GREENSBORO—"They filled us up!" says Geordi Krikorian. The 16-year-old Matthews student was talking literally and figuratively about the first Youth Grantmakers Summit held here recently. Krikorian is part of a growing movement in grass roots philanthropy that, in his case, involves people his age operating small, community foundations to serve people his age.
At the one-day summit, he and about 100 other young "grantmakers" from across the state attended workshops on such Philanthropy 101 basics as fund raising, networking, money management and how to run a meeting. And between the lessons, there was plenty of food. "They kept carting out food," echoed Graham Sheridan, Jr., 17, of Greensboro.
The students came from Gaston, Mecklenburg, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford and Vance counties. Eric Rowles, 35, a training consultant based in Charlotte, directed the summit and also has helped each of the six grantmaking groups get started.
"The purpose was to bring them together, to meet their peers," says Rowles, who works for the Youth Leadership Institute in San Francisco. "This is the first time we brought all six programs together. They wanted to build a bridge so they could see the larger picture of being part of this wave of youth philanthropy." NCGives, a Raleigh-based initiative, helped fund the meeting.
Krikorian's group is among the newest, and its members used part of their summit time to decide on a name: Teens Changing Gaston County. "I met a lot of new people and learned new stuff," he says. "I didn't know anybody when we got started."
The young philanthropists were recruited by community organizations, school counselors, churches, and in Geordi's case, his mother, Dr. Pat Krikorian. She is executive director of With Friends, Inc., a non-profit funded by the Community Foundation of Gaston County.
"I did a guest column [about youth philanthropy] in the Gastonia Gazette in June and had an open invitation at the end of the column," she says. About 14 teenagers showed up, blacks and whites, boys and girls. When told they would have the chance to be young philanthropists, giving away money to their peers for projects to help people their own age, the response was, "Oh yeah. Are you crazy?"
Once they realized the offer was serious, the students organized and received an initial grant of $5,000. Like the other organizations, the money comes from a community foundation, in this case, the Gaston County Community Foundation.
Geordi Krikorian and his fellow grantmakers took a bus with the Mecklenburg team to the summit. The novice Gaston County grantmakers worked on their RFP's (requests for proposals) and decided the size of the grants to award, "up to $1,000." Other youth grants have helped finance displays of art by young people, concerts for local teen bands, and SAT prep courses.
"It was an exciting experience, very insightful," says Geordi. "I got to learn a whole bunch of news things." A fulfilling day in more ways than one.
Summit Fills Teens Up On Philanthropy
