Hinge Wants to Fund Your Favorite Local Social Group: Here’s How to Nominate

Hinge is expanding One More Hour™, its social impact initiative funding Gen Z social groups, by inviting daters themselves to nominate who should receive support in their cities. Rather than creating dating events, One More Hour invests in the low-pressure communities people keep returning to, from hiking groups to neighborhood book clubs, where connection often begins long before a date.

For the first time, Gen Z daters across select markets will be asked to surface the local communities already creating space for people to connect. Previous One More Hour grant recipients include HBCUs Outside, Reading Rhythms, ATL Film Party, and Intrsxtn Surf.

“The more we listen to our daters, the clearer it becomes that meaningful connection often extends beyond one date or a romantic partner. Additionally, when you think about what actually makes you feel like you belong and that a city feels like home, it’s rarely the big events. It’s the mahjong night you've been going to for a few weeks or the chess meetup where the founder texts you when you miss a week," said Tamika Young, Hinge's Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (she/her). "We continuously hear how much these spaces matter, so with One More Hour we are able to help more of them exist and let people nominate the ones making a real difference.”

Why Social Groups Matter More than Ever
As hanging out at traditional third spaces, like theaters and bars, has declined, a new kind of gathering has taken their place. Social groups organized around shared hobbies or interests are on the rise, and Gen Z is leading the way. These spaces offer something that’s increasingly becoming harder to find: a low-pressure, recurring reason to show up – even when you’re a beginner with the activity.

But at the same time, connection is becoming more expensive. From ticketed events to curated experiences, the cost of participating in community is adding up, turning something that should feel natural into something that increasingly feels transactional. In many cases, belonging now feels like it has to come with a price tag.

One More Hour exists to push back against that. By funding the practical needs, such as snacks for people coming to an event right after work or transportation for attendees, Hinge helps communities continue doing what they already do best: bringing people together. 

Additionally, the need has never been more urgent. An analysis of 2003-2020 American Time Use Survey data indicates that Gen Z spends 1,000 fewer hours* socializing in person each year, and as those hours disappear, so does the chance for real community to take root. Social groups can play a powerful role in helping people feel connected. Research** conducted with support from The Foundation for Social Connection shows that social groups supported by Hinge's One More Hour program are facilitating an estimated 1.5M hours of in-person connection time per year.

How Hinge is Evolving One More Hour
No one knows their community better than the people who live in it. That's why Hinge is opening the nomination process to the people who live, socialize, and seek connection in these cities. And those who are creating those communities themselves.

Gen Z Hinge daters in New York, Los Angeles, London, Sydney, and Melbourne will be invited via email to nominate local social groups for funding and submit an application on hinge.co/onemorehour. Grants will be distributed on a rolling basis to cover the practical needs that make in-person connection possible such as space, programming, and equipment.At a time when connection is increasingly monetized, One More Hour is designed to make it more accessible. The goal isn’t to foster connection through branded dating experiences, but to support the communities where belonging already exists naturally.

What Makes a Social Group Eligible 
One More Hour is designed to support the groups already doing the work of encouraging meaningful in-person connections, no matter how big or small. Eligible groups should be free or low-cost to participate in, and focused on creating in-person, recurring connection opportunities for Gen Z in one of the nominated cities. We're especially interested in groups creating space for people who might otherwise struggle to find their community, whether that's through shared interests, identity, or neighborhood.

One More Hour in Action
Since launching in 2024, One More Hour has awarded $2.3M to over 100 groups across the U.S. and U.K. and will donate $1.5M globally in 2026.

Nominations open in May. To learn more or nominate a group, visit hinge.co/onemorehour.

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*Source: U.S. Trends in social isolation, social engagement, and companionship–nationally and by age, sex, race/ethnicity, family income, and work hours, 2003-2020. Authors: Viji Diane Kannan and Peter Veazie, University of Rochester. Published in the SSM Population Health journal in March 2023. Cited in the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory on Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation. (page 14) Methodology: The study uses the 2003–2020 American Time Use Survey (ATUS), a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized Americans 15-years and older (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). ATUS collects data on how Americans allocate their time over the course of a single, randomly selected day. Respondents report the duration of each activity on that day in minutes and with whom the activity took place. Total sample for ATUS from 2003 - 2020 is 219,368 respondents.

**The Foundation for Social Connection (F4SC) supported Hinge's social impact program, One More Hour, by designing the impact evaluation framework. These estimates are grounded in a mixed-methods evaluation designed by F4SC, which included quantitative data collection and qualitative interviews with group participants. The analysis was based on self-reported data from September 2024 to January 2025, measuring average hours of connection and consistent attendance across funded groups.