Hey there, SeekHealing Family.
I really like to think of us this way. Like a family. Like a movement of humans who’s orienting to a new world where we truly take care of each other, without needing or waiting on any kind of paternalism to help us meet our own needs.
Under every healthy forest there’s a web we never see. Mycelium: thin white threads lacing through the soil, quietly moving water and nutrients from where there’s plenty to where there’s need, so that no single tree ever stands alone. A forest doesn’t survive because of its biggest, oldest trees. It survives because of the network underneath.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot this year.
The truth is, this has been one of the hardest years on record to fund work like SeekHealing’s. It’s been helpful to find some of these stats in the news as I navigate ongoing shame and frustration that we’ve been struggling so hard to make ends meet. Across the country, 69% of nonprofits lost funding in 2025, and nearly half now worry they’ll have to close and shut down completely. (Center for Effective Philanthropy).
We’ve really been feeling it in our bones around here. So far this year, myself and Caitie (our fabulous Fundraising Coordinator, if you haven’t had the pleasure yet) wrote twice as many grants as we did in 2025 … and have brought in less than a fifth of the return. Same mission, same evidence (in fact, more evidence; since 2025 was the biggest programming year in Seek’s history). Twice the effort for a fraction of the return.
So rather than spending another year chasing shrinking foundation dollars and hoping for charity, we’ve been strategizing all summer about doing something that feels a lot more like who we actually are: activating the network that’s already here. Me. You. Each other.
People’s risk for loneliness-related disease should never depend on a few big institutions deciding they’re worth it or not.
The Mycelial Collective is a way to help this community share financial resources for facilitating belonging & social health through the same relationships that make the programs work. Our goal this fall is simple: 1,000 people giving $20 a month or less. A thousand steady threads that can work together to keep the forest nourished.
… so far, we’re 27 strong! Shoutout to those already buzzing in the network. You know who you are.
TBH: twenty dollars a month is less than most media subscriptions for something like Spotify, YouTube or HBO. Ten is coffee out with a friend. My friend Joey, SeekHealing’s Special Events Coordinator, set his gift to a single hour of his pay — one hour of your work week, given to the thing that helps people most at-risk feel less alone in a tangible and meaningful way.
A $20 monthly contribution protects simple, holy moments of human connection from being erased by social media or cultural divisions. One of my favorite stories from the community this summer was from an older person in their sixties with no family left, no one consistently present in their day-to-day life. They came to a Connection Practice meeting, and found the courage to admit out loud how lonely they’ve been. After the meeting, a young person sitting beside them turned and said, simply, “I’ll be your friend.” It turned out that the younger person was living in their car at the time. The elder invited them over for dinner. Now the two look out for each other: the younger one helping the older one with their tech issues, and the elder providing support and encouragement. They don’t have much in common, but it turns out that’s not always necessary to make connection feel worthwhile.
This sort of connection functions quite literally like medicine: preventing everything from heart disease to depression and anxiety. And it costs almost nothing to make room for: just an intentional place for people like this to meet, like a Connection Practice meeting or other SeekHealing program.
So let’s make this fun and a way to share the medicine while simultaneously sharing resources! My challenge to you: this week, play one round of the Google Game with a friend (or a stranger, for extra points!) Ask a nosy question. Actually listen. Get fascinated by the universe that is another person. Then invite that person to join you as a Collective member for $20 a month or less — and then pass the game on to someone they know. It will probably make the difference for SeekHealing to keep its doors open this fall or not, and it’s also a very real way you can participate in anti-loneliness work yourself, right here on the frontlines of your own world & neighborhood.
Whatever you give, from “The Spore” level up — you’re in. Members get our quarterly “How Are You, Really?” note, an invitation twice a year to a Collective-only Connection Practice, early access to Listening Training & SHFT registration, sweet merch, and a monthly video update from yours truly.
Set-up your monthly gift here → seekheal.i.ng/join
We are the medicine — all 1,000 of us. We don’t need to wait for systems that have been failing us, anyway. We can and will build a world that’s worth living in, together.
Jenesis Nicolaisen
Founder, SeekHealing
(they/she)
