Youth and Philanthropy Initiative

The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, also known as YPI, teaches secondary school students the fundamentals of philanthropy, and gives students the opportunity to play a direct role in making a financial grant to a local, grassroots social service organization in their own community.

YPI takes place in secondary schools in North America and the UK as part of a mandatory course, so that each student across the entire grade level/year is able to participate. Students begin their YPI experience by taking part in an introductory workshop, forming teams, and working together to identify the social issues that are prevalent in their own community. Once they have identified these social issues, students select one issue as their focus, and search for local grassroots charities that exist in their community to assist vulnerable members of the local population. Student teams select the charity they believe best addresses their chosen issue, and begin preliminary research around the charity, its mandate and its activities. Teams contact and visit their chosen charity, conducting interviews to help gain a greater understanding of what the charity does, how it operates, the impact it has and challenges it faces, and how it can be supported by young people and the larger community. Students then go on to develop a presentation that will advocate on behalf of their charity and demonstrate the impact a grant to that charity would have on the community. The presentations are delivered in the classroom, and finalists are chosen to go on to deliver their presentation to a larger audience and a panel of judges as part of the YPI Final Presentation Assembly. Here, the judging panel will select one winning group to receive a $5,000 (£3,000) grant for their chosen charity. Through YPI, charities receive important funding from the youth of their community, and students - acting as young philanthropists - become powerful agents of social change.

YPI is currently run in 370 schools to over 50,000 students annually in North America and the UK.

Grants delivered through YPI total over $11,000,000 CDN as of November 2014.

YPI was developed by the Toskan Casale Foundation (founded in 2001 by Frank Toskan, Victor Casale, and Julie Toskan-Casale), a family foundation situated in Toronto, Canada, that is dedicated to supporting and strengthening local, community-based social service agencies.

YPI was first piloted in 2002, at Royal St.George's College, in Toronto.

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