GEOList Summary: Models for Incorporating Youth Voices into the Granting Process

Our Foundation is currently considering ways to enhance our internal granting process to better include the voices, perspectives and opinions of teens, college students and young adults--the primary beneficiaries of our grants. We are a private non-operating foundation with a small staff, so we are not in a place to set up our own internal youth philanthropy program, but we are currently considering a number of first steps including: holding in-house focus groups, hiring young adult fellows / interns, and sending our staff and board out into the field to participate in immersive programs. Can anyone who has recent experience with projects such as these offer some advice on how you went about it and what you have learned so far? Can you think of other first steps we might want to consider as we approach this process?