Would you leave the decision of how to spend $80,000 in the hands of high school juniors? That is exactly what the Future Philanthropists Program does every year, helping not only local non-profits but also teens learn what philanthropy is all about.
The Future Philanthropists Program, sponsored by the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation, seeks to teach and instill the fundamentals of philanthropy work to local high school juniors and seniors as they engage directly with community organizations, working together to determine how they will divvy up the year’s allocated grant money which seniors in the group have worked to raise.
Karen Tardy, program coordinator for the Future Philanthropist Program, said the program is a leadership project wrapped in a philanthropic framework, involving 60 high school juniors from Oak Park who work together to not only learn about philanthropy and its importance but also learn about local nonprofits, budgets, and grants.
“The program is based on the three pillars of philanthropy,” Tardy said. “Granting money, raising money, and volunteer service work.”
The two-year program spans a student’s junior and senior year, with each year focused on a different part of philanthropy. Juniors are taught the ins and outs of grant making, foundations, and nonprofits. They are also introduced to local nonprofits which are applying for the year’s grant money.
According to Tardy, the nonprofits need to meet certain requirements, including having a “youth voice,” meaning youth have to be involved with the nonprofit in some way. Tardy said FPP receives anywhere between 12 to 60 grant applications every year.
“The juniors make all those decisions themselves, how to grant out their funds,” Tardy said.
This year that grants fund is worth $80,000, the most funds that have been available to the program, said Tardy.
Nonprofit organizations can be from the Oak Park-River Forest area along with neighboring communities including the Austin neighborhood.
OPRF senior Shea Sturtevant, 17, said he was intrigued with the concept that the program turned over control of the grant funds to students.
“They are essentially giving kids a bunch of money, for my year it was $50,000, and they let you take control of the program and you’re in charge of where the money goes,” Sturtevant said. “It gives you a lot of responsibility, which I thought was pretty cool.”
According to Tardy, each student team has an adult mentor working with them, helping guide them through the process, but all decisions are left solely to the teens.
Sturtevant said the students worked in small teams and were prepared on how to perform site-visits to local nonprofit organizations, what questions to ask, how budgets worked, and other crucial pieces of information that would help them make their decisions.
“It is an interesting shift in dynamic,” Sturtevant said. “Where I feel like normally the kids are the ones being interviewed or the ones asking for something but in this case I had the ability to hand out this grant and I was the one asking these questions.”
Making physical site visits gave teens the opportunity to see how these organizations operated and make sure their questions were covering all the bases on how the funds would be used.
Sturtevant said he focused many of his questions on the nonprofit’s budgets and fund allocations.
Afterwards, the students came back together and had to advocate for their nonprofit to be a part of the ones which receive grant funding.
“We send our own proposal to the bigger group and we negotiate within FPP to get money for this one or this one,” Sturtevant said. “It is a big negotiation because everyone wants the organizations that they are passionate about to get money. You are trying to fight for yours but you also have to consider other things.”
Juniors make their funding recommendations to the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation’s board of directors.
Students who return their senior year are also tasked with raising money, learning about donor development. Senior students also decide how they want to raise the money, spend the year raising funds, and are also involved with volunteering.
Additionally, seniors will make return site visits to the awarded organizations to see first-hand how the funds are being allocated.
Developing philanthropic skills in young adults is an important part of instilling values as teens learn and continue on, said Tardy.
“The earlier you can develop those skills, the earlier you can introduce those ideas and values into young people, the more likely they are to continue putting those skills and values to work in their lives for the rest of their lives,” Tardy said.
The program has expanded from its original roots, the Future Philanthropists. According to Tardy, there are about 14 programs across the country based on the Future Philanthropists model that are teaching these skills to juniors and seniors in high school.
The growth Tardy has seen in participating students has been tremendous.
“I feel like sometimes they are almost completely different people,” Tardy said. “Watching them flourish in the company of other young people who are like minded and philanthropic minded is really heartwarming. Watching them realize how important this is to our community, to our country, to our world and really blossom in that, decide that it is something they want to continue doing their whole lives, it is amazing to see.”
FPP is seeking proposals from eligible tax-exempt organizations for their 2024 Grant Cycle. According to the foundation, typical grants have ranged between $1,000 and $7,000 in recent years, with the maximum for the 2024 cycle for a single grant set to $7,500.
Applications are now open and will close on Jan. 12 at 5 p.m.
