Youth Fund

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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 grantmaking to select projects. 

Learn what the 2010 YFDC funded

The goals of the YFDC are to:

• Provide high school students with hand-on experience solving community problems
• Teach students how to stretch limited dollars to have the greatest community impact
• Provide a challenging opportunity and instill a spirit of volunteerism in our future adult leaders
• Identify issues critical to youth and prioritize limited resources
• Offer a lesson for life in giving back to our community

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 over $50,000 to organizations that serve our community.

Committee members review proposals from local programs serving youth and make wise funding decisions, awarding limited dollars where they'll make the greatest impact. Community partners contribute monetary support, along with dollars that are generated by the students themselves through participation in their school campaigns, to create the pool of dollars that YFDC students allocate to selected programs.

Programs funded in the past year through the YFDC include the purchase of baby equipment for a homeless shelter in which many of the residents are babies and young children, a camp for physically challenged youngsters, and a program that helps high school students obtain college scholarships.

Applications for funding will be accepted starting in December 2010. Each year the YFDC group determines the funding priorities and sends out a Request for Proposal (RFP). If you know of an agency that might be eligible for YFDC funding, please contact Justine Reeves at jreeves@unitedwaycleveland.org and ask to be put on the RFP mailing list.