Empowering Youth, Building Community: YGI 2024’s Impactful Grants 

A few weeks ago, the Multnomah Athletic Foundation’s Youth Grant Initiative (YGI) cohort reached an inspiring milestone: after months of thoughtful deliberation and collaboration, they awarded $2,500 grants to two exceptional nonprofits—Friends of Baseball and Girls on the Run. 

Over the course of six weeks, this dedicated cohort of students embarked on a journey to learn the fundamentals of philanthropy. They explored what it means to give intentionally, examined the needs of...

Recommendations tips

At the Multnomah Athletic Foundation , we use a cloud-based online system called Kaleidoscope for applications and recommendations. So the candidate has two options for providing a recommendation for their application. The first option is to for the applicant to send the recommender an email from within the Kaleidoscope system. If you receive that email, you answer a few questions and then upload the letter of recommendation as a PDF. The letter will be attached to the application as a...

Empowering Philanthropy: The Impact of the Youth Grant Initiative

By Jennifer Holzapfel-Hanson

In a world where the voices of youth are often relegated to fleeting social media posts, the Youth Grant Initiative (YGI) empowers teenagers to create positive and lasting change through community engagement and hands-on philanthropy. This unique program, spearheaded by the Multnomah Athletic Foundation (MAF), equips a selected group of students with the tools and platform needed to make a tangible difference, by offering the cohort $5,000 to donate to an...

2023 Bud Award

Youth engagement is the center of the foundation’s mission. We often talk about the connection through education or athletic participation. There is another program that is important to us. The Youth Grant Initiative was created seven years ago to give 7th and 8th graders a hands-on experience in grantmaking. They learn about the community and the role of nonprofits while reading applications and making funding recommendation to the foundation’s board. In 2022 the Foundation made...

Youth Grant Initiative Information Session

Join Multnomah Athletic Foundation YGI Committee members, YGI alumni, and program directors at one of the informational sessions being held this year.

Learn about the 2023 cohort experience, the interview process, the six sessions through the fall and so much more.

Two information sessions will be held this year, come to one or both!

A virtual Zoom webinar will be held on May 11th from 4-4:45pm PST, registration is required to attend this free session. Click here to sign up.

An...