The Youth Philanthropy Initiative of Indiana (YPII), founded in 2001, is dedicated to growing lifelong philanthropists.  Our philosophy has been to provide philanthropic resources, educational training, and technical assistance to youth-serving organizations, community foundations, schools and after-school programs. The YPII resources (ages 4-18) can serve as valuable tools for adults who are parents, teachers, and mentors in a young person’s life.

YPII conducts an annual survey with Community Foundations that promote youth philanthropy through a youth council or school-based program.  Collected data is used to summarize the work and impact of youth philanthropists in Indiana communities, as well as provide insight into youth philanthropy trends.

View the 2019 Youth Philanthropy Survey Results Page.

Expanding on YPII’s mission of “growing lifelong philanthropists”,  we invited Stephanie Stilson, PhD., Developmental Psychologist, Naflion, LLC, to give her insights of youth development and how that might correlate with a young person learning and experiencing youth philanthropy.  We think you will find the following Issue Brief very relevant in understanding how easy and natural it may be for youth to develop a philanthropic spirit.

YPII firmly believes that philanthropic education, training, and experiential learning can assist a young person in understanding how they can make a difference in their school, community and society.  This area of our website will highlight research and briefing papers that provide solid background information “making the case” of why it is important to engage young people in philanthropy.  We anticipate that the information in these documents will be helpful to educators, parents, youth-service providers, and foundation staff.