Community Feature
Empowering Youth Philanthropy Leaders with Decision-Making Power
The Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) is empowering youth through its Teen Grantmaking Initiative (TGI), and more broadly through CAAP’s parent organization the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS). ACCESS is the largest Arab American community nonprofit in the United States and has numerous priority areas impacting thousands of youth annually, including academic enrichment, education and recreational programs.
Katherine Hayek Asuncion, deputy director of CAAP, shared that when CAAP was established in 2010, the organization was intentional about including youth.
“It was so essential to have programming at our foundation that youth could focus their leadership skills and learn about philanthropy,” Hayek Asuncion said.
Hayek Asuncion shared that the TGI solicits proposals from nonprofits that focus on youth and then they decide together to provide funding.
“Joining TGI was one of the best decisions I made in high school. It introduced me to the world of philanthropy, connected me with like-minded peers and opened doors to countless opportunities and programs that shaped my future,” Khadeja Rizvi, three-year TGI member shared.
The TGI is based on the Michigan Youth Advisory Council (YAC) model at community foundations and follows the same principles of youth leadership through the lens of grantmaking.
“Many of the youth that start in the program don’t necessarily view themselves as philanthropists, but once they learn about the process and experience what it’s like to collectively make decisions about where the grantmaking dollars are going and the impact that they have, at the end of the year, they start to view themselves as philanthropy leaders,” Hayek Asuncion said.
The TGI program follows the school year calendar and each TGI chapter decides individually on their grantmaking priorities from year to year, which are based on the results of needs assessments conducted in their local communities.
“The TGI puts out a request for proposals during the academic year that youth-serving organizations can apply to in Metro Detroit. After they get the applications, the youth review and have several meetings where they must collectively make the decisions on which organizations to fund,” Hayek Asuncion said.
“Joining TGI was one of the best decisions I made in high school. It introduced me to the world of philanthropy, connected me with like-minded peers and opened doors to countless opportunities and programs that shaped my future,” Khadeja Rizvi, three-year TGI member shared.
The TGI has chosen to support youth-serving organizations in Metro Detroit that focus on mental health, substance use disorder prevention and domestic violence prevention centers.
“Their leadership skills really grow by the end of the program, both by the grantmaking component but also by the fundraising component. They meet with individual donors in the community and pitch the idea of the program and ask for donations which empowers them to feel ownership over the program,” Hayek Asuncion said.
The TGI also utilizes an executive committee comprised of up to four program members, who participate in leading meetings and take on more leadership roles with their peers.
“Once I joined TGI, I realized that everything was within reach to truly make an impact on my community. I can now confidently say that TGI opened so many doors for me and introduced me to the world of future change-makers,” Manar Yaseen, TGI Alumna said.
Hayek Asuncion shared that students return each year throughout high school for the opportunity to work together and for the agency to make its own grantmaking decisions. CAAP works to engage the TGI graduates as much as possible.
“They have a leadership role, and we really try to have things be as youth-led as possible. I think that carries across more broadly to how CAAP and certainly ACCESS view youth empowerment, that youth need to be involved in all levels of decision-making because they bring a lot of value to the process,” Hayek Asuncion said.
CAAP empowers the Arab American community by demonstrating the impact of giving together and empowering everyone to consider themselves as a philanthropist, no matter at what level they are giving.
“If we all are thinking that way then youth would feel more empowered to voice their opinions. We want to make sure that youth feel appreciated for the value they bring. We have to continue centering on the voices of different cultures, which is more important now than ever. We also want the broader community to know that we’re not just in a silo, Arab Americans give everywhere to all different institutions and are making a lot of difference in their communities,” Hayek Asuncion said.
Want more?
Read more about TGI stories and successes.
Learn more about the Michigan Community Foundations Youth Project Committee and CMF’s efforts to empower youth.