Philanthropy Needs a Youth-Led Update feat. Gilbert Murillo & Godswill Uyon

Yeah.

So we started this program six years ago and we brought in young people.

Each year we bring in a cohort of four to 10 young people from community and state college and UC and CSU in California and in Hawaii.

Our goal is to bring in their perspectives, to have them understand what it is that we do to help them get connections in the field of philanthropy, but also to do some grant making so they get a chance to look at community organizations and make recommendations on where we give.

So why would we bring in young people to the Stupsky Foundation? I mean, aren't we all young here?

The question is, why wouldn't we? So when I started with Stuffed Kiowalk and I was asked to make some pretty big decisions for students.

And

the first thing I wondered is like, what do students think? Do they think my ideas are good? Do they align with these things? So it was a way to bring in people that have on the ground experience with the topics that we're grappling with and get their honest feedback because they have nothing to lose.

And so when you came up with this idea, which is one of many breakthrough ideas you brought to the Stubbsky Foundation, what did you see as being a productive engagement for young people?

Yes.

So one thing is that I knew I didn't want this to feel like one of those traditional old school internships where we have them do

things we don't want to do.

So there's no coffee grabbing, there's no coffee making or copy making.

We really wanted to engage their intellect to get their perspective, to grapple with tough things and have them tell us things that might not feel good to hear about how we're working and what it is that we're doing.

I see that as a really good way to have interns.

And another thing is to give them skills and network that they can use for their own careers.

Right.

And, you know, it's part of a broader initiative within the Stepski Foundation to, I mean, obviously as a spend out, we've moved a lot of our money, but in addition to moving the public's money, we've also wanted to have community engagement and how we do that.

This was one of those initiatives to bring community voice into how we you know, steward these dollars.

So what has that experience been like for you as a program officer and for them? Yeah,

it's been humbling, I'll have to say, from the very beginning.

I came in with ideas and some of the first cohorts of interns, they were like, oh, those are not good ideas.

Or did you even think about this? Or one example is that on the very first day of the internship, I asked them about their dream jobs and they gave me a lesson in like capitalism and not dreaming about labor.

So the entire experience has been a growth experience for me from beginning to the very end.

Right.