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Future Philanthropists
Emplacement
The Volunteer Family has launched a program called Future Philanthropists. Future Philanthropists entrusts youth to give away real money to charities, teaching youth about the needs within their own communities, their role as active citizens, and the meaning of "giving back." The program helps the youth, charities, and the community as a whole.
A propos de vous
Section 1: You
Prénom
Heather
Nom
Jack
Website URL
Organization
The Volunteer Family
Pays
États Unis, MA
Section 2: Your Organization
Nom
The Volunteer Family
Téléphone
617 963-8260
Adresse
c/o Perry, Krumsiek and Jack, 101 Arch Street, 19th Floor, Boston, MA 02110
Votre organisation est-elle une
organisation à but non lucratif
Pays
États Unis, MA
Your idea
Name Your Project
Future Philanthropists
Country and state your work focuses on
États Unis, MA
Describe Your Idea
The Volunteer Family has launched a program called Future Philanthropists. Future Philanthropists entrusts youth to give away real money to charities, teaching youth about the needs within their own communities, their role as active citizens, and the meaning of "giving back." The program helps the youth, charities, and the community as a whole.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
We have a vision: that today’s youth will have the knowledge, skills, and motivation needed to become caring, thoughtful, and altruistic adults who will individually and collectively build a better world.
The Volunteer Family, a nonprofit based in Boston, Massachusetts, has launched a new program called Future Philanthropists. Together with The Volunteer Family, Future Philanthropists will provide a model for the achievement of this vision.
By entrusting youth to give away real money to nonprofit organizations, the Future Philanthropists program teaches youth about the needs within their own communities, their role as active citizens, and the meaning of “giving back.” Using teamwork, collaboration and leadership skills, students are empowered to help the most deserving charities while simultaneously strengthening their ability to write, create effective budgets, and present to one another.
This program is truly a win-win; in addition to helping many local nonprofits and people in need, this program is a life changing, transformative experience for the students involved.
As one of our students noted, “The Future Philanthropists program offers youth the opportunity to make a significant contribution to our community, while allowing us to develop our own personal skills. I hope this program will reach many students of all backgrounds so that we all learn how we can help others and make a difference in the world.”
Do you have a patent for this idea?
Oui
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
The Volunteer Family, the parent organization for the Future Philanthropists program, has helped more than 10,000 families in 40 states choose from among 30,000 volunteer opportunities. Across the country, parents and children have been able to strengthen their relationships while volunteering for causes such as providing relief to hurricane victims, building homes for homeless families, and feeding the growing number of hungry children.
The Volunteer Family expanded by starting a new program called Future Philanthropists in 2009. The Future Philanthropists program has developed two curricula: one for high school students and one for middle school students. Each group of students works together for 10-13 sessions in order to understand nonprofit management, philanthropy and community needs. The students conduct research on local nonprofit organizations, conduct site visits to charities, and collectively choose which organizations to fund. Typically, each group of students gives $5,000 to nonprofits within their communities. The Future Philanthropists program not only benefits youth, but also will have a lasting positive impact on our society - a “ripple effect” for generations to come.
In the last year alone, we worked with 100 youth at 10 schools to donate $80,000 to local nonprofits! Since we started, the demand among parents, schools, faith-based, and community-based organizations who want to offer this program to their youth has been unbelievably positive. Thus, we are looking to forge new partnerships in order to expand this program across New England.
Problem
As a nation, we have made great strides over the past several decades in the areas of information, technology, and communication. But at what societal cost? Many believe that a slow shift in attitudes is taking place among today’s youth, who are becoming increasingly isolated in today’s “ipod culture.”
In her recent book, Generation Me, Jean Twnge argued that teenagers are more self-centered, more disrespectful of authority, and more depressed than ever before. There is growing concern that overconfidence, materialism, and a lack of compassion for others is becoming an epidemic among our youngest generations. Where in their education, either at school or home, will youth learn to appreciate what they have? How can they recognize ways to help others, and in the process, help themselves?
Our programs have the potential to improve our communities while simultaneously improving the lives of young people – enabling Generation Me to become Generation We.
Actions
The mission of Future Philanthropists is to engage and empower youth to collectively choose and fund nonprofit organizations. We have three goals.
Our first goal is to educate young people about community needs and resources and the value of philanthropy.
Our second goal is to encourage students to become active and engaged citizens and leaders at their own places of learning. We will achieve this by working with schools, faith-based and community-based organizations in order to implement the Future Philanthropists curriculum.
Our third goal is to help nonprofit organizations do good work in their communities. We will achieve this by enabling the students to donate funds to local charities.
Thus far, we have received a phenomenal response from youth, schools, and nonprofits. Our biggest challenge is figuring out a sustainable way to offer this program to as many youth, schools and communities as possible.
Results
The benefits of the Future Philanthropists program vary from youth to entire communities.
Future Philanthropists gives youth the knowledge and the skills to confront issues in their communities directly. This program teaches youth to become better decision makers, team members and leaders.
The impact of Future Philanthropists reaches well beyond the youth who participate. Because youth make careful and well thought out decisions regarding grant allocation, benefits are felt directly by organizations that students choose to fund. Their thoughtful decisions have helped local food pantries serve more individuals, children recover from the death of a parent, and families learn about the importance of nutrition.
Youth innately understand that the key to effective giving is to offer tools, hope, and resources to enable us, person by person and community by community, to provide comfort and direction to confused teens, coats and mittens to needy families, reassurance and connection to lonely seniors.
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
For the next three years, our goal is to implement the Future Philanthropists program at an additional 30 schools per year. This would enable us to work with approximately 300 additional youth per year. Because each program donates $5,000 to the community, we would also be able to donate $150,000 to nonprofit organizations in the Northeast.
