homeless Youth. California Coalition for Youth. Official historical funding. Published: 2024; retrieved: 2026-09-10.

Annual expenses: years and sources

Average annual expenses (three consecutive fiscal years): Not available. Organization size is separate from the modeled cost-effectiveness of a donation.

California Coalition for Youth

Three years of organization-level expenses have not yet been verified for this report. No other organization or fiscal sponsor budget has been substituted.