Youth Development
What We Fund
We Believe
We believe that youth who thrive and develop their innate talents are best able to positively impact their families, communities, and society.
Our Aspiration
Support youth from under-resourced communities to realize their full potential by leveraging their unique talents and capabilities.
Ensure diverse opportunities for youth to explore and develop their talents.
Encourage interactions across racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.
What We Fund
To support achievement of our aspirations, we seek to fund an intentional mix of Youth Development endeavors, including:
Planning and Purpose
We increasingly fund initiatives that help young people explore personal motivation and direction by providing a variety of experiences as well as planning to identify and achieve goals.
Educational Enrichment
We support select programs that provide academic support alongside opportunities to spark interest and appreciation in topics not regularly covered during school.
Workplace Learning
We support efforts that provide hands-on learning in a work environment, encouraging skills-based development as well as social and emotional growth.
Across this funding area, we focus on organizations and programs that:
Serve primarily middle and high school-aged youth.
Work with youth over a longer time frame (years vs. days or weeks).
Focus on youth from under-resourced communities.
Encourage diverse interactions among a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, providing opportunities for network building.
Enable and encourage community service.
Give youth voice in program creation and/or direction.
Grantee Spotlights
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Education Opens Doors
Education Opens Doors strives to activate students to determine and pursue an informed future. They have created a turnkey program that operates in dozens of schools and is designed to meet a pressing need in our education system: a lack of dedicated time in school to prepare students to make critical decisions for their future and inspire them to reach their potential. Without a roadmap to success, countless students’ aspirations are never fully realized, as they lack the information and support necessary to pursue the postsecondary choice that is right for them. Through customized content focused on middle schoolers, their students learn the knowledge and skills to confidently navigate high school, set post-secondary goals, and begin their journey to stay on track toward their dreams.
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Project Success
Project Success seeks to motivate and inspire young people to dream about the future and to provide them with the resources and caring adult support they need to achieve their goals. Over the course of seven years — beginning in grade 6 and continuing through grade 12 — they engage students in-class through a facilitated curriculum and through local-to-global expeditions, arts programming, and skills-based certificates. Project Success launched in one school in 1994 and now serves every middle and high school student in Minneapolis Public Schools.
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Green Garden Bakery
Green Garden Bakery is an award-winning business started by and for youth in North Minneapolis. Using produce from a community garden, they developed vegetable-based desserts and began selling products online and at farmer’s markets. Today, these youth entrepreneurs work together to prepare and sell products, create marketing plans, and pursue business and personal goals that include giving back to community: one-third of Green Garden Bakery revenue is donated to address a local need identified by the participants.
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CLUES
CLUES advances the social and economic equity and wellbeing for Latinos in Minnesota. Established in 1981, CLUES is now the largest Latino-led nonprofit in Minnesota. They serve nearly 11,000 people annually with direct services and more than 9,000 people through outreach and events. With offices on the East Side of St. Paul, Lake Street in Minneapolis, and Willmar and Austin in Greater Minnesota, CLUES offers a holistic range of bilingual services including comprehensive behavioral health care, family support, community health services, cultural events, education and employment services, and youth development.
