Directory: Supporting Youth Initiatives

• Sections:     Intro & Context | Themes & Trends | Donors & Funds

3. Directory of International Donors Funding the Youth Sector

THE INTERNATIONAL AWARD ASSOCIATION (IAA)

www.intaward.org

The IAA is a self-development program available to young people between the ages of 14 and 25. Launched in the UK in 1956 as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, the program has now spread to 126 countries. Any group working with young people can participate. Young people design their own award program, set their own goals, and record their own progress. Those who work toward achieving the award discover what they are made of, make an impact on their community, and develop life skills. The award is administered by the National Award Authorities (NAAs), which are responsible for the operation of the award within a particular country. These awards form the IAA and are governed by its constitution. There are currently 59 NAAs, which are nongovernmental or governmental bodies. In countries where there is no NAA, the IAA offers individual schools, youth clubs, youth organizations, and other NGOs the opportunity to become independent operators of the award. One focus of the award is to ensure the inclusion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in the program.

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE: International

SOURCES OF FUNDS: Private donations (from a global benefactor, several prominent wealthy individuals, former award beneficiaries), corporate sponsorship, investment income.

FINANCIALS: 2007–8 British Pounds Sterling

Total Revenue fundraised and spent 2.54 million

JOHNSON & JOHNSON FOUNDATION

www.efc.be/webready/JOHN001.html

Johnson & Johnson is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly based manufacturer of health care products, as well as a provider of related services for the consumer, pharmaceutical, and professional markets. The Johnson & Johnson family of companies, consisting of more than 200 companies in 54 countries, sponsors a wide range of initiatives, often in partnership with national foundations. These initiatives can be divided into four core areas: Community Responsibility, Women and Children’s Health, Access to Care, and Advancing Health Care Knowledge. Two of these core areas include projects targeting young people:

Community Responsibility:

  • School for Leaders Association: offers promising youngsters from Poland and Central Eastern Europe training in leadership skills and supports social and governmental community activities.

Women and Children’s Health:

  • Medusana Stiftung, Germany: develops health care programs, health care education, and consulting services for school children between ages 9 and 14. It also collaborates with physicians associations and health insurance companies to coordinate health education projects and initiatives.
  • Barretstown Gang Camp, Ireland: provides emotionally and physically challenging therapeutic, recreational, and social activities for seriously ill children through its international summer camp program.

GEOGRAPHIC SCOPE: Worldwide, with emphasis on projects in communities where the company operates.

SOURCES OF FUNDS: Contributions by the Johnson & Johnson group of companies.

FINANCIALS: 2005 US Dollars

Total Expenditure 591,900,000

European Level Expenditure 14,000,000

Annual Turnover 50,510,000,000

REWORK THE WORLD

www.reworktheworld.org

Rework the World is a global initiative that seeks to mobilize young people around promising sustainable ventures and help take the emerging green economy to the next level. It is a response to the confluence of the ecological and economic crises and to the increasing fragmentation in our societies. The project strives for a positive mobilization and for significant concrete results by combining existing initiatives into real collaborative forces of change. The goal is to help generate two million opportunities for young people to be engaged in meaningful work in sustainability-related enterprises by 2012.

Rework the World is a partnership between YES Inc., a global network of youth-led movements in 55 countries, and the Tällberg Foundation, with a global network of high-level decision makers from business, civil society, academia, and politics. Through local meetings and activities organized in cooperation with local partners around the world, Rework aims to:

  • identify the most promising local environmentally sustainable ventures with a potential for large-scale employment creation;
  • connect these ventures with complementary stakeholders—investors, social entrepreneurs, governments, and youth movements—to take promising ventures into forceful collaborative efforts;
  • inspire business leaders, decision makers, established institutions, and politicians to turn collaborative efforts into transformative forces for change.

Through a methodology grounded in systems thinking and based on strategic brokering of relationships, the project seeks to significantly scale the impact of existing efforts by engineering clusters of supporting actors and linking these to local youth networks. The aim is to generate large-scale green employment opportunities for youth, and to realize synergies in existing efforts of business, civil society, government, and international bodies.

