The Mission
It wouldn't be a problem if everyone had decided they didn't want marriage at all.
But that's not what happened.
What happened is an individual and social crisis — not just in the US, but all over the modern developed world.
Teenagers went off to college, toiled tirelessly to build careers, planned for futures that included every major milestone — only to find that the things they took for granted had suddenly slipped beyond their grasp.
The basic, fundamental human longing for love, family, and belonging has been stymied. Yet the basic, fundamental desire for those things hasn't gone anywhere. The longing compounds in an echo of the pathways the relational investment should have taken.
For those who tackle this challenge with the same grit that carried them through years of pushing the grindstone, victory is wrested within a dystopian maze of increasingly invasive, expensive, and complex solutions. None of which are as elegant a solution as growing a family when it's comparatively cost-effective and simple.
This isn't a personal failing — though the hundreds of singles that have come through our doors often believe otherwise. It's a systemic oversight. A generation taught to prioritize grades, status, and financial achievement over human life. Taught to deride friendships and romantic relationships — even parental ties — as consolation prizes for those who couldn't hack it, the ones who weren't smart enough to be something.
How do we help the generation that did everything right — everything they were told — yet travel through life intimately alone while their peers cultivate ever-deepening bonds that fulfill, feed, and nourish?
How do we better equip future generations? How do we restore the privilege of deciding their futures while they still have real choices?
The Problem At Scale
The destruction of marriage and family formation is not just a personal crisis playing out in millions of individual lives. It's a global concern.
Critically, the U.S. birth rate crisis is not driven by married couples having fewer children — that rate has held relatively steady for decades. It is driven by fewer people getting married at all.[17] In China, marriages crashed 55% from their 2013 peak to just 6.1 million in 2024, driven by economic pessimism among young adults and deepening distrust between men and women.[18]
For the lucky couples who are successful in achieving a live birth, the average monthly cost of infant and childcare exceeds $2,400 — up 32% since 2019.[4] Many later-in-life mothers are battling infant care, high-level career demands, and menopause simultaneously, a trifecta that puts increased pressure on spouses and the family unit. Later-in-life parents also find themselves facing more questions about care for their children in the face of aging-related health issues.
But these problems aren't being created in a vacuum. The billion dollar, privately-owned fertility intervention complex is profiting from delaying marriage, which they are doing through aggressive campaigns. At Good Hearts Meet, we have seen the age at which women in their 20s plan to be married and have children increase from 35 years old to 40 years old in the last five years alone. The age at which women undergo egg retrieval and freezing has also changed — down from the early-to-mid 30s, to mid-to-late 20s. The "family plan" that is being sold to women leads directly to consequences that are alarming nations across the globe.
The Cost
The emotional cost of long-term adult singleness may be immeasurable, but the financial cost is not. The opportunity costs compound over time, across every dimension of life.
Research consistently finds a "marriage wage premium" for men — married men tend to earn more, be perceived as more stable and productive by employers, and advance further professionally than their unmarried counterparts.[6]
The health data is equally clear. Married men have a lower risk of depression, better cognitive function as they age, reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease, and better outcomes when hospitalized.[7] A 2024 cross-country study found that unmarried individuals showed higher rates of depressive symptoms than their married peers across all seven countries studied — with the effect especially pronounced among highly educated men in Western nations, including the United States.[8]
The financial bias towards marriage isn't just a matter of single versus married. The "persistent pooling gap" describes the phenomenon of couples who cohabitate without marriage, keep their finances separate, yet still experience negative financial effects post-cohabitation. This adverse effect multiplies with each cohabitation arrangement.[9] Yet this is the cultural norm today; how young professionals and adults plan to spend their 20s and 30s.
The Plan
Good Hearts Meet is a non-profit campaigning to help adult singles achieve their family goals, while giving the next generation a fighting chance to seize their window of opportunity.
Since 2020, we have counseled hundreds of singles across the country; created support groups, hosted workshops, attended countless singles events, and conducted research inside churches and communities. We are now launching a rigorous, multi-disciplinary research initiative aligning with statistical standards in psychology and sociology — alongside a growing network of ministry partners in churches and schools.
A dynamic, tech-forward curriculum that addresses relationship and family planning alongside career and financial planning. Our biggest current need is research funding. Next: talented illustrators to make the topic truly engaging for students.
We invite married couples to speak into the ways marriage has impacted their lives — in career, finances, stability, and network. Giving singles a concrete look behind the veil, so they know exactly what they're fighting for.
The Board
Good Hearts Meet is building its founding Board of Directors: a group of community members and strategic advisors who have a heart for the mission and the ability to lean in through this next phase of growth.
This is a ground-floor opportunity to shape the governance, strategy, and culture of a nonprofit addressing one of the most urgent social challenges of our time. We value your participation and have structured roles efficiently to respect your existing commitments.
What We Ask
About the Founder
Joining the Good Hearts Meet board means leading the fight against isolation, a fractured community, and a society that has lost sight of its most basic foundations. If you are reading this, it is because someone who knows you thought you might be the right fit. Please consider stepping into Good Hearts Meet not just as a client, but as a Founding Member of our mission.