Just Tryin' to Save the World

By DANA ROMMERDAHL

Young children are notorious for their fearless mentality of limitless possibilities. I myself was even known to slip into a fantasy or two where I saved the world from an evil villain or heroically ended world hunger. But at the ripe old age of 14, the harsh reality of my limited contributions to the community, specifically the Jewish community, became all too obvious.

Of course, I would attend the occasional charity event or intermittently visit a nursing home, but my fulfillment from these actions, as noble as they were, seemed pretty lacking. I sought bigger and better results, something that would, in my eyes, make a true impact. This being the case, I was excited to hear of an organization that might actually bestow the opportunities I wanted.

The Rose Youth Foundation

These opportunities lay within Rose Youth Foundation, a group of 23 teens from the seven-county Denver metro area dedicated to bettering their community and learning about philanthropy through hands-on grant-making. The foundation is funded by Rose Community Foundation, one of Colorado's larger foundations. With $45,000 in grant money at Rose Youth Foundation's disposal, I felt that I could make a pretty serious impact.

What I also liked is that the foundation doesn't have personal or political agendas; the members just have a genuine interest in the well being of the community. You can see that from the causes that the foundation has helped: the Anti-Defamation League, Mountain States Region; Hillel of Colorado; CLAL - The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership; Boulder Jewish Community Center.

Doling out the cash

Though handing out $45,000 may seem like a piece of cake, there is a surprisingly amount of effort that goes into this task. It started with a crash course in philanthropy, including the different types of charity, and a bit of a history lesson too. We hear about and discuss the many levels of philanthropy and then we decide which causes we think are most worthy of our support.

We then outline which causes we want to support and send information out to the masses of hopeful grantees. When the grant applicants reply with their grant requests, we can finally start the real process of deciding who specifically to give money to. To give you a feel for the process, in the 2002-2003 year, with only $30,000 to give away, Rose Youth Foundation received $130,000 in grant requests!

Of the organizations that respond, Rose Youth Foundation rates and decides which ones most apply to what is outlined in our proposal request, and if the organization is worth funding at all. This is truly difficult because, currently, the Rose Youth Foundation has adopted a "consensus" model, where every single member must agree to make a final decision. When we vote, if only one person disagrees, then we are more or less back to square one. Although this can be seriously frustrating, we also realize that the decisions we make are more important than the extra hours it takes to come to an agreement, and we want to make sure every decision is a correct one.

Once the official grantees are notified, the big checks are finally given out. I hate to say it, but there is definitely a small ego trip I get from telling organizations that we've decided to fund them. It feels great.

Although I have not (yet!) saved the world from evil, it feels awesome to know that I am least making a significant impact now.

 

For more information about Rose Youth Foundation, check out the website at www.rcfdenver.org/RYF.