In order to make this a success, we need to build our operations to the point where we can make connections with local foundations that are willing to donate the grantmaking funds to the schools. We need to forge relationships with each school principal and train an additional 30 teachers per year. We also need to make sure that each youth participant comes to each program engaged and ready to learn.
There are so many positive implications that this program can have on youth, schools, nonprofits and the community – if we are able to do this, the outcomes of this program could truly be incredible.
It’s a big job, but, like our youth, we have high expectations. We have a plan and are ready for this challenge. All we need is a helping hand to help us get to the next level.
What would prevent your project from being a success?
The Future Philanthropists program has so much potential, but we need to get the word out in order to forge additional partnerships with schools, faith-and community-based institutions, and foundations. If we are able to do this, the foundations donate the grantmaking funds and we take care of the operational piece of teaching the programs. These partnerships will make our program a success.
How many people will your project serve annually?
101‐1000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Non
Viabilité
A quel étape votre projet en est-il ?
En place depuis 1 à 5 ans
In what country?
États Unis, MA
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Oui
If yes, provide organization name.
The Volunteer Family
How long has this organization been operating?
Plus 5 années
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Oui
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Oui
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Non
Does your organization have any non-monetary partnerships with government?
Non
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
The Volunteer Family and the Future Philanthropist program relies heavily on partnerships and collaborations with many community groups, individuals, and nonprofit organizations in order to recruit youth volunteers, teach the program, provide operational support, offer funding, and market the program to community leaders.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
For the next three years, our goal is to implement the Future Philanthropists program at an additional 30 schools per year. This would enable us to work with approximately 300 additional youth per year. Because each program donates $5,000 to the community, we would also be able to donate $150,000 to nonprofit organizations in the Northeast.
In order to make this a success, we need to build our operations to the point where we can make connections with local foundations that are willing to donate the grantmaking funds to the schools. We need to forge relationships with each school principal and train an additional 30 teachers per year. We also need to make sure that each youth participant comes to each program engaged and ready to learn.
There are positive effects of this program on youth, schools, nonprofits and the community – if we are able to do this, the outcomes of this program could truly be incredible.
It’s a big job, but, like our youth, we have high expectations. We have a plan and are ready for this challenge. All we need is a helping hand to help us get to the next level.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
The history of The Volunteer Family will be described below, but we will also describe the defining moment that led to the implementation of the Future Philanthropists program.
In 2007 Heather Jack, our Executive Director, managed a philanthropy program on behalf of a small community foundation. She saw the big impact of the program and saw greater potential for its development. She subsequently spent a year working with schools, agencies, and foundations to write a curriculum that could be taught by local teachers and community leaders. The Volunteer Family board adopted Future Philanthropists as a program of The Volunteer Family in 2009. During the 2009–2010 school year, with funding provided by the Highland Street Foundation, Future Philanthropists was taught at 10 school-based locations in the greater Boston area.
The result of the implementation of this program has been amazing. Teachers immediately see the value of empowering youth to give back – they are so eager to teach this curriculum. Thus, we already have a waiting list of schools who want to implement it. Students contact us daily to find out how they can participate. We are hopeful that Green Mountain and Ashoka can help us by giving us the additional publicity and funding we need to expand to schools, faith-based and community based organizations throughout New England.
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
The Volunteer Family, Inc. was officially created in May 2003, but it had been on the mind of founder, Heather M. Jack, for quite some time. Very community service-oriented throughout her childhood and young adult years, she regularly worked with her mother and brother to serve food at homeless shelters, visit the elderly, and help to clean out animal shelters. The involvement with her family enhanced her sense of community and her circle of friends. More than anything, she enjoyed the sense of fulfillment and the knowledge that she was directly impacting someone’s life in a positive, tangible way.
In college at Middlebury, Vermont, her passion for volunteering continued. In addition to helping out locally, she collaborated with the national Head Start program to write a volunteer recruitment manual for three thousand Head Start centers and developed a new tracking method for nonprofits. Her extensive work was so notable it led to winning the Public Service Award upon graduation. Heather continued with her education, earning and MBA in social entrepreneurship from Babson University.
Heather married and had a daughter in July of 2002. Heather became acutely aware of the importance of family and community and how the two are interrelated. She says, “When we have a child to look after, we unfortunately often put community service on the back burner. I realized that if I could find a way to spend more time with my family and volunteer at the same time, I could teach my daughter to care for others while we contributed to an important cause together.”
She did months of research, trying to find opportunities where she could volunteer with her family in her locale, but it was a difficult and time-consuming task. Finally, her frustration with the process led to the creation of The Volunteer Family, a single place where families looking to volunteer could find an opportunity that they could do together. Today The Volunteer Family offers 30,000 volunteer opportunities in 40 states. Schools, faith-based organizations, and companies also use The Volunteer Family’s services to search for volunteer opportunities. The innovative programs have been increasingly recognized by community leaders and the media, both locally and nationwide, and have been the recipient of several local and national awards.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Personal contact at Changemakers
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
Alexis Ditkowsky sent us an email and requested that we apply.
 | hjack said: Hi Alexis! The students choose from among many different types of organizations - education, human services, animals, environment, or ... about this Competition Entry. - il y a 689 jours lire plus > |
| Alexis Ditkowsky said: Hi Heather, I'm curious to hear what causes and organizations are resonating with your middle school and high school "Future ... about this Competition Entry. - il y a 690 jours lire plus > |
| hjack updated this Competition Entry. - il y a 701 jours |
| hjack a soumis cette idée. - il y a 702 jours |
