Northeast Youth Philanthropy Gathering in Greater Boston

This special session is for youth new to philanthropy! Learn how your passions can help change the world by using the great skills you already have!  Philanthropy allows a person or organization to focus on one issue--or a list of finite issues--and really understand the ins and outs of solving that problem. It is a big responsibility to help make sure change happens and can be a lot of fun---come join the fun!

You have been grantmaking to nonprofits, and now you want to better understand how they have impact and even how they operate! Come to this engaging session to learn more about nonprofit management, how nonprofits work, and how you can better understand them to be a better grantmaker and community member.  

The work of giving can be serious business, but it doesn’t always have to be. 21/64, in partnership with Youth Philanthropy Connect, created roleplay as a tool to help you leverage an often overlooked way to explore your role in philanthropy: play. You will gain awareness of how you act in different roles—both personally and as a funder--and even understand how to better tell your story of your path in philanthropy. Each youth philanthropy program will bring home enough roleplay kits so you can take what you learned and facilitate this tool for your peers!

This session is for youth and adults. Together, in a merge session, you have the opportunity to consult directly with experts in the field. Rotate to talk with the five speakers listed as experts about the following topics:

Danielle Oristian York- The Role of Stories and Using Tools to Support Communication across the generations and Life Long Learning as Philanthropists
Jen Bokoff- YouthGiving.org site, data, and use!
Rachel Ogorek-  Trends in Family Philanthropy and Next Gen Involvement
Mary Phillips- Tools for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning
John Oddy- Increasing Your Philanthropic Impact Through Focus and Passion: Getting Started.

Understanding how everything is connected can help you solve BIG problems across your community.  As a youth grantmaker, you have an amazing asset with a special perspective to be able to look at what is going on in your community and understand how you can make connections and bridges or even just understand big problems and solutions better.  In this session, you will learn systems thinking from awesome college youth philanthropists from Northeastern who are exited to share their experiential philanthropy approach!

Explore the power you have to make meaningful change in your community! In this interactive, teen-led session, you will think critically about 'power', learn about methods of change and hear about how young people have used their voice to make their communities a more just place. We hope you will leave feeling empowered and excited to do your own advocacy work in your home communities!

The author Henry David Thoreau once said, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil, to one who is striking at the root.” If you aspire to move beyond superficial, temporary fixes to deep, longstanding challenges, this session helps you explore ways to do that. This interactive session introduces attendees to the practice of social justice philanthropy in the United States. We will explore differences between traditional philanthropy or charity and social justice philanthropy and provide examples of what social justice philanthropy looks like in real places right now, examining funding in such areas as affordable housing, access to clean water, and environmental justice. We talk about why social justice philanthropy is especially relevant in an increasingly unequal society.