Youth Empowered Philanthropy

Why Should You Join?

• To develop soft skills such as leadership, public speaking, critical thinking and decision making.
• To build relationships with peers and the nonprofit community.
• To become more aware of community needs and challenges and learn how to address community needs by serving and giving back to your community.
• To learn about philanthropy and what it means to be a philanthropist.
• To serve as community resources and leaders through real decisions, real money, and real impact.

Criteria:

• For the 2024 -2025 school year, new applicants must be a Sophomore or Junior at Canterbury, Concordia, Homestead, New Haven, North Side, Northrop, Snider, South Side, and Wayne High Schools.
• Be in good academic and behavioral standing.
• Able to attend a 2-hour meeting once a month from 11 AM – 1 PM.
• Available to volunteer for monthly service projects as determined by YEP members.

Meeting Dates for 2024-2025:

• September (TBD)
• October 23
• November 13
• December 11
• January 15
• February 12
• March 5
• April 9
• May 14

Youth Empowered Philanthropy (YEP) begins accepting grant applications in December. Nonprofits can submit a short application for operational funding.

• Grant applications open November 1, 2024 and close December 1, 2024.
• Applications are short and only take 5-10 minutes to apply.
• Nonprofits can apply for funding from YEP members.
• Nonprofits must be located in Allen County and serving Allen County to apply.
• Grants range between $1,000 – $5,000.
• All grant applications will be reviewed and decided on by the current cohort of YEP members.
• Nonprofits that advance will be asked to host a site visit with students via phone, zoom, or in person.
• Nonprofits will be notified in March on funding decisions.

Looking for YEP student volunteers? Please reach out with your request to yep@cfgfw. All requests will be monitored and approved by the current cohort of YEP members.

• YEP students only volunteer between the months of October – May. Your project must fall within this timeline.
• Volunteers are high school students. Your project must be willing to accept volunteers 15 years of age and up.
• Volunteer time requests will close on December 2, 2024.
• Nonprofits must be located in Allen County and serving Allen County to apply.
• All applications will be reviewed and decided on by the YEP members.

The 2023-2024 YEP Cohort consisted of 27 students from Canterbury, Concordia, Homestead, New Haven, Northrop, Northside, Snider, and South Side High Schools. Students meet once a month to learn about the philanthropic world, active nonprofit organizations in Allen County, and valuable leadership skills.

YEP was provided with $10,000 to use for grants due to the generosity of the Joyce Schlatter Fund at the Community Foundation. Students received grant applications from over 60 Allen County-based nonprofit organizations. The students reviewed and made notes on each application, placed follow-up phone calls and emails, and conducted 15 site visits. Based on the information they received, students worked as a group to decide which organizations to fund and how much funding to grant them. The organizations the group chose were:

• $4,000 to Four:10 Ministries
• $4,000 to CHILL, Inc.
• $2,000 to Fort Wayne Urban League