By Ali Palmieri
It has always been said that children are the future and foundations are increasingly following this motto and including youth in their grantmaking decisions. Youth grantmaker subdivisions that allow local community youth to be actively involved in projects are popping up more and more. Some are smaller groups like the ones that are part of the Winston-Salem Foundation and the Greater Salina Community Foundation and others are much larger like the Council of Michigan Foundations' Youth Grantmakers program.
Youth Grantmakers in Action (YGA) is a branch of the Winston-Salem Foundation. They are a group of youth from Forsyth County that take part in leadership activities, learn more about the community and help the youth in their area. The Winston-Salem Foundation states, "YGA is structured to support authentic, working partnerships between young people and adults in designing these community-change projects." They are selected each spring through an application process.
Over the course of the school year, while most children at the age of 15-18 are hanging out with friends and family, the YGA teens meet once a month. YGA has about $2,000 annually to use for grants and the average grant size is $475. “You have to step out of your own shoes to understand the person that wants the grant and what they want to do,” said YGA member Jamilla Benton of Parkland High School. The 22 students represent 10 public and private schools in Forsyth County.
In order to eligible for the grants, the project must be put into action by youth and have a positive impact on youth in Forsyth County. With the help of each project having an adult supervisor and sponsoring organization, many representatives of the community come into play.
Past YGA projects include: a community art event at East Forsyth High School; books for a student book club at Carver High School; and the Winston-Salem Youth Council’s youth expression wall, where teenagers can express themselves through art and writing. The wall is between Winston Square Park and the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts.
Another foundation that has a Youth Grantmakers Council (YGMC) is the Greater Salina Community Foundation. The Youth GrantMakers Council (YGMC) was created to directly involve youth in the grant making process. This council also gives its members the opportunity to empower youth and to help other youth-led projects succeed in bettering the community.
YGMC consists solely of high school students who are dedicated and proud to be at the forefront of change. The current council has 20 members who attend five different schools in Saline County. Each year the council has money to give to youth-led projects to help them meet their needs. Grants are advertised, reviewed, and selected by the council. When a grant is awarded, it is also the job of YGMC to track the progress of each grant by requesting a report.
The Council of Michigan Foundations, W.K. Kellogg Foundation Youth Challenge and the Michigan Community Foundations Youth project worked together and more than $47.6 million was raised to create 86 permanently endowed youth funds, matched by more than $100 million raised locally for unrestricted and field of interest funds.
As a condition of the Challenge, each of those funds is overseen by a Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), involving more than 1,500 young people annually as YAC members. The Youth Leadership Conference is held each summer with the youth and their Advisors. As with most other youth grantmaking organizations the purpose is on leadership empowerment and grantmaking.
Grantmaking skills are not generally taught in school, so with youth being exposed to this new world we can see that the future of grantmaking is very bright and will include an informed group of people who are able to make positive changes.