Grant Guidelines
GUIDELINES (Revised January 25, 2021)
Youth As Resources offers funding for community organizing projects that are designed and carried out by Baltimore young people.
Young people who want to dedicate themselves to addressing problems and meeting critical community needs are invited to apply.
Applicants must identify a sponsoring organization with a non-profit status such as a community organization, youth group, church or school.
There is no lower age limit for program participants. The upper age limit for program participants is 23 (at the time of application). The youth contact person (the youth leader responsible for the program) must be at least 11 years old.
Funding requests may be up to $5,000. The average grant is $2,700.
Projects funded will be those:
- That address a critical community problem(s);
- Where young people come up with the idea, create the plan, do the work and make the decisions;
- That can be started and carried out by the same group of young people;
- That are long term and make a lasting change (YAR does not fund one- day or short-term events); and
- That have a realistic budget and solid plan.
Applications may be handwritten (typed preferred), however, groups of youth receiving the most consideration will present applications that reflect their commitment to their mission and vision. To that end, applications should be neat, and questions should be answered thoughtfully and thoroughly. Please submit in a word document.
Stipend/Salary Policy: In general, Youth As Resources does not fund stipends. A stipend is a payment, such as a salary, allowance, honorarium and/or offering for services rendered. Examples of stipends include paying youth to implement the project, paying a DJ for an event or giving a fixed honorarium to a professional dancer to teach step classes etc.…
Youth As Resources will ONLY consider stipends and/or salary for youth organizers and ONLY for renewal requests.
YAR will consider requests for stipends for renewal projects with the following conditions:
- Stipends can ONLY be used to compensate HIGH SCHOOL age youth project organizers;
- A final report from the last grant must be submitted with evidence of success in meeting the initial goals for change; and
- Stipends cannot exceed 25% of the total YAR request.
In addition, YAR will not consider projects where youth are charged a fee to participate.
Youth As Resources will consider youth-led businesses as long as the business is intended to strengthen the community by addressing a critical need.
Youth As Resources will give preference to initiatives where young people directly address a critical community problem (like organizing to change policies and practices around critical issues and/or launching and directing a program that provides mentoring and activities for younger children).
RENEWAL POLICY: The YAR grant period is one-year. All groups who have received a YAR grant for any period of three or more years are ineligible to apply for a YAR grant for a two-year period. For example, if a group received funding in the Fall 2017, Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 grant cycles the earliest they could reapply would be Fall 2021.