The Young Philanthropists Program
—Buffalo, New York—

The Young Philanthropists Program (TYP), in Buffalo, New York, is the result of several networks partnering to provide the best experience for its students, as it operates through the Communities of Giving Legacy Initiative (CGLI), which is a fund of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, in partnership with the Buffalo Urban League. The CGLI, which is “an initiative that aims to cultivate change in the lives of trailblazing youth of color living in Western New York”, originally launched TYP in 2016 with the intention of sparking curiosity about and promoting personal and collective giving within communities of color by having students learn about grantmaking, community impact, and philanthropy. In 2020, it relaunched using the TPI curriculum to push the program and the students even further.

Wanting to set a strong foundation for the program within the community, they have kept the cohorts the last few years relatively small to allow for greater levels of intentionality and precision. While dealing with several major tragedies within their community recently, the students in the program have done an incredible job finding the intersection of what is in their hearts and what is needed in the community. This year they will be adding their first Senior fundraising Cohort, and we at TPI are incredibly excited to see them tackle this new challenge.