Head, Heart, and Agency: Engaging the Next Generation Inside and Outside the Foundation

By: Olivia R. Zale, Advisor

For my first blog post for Grant Philanthropic Advisors (GPA), it felt fitting to write about a formative experience at the beginning of my personal philanthropic journey, one that I regularly cite as the catalyst that jumpstarted my past 16 years of involvement with the M.B. and Edna Zale Foundation.

While I grew up attending family foundation board meetings (read: eating snacks in the room next door with my cousin), it wasn’t until I was a junior in high school that I had a defining realization that enabled me to truly understand and appreciate the opportunity and privilege of what my family was doing together in the boardroom next door. 

When I was a junior in high school, my classmates and I had the chance to apply to participate in Youth in Philanthropy (YIP), a program offered by the Community Foundation for MetroWest (CFMW), headquartered in Natick, MA. I didn’t think much about it at the time, other than to consider it an interesting extracurricular as I geared up to apply to college and a way to spend more time with my friends (please remember that I was 17). The reality is that the experience played a pivotal role in my personal development and in my understanding of what philanthropy is, as well as what it can be. While my exposure to philanthropy through the Zale Foundation laid the groundwork, YIP provided the opportunity and agency for me to understand philanthropy on my own.

The Power of Agency: Lessons from Youth in Philanthropy

CFMW’s YIP program was founded in 1997 and is now one of the largest and longest-running youth philanthropy programs in the country. Since its inception, YIP has been generously supported by donors, alumni, and program sponsors, with over $3,500,000 raised for the program, distributing 500+ grants to more than 160 nonprofit organizations in MetroWest (the suburbs between Boston and Worcester, MA).

YIP is one example of an effective program that seeks to engage, inspire, and empower youth to take an active role in making change in their community and in the world. In a recent article written by Jeffrey M. Glebocki at Exponent Philanthropy, investing in youth philanthropy programs is a way to invest in your community. The throughline through all Youth in Philanthropy programs is the same: “young people learning that they can have a meaningful role in creating change”. 

The target audience of CFMW’s Youth in Philanthropy program is not explicitly students like me, coming from families that already practice philanthropy. The program “is an experiential leadership development program designed to empower and educate local youth to become our community’s next generation of philanthropists–those who give their time, talent and treasure for the common good.” The direction of each YIP grant cycle is guided by the participating students. While there is a detailed, built-out curriculum that administrators follow, students are encouraged to focus and reorient their work together based on their interests. For example, if a CFMW-provided dataset reveals a localized need for a specific group of neighbors, students are encouraged to lean into what speaks to them personally, pivoting their grantmaking to address the gaps that resonate most with their collective values. 

While the program grants $10,000 overall to the grantees chosen by the students, there is also a fundraising component. The students are entirely responsible for fundraising $1,000 in whatever way they choose. Students take full ownership of the process, from choosing a focus to the logistics of fundraising–even deciding exactly what to bake for a fundraiser.

Breaking the Bubble: Where Head and Heart Meet

Reflecting on my experience with YIP, I reached out to Alyssa Berkson, Program Manager at CFMW. In addition to helping fill in some gaps in my memory and providing some updates on the program since I participated in the late aughts, Alyssa shared that students are encouraged to use their head and their heart, as both are important grantmaking “tools”. 

What I remember most about the experience are two important moments. The first is the feeling that I had during one of the site visits. While it was relatively easy for me to stay inside my “bubble” at 17, I distinctly remember specific moments when it felt like the outside world broke through. Leaving my high school’s campus to spend time with an organization and its leaders who were imagining and working towards a different standard of living for members of their community was incredibly powerful. The world felt bigger than me and the opportunity to affect positive change was both palpable and possible. My heart felt bigger and my perspective was forever changed. 

The second important moment was sitting in a big circle with my peers, deliberating on which organizations to fund and for how much. I remember it being fun, exciting, and real. These were decisions with consequences for our community. We were being intentional and considerate. I also remember feeling proud of myself and my friends: together, we used both our heads and our hearts. On their website, YIP shares that “young people need opportunities to develop the skills to be the future leaders and stewards of our community.” Together, around that table, my friends and I built important professional and leadership skills to carry us forward, through life and our careers, with care, compassion, and a dedication to community.

