Youth Venture

Where to Find Grants

Youth Service America: http://www.ysa.org/awards/award_grant.cfm

Youth Service America (YSA) is a resource center that envisions a global culture of engaged youth who are committed to a lifetime of service, learning, leadership, and achievement. YSA’s website lists many grant and award opportunities for youth. You can also sign up to receive their grant updates through email.

Youth Noise: http://www.youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=2325#18#18

Youth Noise, is a Web-based resource with a mission to inspire teens to learn about issues affecting their generation, to connect them with a community of other young people, and to empower them to take action. Their awards page lists sources for project support, awards, and scholarships.

The Freechild Project: http://www.freechild.org/funds4progress.htm

The Freechild Project provides resources, training, and consultation to those interested in youth voice, youth-led activism, and youth-adult partnerships. The Freechild Project website also identifies many funding sources for youth-led social change.

Taking It Global: http://www.takingitglobal.org/resources/financial/

Takingitglobal.org is an online community that connects youth to find inspiration, access information, get involved, and take action in their local and global communities. Taking It Global offers an online database where you can search for grants, scholarships, and other financial opportunities.

Raise Your Voice Campaign: http://www.actionforchange.org/getstarted/howto-findfunds.html

Raise Your Voice Campaign is an initiative of Campus Compact that supports student civic engagement and addresses public issues crucial to democracy. Their website lists funders and sources of financial assistance for student projects.

Grants for Youth

Do Something: www.dosomething.org

Do Something encourages young people to create their own vision for making a difference in their community and provides them with the resources and support needed. Do Something’s BRICK Awards recognize and support social change-makers age 25 and under. Twelve BRICK Award winners each round receive $10,000.

Youth Action Net: http://www.youthactionnet.org/yan_awards/index.cfm

The $500 Youth Action Net Award is awarded to individuals who have a leadership role in a youth-led initiative that works to create positive change in their community. The award is open to young people aged 18-29.

Third Wave Foundation: www.thirdwavefoundation.org

Third Wave Foundation supports work that exists to challenge sexism, racism, homophobia, economic injustice, and other forms of oppression. Third Wave’s Organizing and Advocacy Fund accepts proposals for projects which benefit, target, are devised by, and led by women between the ages of 15 and 30, with an emphasis on low-income women, differently-abled women, women of color, and lesbian and bisexual women.

Ellen Dougherty Activist Fund: http://www.openmeadows.org/special.htm

The Ellen Dougherty Activist Fund provides grants of up to $2,000 to women 19 and under who propose to develop and lead projects focused on activism and social change.

Awards and Recognition

Brower Youth Awards: http://broweryouthawards.org/

The Brower Youth Awards, a program of Earth Island Institute, recognize the efforts of environmental leaders ages 13 to 22. Six prizes of $3,000 each are given out yearly. Additionally, each winner is brought to San Francisco for the award week and a backcountry camping trip.

Prudential Spirit of Community Awards: http://www.prudential.com/community/

The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards honor young people in middle and high school grades for outstanding volunteer service to their communities. The program honors young volunteers at the local, state, and national level. State Honorees receive $1,000 and an all-expense-paid trip with a parent or guardian to Washington, D.C.

NetAid Global Action Awards: http://www.netaid.org/global_action_awards/

NetAid honors high school students in the United States who have organized and led a project that has impacted people in poor countries, or raised awareness about global poverty in their own communities. The honorees are awarded $5,000 for college or a charitable cause of their choice.