YOUTH ADVISORY COUNCIL (YAC)
Involving Leelanau Township Youth in Philanthropy
Through a matching grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Youth Endowment Fund allows Northport High School students the opportunity to learn about philanthropy at an early age as members of the Leelanau Township Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Council. YAC members participate in the foundation’s grant making process. They are responsible for recommending grant distributions from the Youth Endowment Fund to the Leelanau Township Community Foundation Board. Each year two students are selected by their peers to serve on the foundation’s board where they are part of the voting process. YAC members are empowered and encouraged to initiate positive change in our community by advocating projects that are important to younger residents.
Your gift to the Youth Endowment Fund will help the next generation of local leaders to understand and become involved with charitable giving.
Youthful Philanthropy Making a Difference
Leelanau Township Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Council has awarded over $100,000 in grants since 1996 to benefit the Youth of Leelanau Township. Not surprisingly many of these awards have gone to the Northport schools to fund special programs – everything from drug free schools to senior projects to yearbook publication. And while it’s expected that young philanthropists would focus on the place that touches them most deeply, these youthful benefactors also donated to the town’s Sesquicentennial Celebration, the Discovery Center, forerunner of the Leelanau Children’s Center, the Grand Traverse Lighthouse, the Leelanau County Family Coordinating Council and Family Independence Agency and the Northport Area Skateboard Association. Annual contributions to community projects have varied from $1,100 as high as $14,000, which confirms that young people in our community are well able to handle the challenges and responsibilities of planning and helping to fund the future of our area.
To contact the foundation, call 231.386.9000 or email director@leelanaufoundation.org