A recent survey our Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) program conducted with the Scottish Youth Parliament found that more than 80% of young people believed activity focused on philanthropy and social activism should be part of the core secondary curriculum.

Over the past two years, I have been on a journey to become a philanthropist through the Youth Grant Committee at Grand Rapids Community Foundation. When I joined my freshman year after a competitive application process, I was amazed at how many new people I met. We have a very diverse community and I loved stepping out of my comfort zone and connecting with other students.

Last year, I applied to join Seattle Foundation’s Youth Grantmaking Board (YGB) because I wanted to make a difference in my community and give back the way my mother and grandmother do. While I was familiar with the idea of helping one’s community, philanthropy was a foreign concept to me. I always thought of it as rich and old (but very nice) white guys who gave money to charities—like in the movies. But through my time on the Youth Grantmaking Board, I discovered the incredible and life-changing power of philanthropy to help others, just as my grandmother and mother helped those they love.

The environmental movement has been steadily gaining ground as people realize how important it is to take action in the face of ever-growing environmental concerns. Organizations across the country have tried to address problems in different ways, from looking into the science behind climate change, to starting grassroots campaigns that shift our behavior towards the earth. While there are countless approaches to helping our environment, rather than choosing one strategy over another, we need a collective effort that includes many tactics.

Despite the growing number of youth philanthropy programs in the United States, a 2002 survey found that “only 48 percent of adults believe it is important to seek young people’s opinions when making decisions that affect them.” As Katie Richards-Schuster, a professor at University of Michigan stated in 2012, “In general, American society, through its policies and practices, tends to focus on the construction of youth as vulnerable and at risk at best, and as problems at worst.” However, we know that through youth philanthropy programs where young people are given decision-making power as well as provided with mentorship, communities thrive.

The first and most important step in starting a youth grantmaking program is to ask as many questions as possible. These should be questions within your community as well as about the broader youth giving movement.

It can be a challenge to effectively communicate your story – to demonstrate your impact, garner funds, and to simply explain philanthropy to your peers. In the webinar recording below, Iowa Council of Foundations President Kari McCann and youth philanthropists Michael Banwarth and Leah Freihoefer offer some advice on how best to share the story of your giving and how to leverage these stories through your philanthropy network.

In 2000, my family’s foundation (Surdna) established the Andrus Family Philanthropy Program to engage future generations in our family in formalized philanthropy. In addition, we created two youth programs, targeting 13-17 and 18-24 year olds, respectively (learn more here!). For years, these youth programs were designed and run by adults with expertise in the field, helping young people define what they cared about and find their identity in philanthropy. I have come across similar youth initiatives where adults get together to develop all aspects of the program, then present it to the young people to experience and implement. If the past sixteen years has taught me anything about youth philanthropy it is this: don’t take “youth” out of the development and creation of a youth philanthropy program.

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals—better known as the SDGs—are a set of 17 universal goals  for global economic development, prosperity, human dignity, peace, justice, and partnerships. They have been agreed upon by virtually every nation on earth and will remain in effect until 2030. The SDG framework has managed to find common ground between the countless dissimilar and often opposing interests of various nations  and has aligned all of these countries under the same agenda to improve the quality of life for people around the globe. It took a great number of very skilled development professionals more than three years, but they have succeeded in putting together a universal framework – one that fits the U.S. as much as it fits Somalia.

During my time as a youth philanthropist, I have been a part of two amazing organizations: the HANDS Foundation (Helping Achieve New Direction through Students) & phish (philanthropic ideas strategy and heart).  phish is composed of members from youth pods like HANDS, and serves as facilitators, middle-men, and host workshops for the youth pods determined to making a service-oriented impact within their respective communities. Youth pods under the Dekko Foundation are located in Indiana, Alabama, Minnesota, and Iowa—locations of Dekko manufacturing plants. I joined HANDS in the eighth grade, and over time, I quickly learned that philanthropy was a part of who I am.  As I grew in my own understanding of philanthropy, I wanted to find a way to give back to this organization that had shown me what it felt like to be a real philanthropist.  As a result, I have worked to make HANDS more impactful for its community and more empowering for its members.