Youth-Led Philanthropy
Youth philanthropy is a powerful challenge to traditional philanthropy, which, in many ways, perpetuates the systems of power and privilege that it claims to address. By putting the decision-making power in the hands of young people — particularly low-income youth of color — youth philanthropy puts decision-making power into the hands of those most impacted.
Youth philanthropy is also an important step toward building youth capacity to design and implement programs from beginning to end. By supporting other youth to think through, plan and budget for their projects, youth philanthropists help to shape work as they see fit to address the issue. And, by funding key youth-led projects, like San Francisco’s Vote16 Campaign, youth philanthropists play a critical role in furthering youth-led projects that are shifting power to young people.