AC 2013 Ad Leadership, Volunteerism & Giving: A Longitudinal Study of Youth Grantmakers (1993-2003) YAC Best Practices

Youth Grantmakers


In the 1990's, community foundations in Michigan and their affiliate funds participated in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Youth Challenge as part of the Michigan Community Foundations' Youth Project (MCFYP).

They received more than $47.6 million 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 Yacers and their Advisors from Michigan, many other states and countries as well, with a focus on fund development, youth empowerment, and grantmaking.

For more information about youth grantmaking or MCFYP, contact Surabhi Pandit, CMF's Youth Philanthropy Associate.

In This Area

Materials

Links

  • Youth Driven Spaces
    The Youth Driven Spaces (YDS) project is based on a simple innovation—involving youth in running their own programs. The YDS project is designed to support this innovation, modeled successfully at the Neutral Zone in Ann Arbor MI, in other youth programs that serve older youth. A “youth driven space” is an environment—here in the context of an after school or community-based youth program for high school age youth—in which young people are involved in program and organizational decisions. In a youth driven space, adults provide opportunities for youth to lead activities, to establish and run youth advisory boards, and to be involved in decisions about the physical space, activities offered, field trips, how money is spent, organizational policy and even staff hiring. Listen to a recording of this webinar (facilitated by John Weiss, Executive Director of the Neutral Zone) to learn more about creating and sustaining Youth Driven Spaces!
  • Summer Leadership Conference
    More than 250 youth grantmakers and advisors from Michigan and all around the country gather annually for a weekend conference to discuss issues surrounding youth philanthropy.
  • Regional Training
    The Council of Michigan Foundations, led by the MCFYP Committee, provides technical assistance in the form of “Regional Trainings” to help you with this orientation process. A Regional Training brings together members from multiple YACs so that they can receive orientation together and learn about the similarities and differences among their YACs.
  • Michigan Community Foundation Youth Project
  • youthgrantmakers.org
    Best practices, sample documents, resources for Youth Advisory Committees and advisors.
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