Concrete results have emerged from meetings in East Africa, India, and Latin America. Entrepreneurs in areas such as low-income housing, solar energy lighting for rural areas, sustainable charcoal, and rural livelihoods have, as a result of the project, started to work with youth leaders and networks, preparing plans to support green youth opportunities.

THE SKOLL FOUNDATION

www.skollfoundation.org/aboutskoll/index.asp

The Skoll Foundation advances systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs. Skoll supports not-for-profit organizations rather than individuals; works with organizations that have a proven track record in the field of empowerment; increases resources and influence through grant-making; seeks long-term impact and universal application; and values innovation, creative ideas, and new solutions to problems. The Skoll Foundation does not have a dedicated youth funding program, but its principles lend themselves to funding initiatives executed by young social entrepreneurs.

Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship

www.skollfoundation.org/skollawards/index.asp

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship support social entrepreneurs whose work has the potential for large-scale influence on critical challenges of our time: tolerance and human rights, health, economic and social equity, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and environmental sustainability. These issues are at the heart of the foundation’s vision of empowering people to create a peaceful, prosperous, sustainable world. Within these issues, the foundation is particularly interested in applications from social entrepreneurs working in five critical sub-issue areas that threaten the survival of humanity: climate change, nuclear proliferation, pandemics, conflict in the Middle East, and water scarcity. The Skoll Awards provide later-stage, or mezzanine, funding. In most cases, the grant is provided for core support to help organizations expand their programs and capacity to deliver long-term, sustainable equilibrium change. The Skoll Awards are not intended for new or early-stage programs or initiatives. Programs submitted for consideration should have a track record of no less than three years.

Qualifying organizations will:

  • be led by a social entrepreneur;
  • have implemented innovative programs that demonstrate effective approaches to critical social and environmental challenges with global implications. Organizations developing local or regional models for replication on a national or international scale should show that the location where the model is being tested is central to the issue in question. Examples are peace and security initiatives in conflict regions, biodiversity solutions in species-rich “hot spots,” educational opportunities in inner cities, and disease treatments at the source of potential epidemics.
  • be able to describe a clear, long-term path to creating an equilibrium change;
  • demonstrate proof of concept with measurable outcomes;
  • have a clear, compelling plan for reaching scale;
  • demonstrate a track record of at least three years;
  • have a clear plan for long-term financial and operational sustainability;
  • commit to working with peers and the Skoll Foundation to share learning and communicate success strategies.

FINANCIALS: Total Skoll Skoll Fund

Assets Foundation Total

FY08 US$533,427,295 $462,545,555 $985,173,800

An additional consideration is the amount of the Skoll Award (generally US$1 million) as a percent of an organization’s total budget. Skoll Award payments will not represent more than 30% of an organization’s actual revenues in the first year of the award, 25% in the second year, and 20% in the third year. This guideline reflects Skoll’s interest in funding organizations that are growing their funding base and reducing reliance over time on Skoll funding.

WORLD ALLIANCE FOR CITIZEN PARTICIPATION (CIVICUS)

www.civicus.org

CIVICUS is an international network that spans civil society. CIVICUS works to strengthen citizen action and civil society worldwide, especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens’ freedom of association are threatened. CIVICUS provides a focal point for knowledge sharing, common interest representation, global institution building, and engagement among these disparate sectors. It acts as an advocate for citizen participation as an essential component of governance and democracy worldwide. CIVICUS has established its global headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa. It networks with many national and international organizations, including youth organizations, and runs some programs of special interest to young people, including one on volunteerism.

Special Project on Volunteerism

www.civicus.org/special-projects

Recognizing the importance of volunteerism for citizen participation, CIVICUS renewed a 2004 Memorandum of Understanding with the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) and the UN Volunteer (UNV) program to jointly promote a greater awareness of the value of volunteers and volunteer action to society, particularly for advancing widely held development goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). CIVICUS is currently renewing its partnership with IAVE and UNV, and jointly identifying activities that lead to the International Year of the Volunteer + 10 (2011). As part of this process, CIVICUS will be exploring options for integrating its volunteerism work into new and existing programs and operations, including the development of a volunteer program and management scheme.