Leah Granskog, Editor-in-Chief
Featured Image by New Canaan Community Foundation
A family struggles to put food on the table. A friend loses their home in a house fire. A loved one needs to find safety when experiencing a domestic violence incident. In moments like these, knowing what resources are available to help is essential.
The Youth Philanthropists Program (YPP), run through the New Canaan Community Foundation (NCCF), is helping to raise awareness about local non-profit organizations that help people in need. This program, open to all high schoolers, encourages students to learn about their community resources. Throughout the year, students are tasked with creating different fundraising initiatives and researching various local nonprofits. At the end of their programming year in June, YPP members decide which nonprofit organizations they would like to award grants to.
YPP’s Mission
According to junior and Co-Fundraising Chair of YPP Charlotte Huetter, YPP’s grant process aims to help local nonprofits expand their outreach and impact. “YPP’s main mission is to find organizations or problems that we think are important and try to help them further what they are doing to help the community,” Charlotte said.
NCCF Program Officer and YPP Advisor Meg Soffen-Stadel explains that YPP not only involves fundraising for local nonprofits, but learning about them as well. “For the bulk of the year, students are not just attending monthly meetings to participate in fundraising or grant-making work,” she said. “We always try to bring a speaker. Sometimes that speaker is from a nonprofit organization, and sometimes it’s a subject matter expert. On top of that, we normally offer one monthly site visit and 1-2 volunteer opportunities per year.”
The Grant Selection Process
Photo by NCCF
Isabella Sieckhaus, senior and co-president of YPP, explains that many factors are considered when YPP members decide which nonprofits to award grants to. The first step is selecting a theme for which organizations YPP will focus on helping. “Each year, we come together as a group and decide on one or two themes that we want to focus on throughout the year,” she said. “Last year we focused on wildlife and nature, and this year we are focusing on organizations that provide essential resources to address poverty.”
According to Isabella, as YPP members tour and research various nonprofits, they compare their organizational structures, services, employees, responsibilities and target audiences. “We always ask what each nonprofit would put the grant money towards,” she said. “Some say that they would put it towards a specific project. Others say that they would use it for more general services, which include paying their employees and funding different resources in the office. At the end of the year, once we have all of this information, we decide which nonprofits we would like to give grants to.”
YPP’s grants are not limited to just New Canaan organizations, and often include nonprofits in Stamford, Norwalk, and other areas in Fairfield County. “When I first started working at NCCF, Fairfield County was the most unequal metropolitan area in the United States when it comes to income,” Ms. Soffen-Stadel said. “We have really well-resourced towns – like New Canaan, Darien, Westport and Greenwich – bordering larger cities like Bridgeport, and those environments couldn’t look more different. We can’t just think about the New Canaan community’s success without also thinking about our surrounding areas.”
YPP’s Impact
YPP’s grant program has provided monetary aid to help many different organizations. This year, YPP awarded $47,000 in grants to nine local nonprofits. In 2025, $32,500 was donated to five different organizations.
Charlotte believes that YPP helps students develop skills that are relevant outside of nonprofit work. “I think YPP is important because it gives a lot of experience with talking to other people and working in the community,” she said. “It’s also very different from a lot of other organizations because students are actually doing the hands-on work.”
Ms. Soffen-Stadel agrees. “I think the magic of the program is that it’s really in the student’s court, not only when talking about the issues that they want to focus on, but the impact that they want to make with the dollars that they raise,” she said.
Isabella believes that YPP’s work is both eye-opening and fulfilling. “I value YPP because it’s such a unique experience to be able to see the ‘behind the scenes’ of different nonprofits,” Isabella said. “I think it’s special that we can say that we’ve improved the lives of different people. It’s empowering to be able to help those in need and give back to our local communities.”
Other Ways Students Can Get Involved
Photo by NCCF
NCCF has many other opportunities that allow community members to become involved with different nonprofits. For example, every January, NCCF hosts their annual volunteer fair. The first volunteer fair, held in 2026 at the New Canaan Library, had over 40 organizations represented and attracted 480 attendees.
“We tried to curate the organizations to ensure there were a lot of options for children and high school students,” Ms. Soffen-Stadel said. “When you are 14, for example, you can serve meals in a soup kitchen. So, many opportunities open up for students.”
“This is a great opportunity for high schoolers who are interested in being involved in community service and want to volunteer, but don’t necessarily have the bandwidth to be part of YPP and help the New Canaan Community Foundation every month,” NCCF’s Program Associate Carli Campbell said. “It’s a good opportunity to see what organizations they might want to get involved with.”
Another program NCCF is known for is its grant cycle. While targeted towards adults, this program allows those participating to review various non-profits and help decide where to allocate grant money. Last year, NCCF gave out $1.25 million to 97 different community organizations.
Ms. Soffen-Stadel believes the grant cycle is a great way to learn about different non-profits and volunteer opportunities. “It’s rare to find somebody who goes to five organizations in an area they care about, and they walk away not wanting to volunteer at one of those places,” Ms. Soffen-Stadel said.
The Importance of Being Aware
According to Ms. Soffen-Stadel, it is important that everyone is aware of their community resources even if they don’t need them themselves. “If you aren’t in a situation where you need a resource, the best thing you can do for your community is still know about that resource,” she said. “Your friend may come to you and say, ‘I experienced this.’ Being equipped with what to do next is the most powerful thing you can do to care for our entire community.”
Graphic by Leah Granskog
