NCGives Partner Leading To Change Guides 10 Youth Groups in Community Philanthropy
(2/27/08) After over eight weeks of preparation, production, organization, training and facilitation (along with weeknight and after-school meetings, seven straight Saturday trainings in a row and over 2,000 miles driven!), NCGives partner Leading To Change is pleased to announce that the RFP Selection Process for each of the 10 North CarolinaYouth Giving Sites is now complete!
This year, the Youth Philanthropists collectively reviewed over 75 youth lead/focused RFP's (Requests for Proposals) designed to facilitate social change in their communities. There was over $110,000 in requested funds, with approximately $60,000 available for the youth to grant.
And these youth givers did a fine job in their selections, funding over 50 projects throughout North Carolina, including:
- a photo-journalism project designed to capture and put into print the different cultural backgrounds of their peers
- a career-preparation program for newly immigrated youth
- a teen parent skills training with funded childcare
- a program for youth to donate and receive prom dresses at no charge for those that can't afford one
- a high school-to-middle school mentorship program to educate and prevent HIV/STDs
- and even a "Walk In My Shoes" program designed to support racial and class-based awareness.
Leading To Change president Eric Rowles notes that what was even more impressive was the level of intentionality and scrutiny that the 225-plus youth put to the RFP Selection Process. "By using a vigorous, equity-based decision making tool, every dollar of the $60,000 was determined not by a majority vote," Eric says, "but by entire group consensus!"
The young givers further impressed LTC trainers by deliberately choosing not to fund some projects, despite the fact that they may have had a balance remaining. As one of the youth philanthropists from Greensboro shared, "we're not supposed to just give the money away; we're supposed to invest it in projects that we think will actually work."
Congratulations to each of the 10 Youth Giving Sites on their successful RFP Selection Process! The coming months will find these youth philanthropists taking steps to not only support the successful grantees, but also to coordinate their own service-learning projects that will engage the Youth Givers again in their communities.
Related articles:
January 2008 LTC Program Update
"A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy" & "Donors: The Next Generation"
