Youth in Philanthropy

Youth in Philanthropy or YIP is a volunteer youth advisory committee made up of students from a diverse range of backgrounds who want to be actively involved in supporting their community’s vitality and growth.

With the support of adult advisors from the Rivers Collegiate and RACF Board members , each YIP works to raise money and build endowment funds, but primarily to make grants to projects in their local community. Because they are best placed to understand the needs and concerns of other youth in our communities, it’s a good fit for advising their local community foundation on youth grant making.

Roles of Youth in Philanthropy:

• Grant making
• Community leadership
• Fund development
• Although all three roles are important and dependent on each other, grant making is at the heart of what Youth in Philanthropy is all about.

Good grant making is a comprehensive process that includes:

• Understanding the community
• Identifying priorities
• Developing grant guidelines and application procedures
• Soliciting and assessing grant proposals
• Awarding grants
• Monitoring funded projects
• Evaluating the impact of grants on the community
• Communicating results.

Many different approaches and tools are used in grant making, and every YIP will determine what is most suitable to their own council, community foundation and local area. But the best grant makers will regularly evaluate their own activities, and make a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

Each YIP is part of its local community foundation, a locally-run public foundation that builds and manages endowment funds to support charitable activities in their area. Canada has more than 150 community foundations, and more than 45 YIPs. Due to the generosity of the Thomas Sill Foundation and Rivers and  Area Community Foundation, there is funding for the YIP committee in the Rivers Collegiate from 2017-2023.