Youth Giving

OVERVIEW

The greatest intergenerational transfer of wealth is upon us. The #NextGenDonors study conducted by the Johnson Center for Philanthropy and 21/64 states, “the next generations of major philanthropists will have tremendous influence on the direction of and support for efforts to improve local communities and solve global problems over the next several decades.”
In advance of this transfer, philanthropic institutions like community foundations and family foundations, have been establishing organized youth philanthropy initiatives to help guide Millennials and Generation Zers in the resourceful, inclusive, and empowering philanthropic practices that are crucial to making sustainable positive change for the world.

These efforts have resulted in what is now known as the “youth philanthropy” movement which included a focus on “youth grantmaking.” Unlike what many people imagine philanthropy to consist of—older, white, wealthy men or their accompanying families, the youth philanthropy movement of today is increasingly diverse in demographic, methods of giving, and community setting which allows for a more inclusive philanthropic movement moving forward.

PROBLEM

Before Youthgiving.org, not very much was known about this next generation of philanthropists. The Foundation Center recognized this lack in information and in 2014 published the first collaborative study on the youth philanthropy landscape—Scanning the Landscape of Youth Philanthropy: Observations and Recommendations for Strengthening a Growing Field. This report was initiated by the two main notions mentioned above—the impending transfer in intergenerational wealth and the lack of knowledge about youth philanthropy—and found that:

• Youth grantmaking programs have limited public visibility and connection with one another.
• There are many programs and resources for youth grantmaking worldwide. 
• There are many models for youth philanthropy.
• Diverse communities and affiliations can be gateways to philanthropy for youth.
• Both youth and adults want youth to have a louder voice at the table.

With these key findings in mind, the Foundation Center team concluded the main needs for the youth philanthropy movement were:With these key findings in mind, the Foundation Center team concluded the main needs for the youth philanthropy movement were:With these key findings in mind, the Foundation Center team concluded the main needs for the youth philanthropy movement were:

• Improved access to existing resources.
• Increased awareness of others doing similar work.

And from these findings Youthgiving.org—a hub to inspire, connect, and inform youth grantmaking—was born.

PROJECT ROLE

Through my tenured career as a youth philanthropist, I came into contact with the Foundation Center during a fellowship with Youth Philanthropy Connect. After working with them on a youth philanthropy convening and an attempt at building a youth grantmaking database, I decided to reach back out to them in 2015 to see if they were working on any other youth philanthropy projects.

I was hired as the Youth Giving Intern for the youthgiving.org project and tasked with compiling the data necessary to create the websites program directory and funding map.

Through online information submissions, data sharing, and internet research, I worked to build the initial youth grantmaking database for programs across the world. I researched and managed the data of more than 800 youth grantmaking programs in the effort to learn their grantmaking status, ages of youth served, size of program, annual amount of grants given (in $), model type, among other data points. Once all of this information was compiled into the initial excel database, I then transferred the data on the Youthgiving.org web platform where it was then published to the live website. Additionally, the annual amount of grants given (in $) data point for each organization was then taken by the Foundation Center’s data visualization team and used to create the funding map where you can see how and where youth grantmaking dollars are flowing.

Furthermore, I was also responsible for the social media curation and management of the Youthgiving.org Facebook page during the development and launch of the initiative. Building off of past experience with social media, I was able to facilitate the online sharing of youth philanthropy resources and experiences in the interim while youthgiving.org was being developed.

Tools Used
Splash
Central Desktop
Excel
Basecamp
Google Suite
 

Skills Employed
Data Collection
Data Mining
Secondary Research
Email Outreach
Social Media Management