Building the Roadmap: Internal vs External Learning Opportunities

Now, in my work with GPA’s clients, questions about how to engage children, teens, and young adults in family philanthropy are ever present. I approach the exercise with two questions:

1. Looking internally, how are you creating opportunities for your next generation to meaningfully engage within your family’s philanthropy?
2. Looking externally, how are you encouraging your next generation to engage more broadly with their community and to find their own philanthropic voice?

There are many examples of internally-developed programming and experiences that can engage and inspire your next generation. Last year, GPA worked with the Sartain Lanier Family Foundation to develop a learning ladder, which serves as a developmental roadmap to gradually prepare younger family members for philanthropic leadership. 

Earlier this year, GPA worked with another family and their kids, ages 11-15, to create a family mission statement, set aside a percentage of the family’s charitable giving for the kids to self-direct to organizations of their choice, and compile a list of local organizations where the kids could roll up their sleeves and volunteer meaningfully in their community.

For me, participating in Youth in Philanthropy in high school–and having a philanthropic experience that was independent of my family–was the catalyst for my long-term commitment to our family’s foundation. By the time I was 20 years old, I was one of the first members of the 4th generation to sit on the foundation’s Board as a director. For some of my cousins, that same spark grew more organically from family experiences and our family culture, nurtured for generations by our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. 

My cousins have shared that completing service projects, like building a house for SBP (formerly St. Bernard Project) or sorting donations for the Dallas Furniture Bank during a board meeting weekend, were formative moments. For others, it was volunteering with our grandfather, delivering meals to home-bound seniors through the Ruth and Norman Rales Jewish Family Services’ Meals on Wheels program.  

At the Zale Foundation, we are convening an ad-hoc committee starting this summer to discuss how to create a 5th Generation Youth Board. With 38 fifth generation family members (ages 0-17), it’s time to build a framework where they can engage with each other and our family legacy. 

There’s no right way to engage your next generation. But, if you create intentional pathways for them to experience and participate in philanthropy both within and outside of the family, you’ll all be stronger and better for it.

Starting the Conversation

For many families with philanthropic vehicles, philanthropy can support them through conversations about wealth, class, privilege, and their family values. It creates a container to discuss how your family moves through the world and can impart important life lessons. What do you care about? Where do you focus your time and resources? Why? 

In case those conversations sound overwhelming, some words of support – 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way. My colleagues and I at GPA are here for a conversation, whether you’re just beginning to consider how to engage your next generation or you’re ready to bring in outside help and start designing your own learning ladder. Through GPA’s Legacy in Motion framework, we can also help facilitate conversations around wealth and values, helping your family transform a shared legacy into a dynamic, multi-generational mission.

Look to your community for ideas and opportunities. Your local community foundation may already host a Youth in Philanthropy program that serves as the perfect external complement to your family’s traditions. And if that infrastructure isn’t in place yet, consider it an invitation: your family could be the catalyst that helps start a program, providing youth beyond just your own with opportunities to lean into philanthropy and understand the impact of supporting their communities.

When we intentionally engage the next generation with our legacy and values, we empower them to become dedicated stewards of their own communities. By connecting them to their family’s mission while helping them find their own independent voice, we do more than just distribute resources; we actively cultivate the thoughtful, grounded citizens our world requires. Ultimately, this is how we create the future leaders that we all want and need.

Photo: Olivia with her cousins in New Orleans during a service project for SBP.

About Grant Philanthropic Advisors:
We’re an independent firm helping clients to focus and maximize their philanthropy—in turn, strengthening the fabric of our communities. Founded in 2019, we help donors move from responsive patterns of giving by assisting clients to identify values and become more strategic in their philanthropy. Our goal is to help donors to become more effective as change-makers. We work with foundations (large and small staff teams), donor advised fund holders, multi generational families, individuals, philanthropy supporting organizations and corporations to design philanthropic strategies.