Youth thrive and prosper when actively and intentionally engaged in philanthropic work. With tools to take action, they understand how much power their personal actions can have. It helps improve their mental well-being as well as their performance and behavior in school. They develop hard skills that relate to philanthropic practices, but they also develop an enormous array of critical soft skills, including critical interpersonal life skills, leadership abilities, and strong verbal and written communication skills.

Nonprofit organizations play a key role in unlocking the power and potential of youth, and these nonprofit organizations are then able to better address needs in the community, especially those affecting youth. They can build better donor engagement and youth serve as strong future donors, nonprofit employees, and board members. This inclusion of youth provides a more equitable and effective trust-based philanthropic approach to nonprofit activities.

Communities that prioritize youth philanthropic empowerment benefit in turn from having their individual members and local organizations benefit. More broadly, however, these communities assess and respond to needs better, as youth often have an invaluable understanding of the community undercurrent, they create stronger community engagement, and they develop deeper community ties through this bottom-up approach.

Empowering youth in philanthropic work produces a lasting and improved future for society. First, this allows for a shift in the perception of youth—both in how youth perceive themselves and how society views youth—because it demonstrates the irreplicable impact youth can have even at their age. Secondly, putting intentionality in our approach to empowering youth in philanthropy allows us to develop thoroughly well-trained and thoughtfully educated leaders. Future nonprofit leaders will need distinctly different knowledge, skills, and abilities, and it is our duty today to be the supporting partners to this next generation of leaders.

The TPI program model hands the reigns over to the student participants, enabling them to own the grantmaking, fundraising, and volunteering efforts.

Using root cause analysis, granting funds up to $80,000 per year in some communities, and being given many tools for action, students are empowered with a remarkably strong platform for youth voice to affect the changes in the community they believe are most crucial.

Create a more unified community by connecting students, schools, community organizations, adult mentors, local companies, donors, and nonprofit leaders.

Communities improve their future by learning from the successes and opportunities of the past and present. Allowing our future leaders to learn directly from current community leaders galvanizes a cycle toward a healthier and more successful tomorrow.

Our expert and experienced mentor-led model provides students with a 3rd place environment where they can receive support, guidance, and a safe environment to explore themselves and difficult topics through engaged peer discourse.

Our program allows for the greatest long-term positive impact on youth mental well-being due to the emphasis on personal development, self-fulfillment, exploration of one’s own potential and planning for the future, and contribution to the well-being of others and to society as a whole by including community and socio-political engagement.

Our national scale of programs allows student participants to learn from their peers in significantly different communities across the country and network based on their shared love for humankind.

Our national scale across a plethora of different communities provides a network unlike any other program to organizations who host the program, allowing for collaborative growth. We also use our broad network to lead discussions and an annual conference around youth in philanthropy on best practices, trends within the sector, and future opportunity areas.