Youth Fund Distribution Committee

The application period for submittal of Youth Fund Distribution Committee funding applications ended Friday, January 6, 2012 at 4:30 p.m. Applications are no longer being accepted.

General Information
Each year, United Way brings together high school students and organizations from across Greater Cleveland who want to make a difference in their community. The John K. Mott Youth Fund Distribution Committee (YFDC) gives high school juniors and seniors a unique opportunity to make their community a better place for youth through making grants to select projects. 

Learn what the 2010-2011 YFDC funded

The goals of the YFDC are to:

• Educate the youth members about community problem-solving through the United Way grant  allocation process;
• Provide a challenging opportunity and instill a spirit of volunteerism in our future adult leaders;
• Empower youth through a meaningful decision-making process;
• Demonstrate to the community youths’ ability to responsibly distribute funds.

Founded by John Mott, a former United Way staff person, the YFDC has grown to become one of the leading youth allocation programs in the country.  Students distribute $50,000 every year to organizations that serve youths in our community.  In 2010-2011, the MyCom Initiative added $16,000 in funding, so the YFDC members distributed an additional 7 small grants to youth groups in the MyCom neighborhoods as part of their regular grant-making process.

How YFDC works:
During the first two sessions committee members get orientation to community needs and how youth-serving programs help meet those needs.  The members select a few key priorities to fund that are most important to them.  United Way then issues a “Request For Proposals” to nonprofit youth-serving agencies.  When the proposals come in, the YFDC members review them against the priorities and criteria they have set, and go through a series of discussions and interview sessions to determine which programs and projects will receive funding.   

View frequently asked questions about the YFDC program
 
Programs funded in the past year through the YFDC include a project to purchase "loaner hearing aids" for infants, a program to provide school uniforms for families in need, support for a therapy program for children who have been victims of abuse or neglect and a variety of school-readiness and summer camp programs.  
 
For more information please contact Wanda Landrum at wlandrum@unitedwaycleveland.org or 216-436-2224.