Our Program

Program Overview

InspiringKids is a youth leadership and philanthropy program that operates like a community fund of student donor advisors*. We work with local businesses of participating schools to create a community fund that the students can access to make grants to organizations that serve their communities.

Our leadership and philanthropy program was developed to assist students and teachers with the ultimate task of identifying and meeting community needs via the community fund. The program ties to Common Core standards and allows for the practical application of 21st century skills being emphasized in classrooms today.

*A Community Fund is a pool of money used to support the non-profits of a specific community, in this case the non-profits of a school's greater community. The students are the donor advisors; meaning that they decide which non-profits will receive grants from the Community Fund.

There are five steps to the program and InspiringKids provides resources for each step.

5 Steps to Success

Our program is a five-step learning process:

Step 1: Student leaders assess their communities and identify needs in three areas; education, environment and social services. They learn about concepts that include, philanthropy, community funds, donor advisors and the difference between needs and wants, in addition to learning about the work of specific NGOs. After researching and collaborating, the student leaders narrow the field of potential recipients to 2-3 finalists to recommend to the student body for consideration.

Step 2: Student leaders educate the greater school community about the InspiringKids program and the grantee finalists after which every student is given the opportunity to vote for a winner.

Step 3: All of the students, student leaders included, participate in a community awareness-building afternoon, "Jobs Day". They work together to complete jobs on school grounds as a way to bring awareness to what they are doing and to the organization that they are supporting.

Step 4: The student leaders donate the money during a school wide assembly to the recipient organization by awarding the check to a representative from the recipient organization.

Step 5: The student leaders reflect on what they have done, report their successes to the greater community and plan for next year.