I had a coffee with Suzanne McCormick, President and CEO of YMCA of the USA yesterday morning in New York City. Founded in 1844 in the UK, with its first branch organized in the U.S. in 1851, the Y has taken on the important mission of creating connected communities. Fighting social isolation and insularity is a major objective for Edelman, given the alarming finding from our 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer: 70 percent of respondents across 28 countries were found to have an insular mindset, which means they are unwilling or hesitant to trust someone with different values, approaches to social issues, backgrounds, or information sources.
McCormick is in her fourth year as CEO. She wants to work much more with the private sector. She has forged partnerships with the National Basketball Association (bet that you did not know that Dr. Naismith created the game of basketball at a YMCA in Springfield, MA) and the National Football League. Among the companies already involved with the Y are American Express, Amazon and Walmart.
The Y has a massive footprint across the U.S., serving 18.8 million people annually, 6.8 million of whom are youth. The Y reaches 10,000 communities and has 2,600 locations. Much of the work happens in schools, with Y personnel running after-school programs. The Y is also the largest nonprofit childcare provider in the U.S. Ys collectively represent $9B in annual revenue and employ nearly 300,000 people. For many of the employees, the Y is their first job, from lifeguard to camp counselor. Each Y is independent but acts as a franchisee, with common operating standards and systems.
She believes that the Y can become the premier third space in the country. “Think of the story of our founder, George Williams, who came to London from the countryside to work in a factory during the Industrial Revolution in the 1840s. Young men had no social circle beyond bars and brothels. So, he began a Bible study class to enable wholesome connections with other young men from rural areas. This began our journey to help people find their purpose and connection in local communities.”
She has big plans for the 175th anniversary, including a once every four years gathering of Y staff and volunteers in New Orleans in September. She also wants to flag Y-Cons (a take-off on Icons), celebrities and athletes who got their start at the Y. I am no celebrity but have wonderful memories of the West Side Y preschool for my three daughters, basketball at the Lincolnwood Y and killer workouts at the Lawson Y with lunatic trainer Dick Voit and Voit’s Warriors (best line…who taught you that push-up style, lover boy).
The Y is open to a new relationship with companies interested in sponsoring national or regional programs. I can see food clients doing work in healthy eating, pharmaceutical clients helping consumers to change lifestyle through exercise and vital sign monitoring or financial services clients helping on financial literacy or tech clients using the Y for reskilling. I am meeting with McCormick at the end of May in Chicago to advance this discussion and encourage all my colleagues in PR to do the same.
Richard Edelman is CEO.
