Youth Engagement

The India Philanthropy Alliance believes that the active engagement of youth—especially second and third generation Indian Americans—is essential to the future of American private philanthropy benefitting India.

As a concrete first step toward engaging youth, IPA launched its annual youth essay competition in 2020. Since then, hundreds of middle and high school youth have identified and researched what they deem to be the most pressing developmental issues facing India today, and advocated ways in which we, as U.S. citizens, can be a part of the solution.

After the launch of the Youth Essay Competition, IPA engaged in a year-long process of distilling best practices for effective engagement of youth and young professionals from sources within and outside of our network. A summarized version of those guidelines was published as a two-part series by the Chronicle of Philanthropy in late 2022 and early 2023. Part one was titled “How Nonprofits Can Better Engage Young People” and part two was titled “Tips for Creating a Young Professionals Program.”   The full guidelines are available upon request.

India Giving Day, an annual campaign of the India Philanthropy Alliance, celebrated its first success in March, 2023. Since then hundreds of youth and young professionals have participated in furthering India’s development agenda by volunteering with a participating nonprofit, hosting a fundraiser, or serving on the Youth Leadership Council.