“Bettering North Minneapolis through the minds of the youth who live there”
Innovative fund awards $180,000 to 12 Northside projects
Written by Praise Akinyele, Darius Smith, Ramiyah Jackson and E. Coco
Braving the arctic cold for two days of intense reading and discussion, Praise Akinyele, Darius Smith and six other youth dramatically defied the false stereotype about them and their community: That the Northside and “young people these days” are apathetic about their community and the world. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Gathering at the 927 Building in the heart of North Minneapolis, the young leaders joined adults from the Northside Funders Group to review 88 applications for the Northside Youth Enrichment Fund (NYEF), a youth-led grantmaking process that supports efforts that expand learning in and outside of the classroom for Northside youth. Directed by the young people who best understand what enrichment looks like, NFG awarded a total of $180,000 to 12 projects.
“Reviewing each application allowed me to truly see my community coming alive,” Praise said. “The details of each proposal opened my eyes to how much people in Minneapolis want to see change and are willing to take on the role of being changemakers themselves. Getting to know the other youth in my reading group also showed me how much people my age are interested in things that are bigger than themselves.”
“Reviewing each application allowed me to truly see my community coming alive.”
Praise Akinyele
Youth participation has always been at the center of the NYEF funding opportunity. When we convened listening and design sessions with youth, educators, after school program providers, caretakers and nonprofit leaders in 2022, one of their primary recommendations was to meaningfully involve Northside Youth in the grantmaking process. With a strong belief in participatory grantmaking, NFG was eager to translate our knowledge of those approaches to a new constituency: young people!
Now in our third grantmaking cycle, we’ve learned so much from our youth grantmakers. We’ve refined our approach to increase youth leadership throughout the process, from designing the application, making decisions about grants and even evaluation of grantees. Of course, NFG compensates youth with a stipend to recognize the time, expertise and hard work they infuse throughout the process. And we’ve seen incredible interest in participation. Over time, we’ve grown the number of youth reviewers from five in our first year to nine this year—but that’s just a small fraction of the 73 young people who applied to be reviewers this year alone! (Hot tip to local philanthropists: There are a lot of youth ready and eager to get involved in grantmaking!)
“NYEF plays a crucial role in North Minneapolis because it allows youth to experience and understand what’s happening in our community,” Ramiyah Jackson, a past NYEF participant, said. “We have the chance to decide how to improve it, which is incredibly important. Often, youth feel unheard or unseen, but NYEF empowers us to be heard, seen, and to shine. This is no small thing, it's a significant initiative that’s bettering North Minneapolis through the minds of the youth who live there.”
“Often, youth feel unheard or unseen, but NYEF empowers us to be heard, seen, and to shine. It's a significant initiative that’s bettering North Minneapolis through the minds of the youth who live there.”
Ramiyah Jackson
We know that youth, like Ramiyah, have more to offer than simply reviewing grants. That’s why we launched our new NYEF Internship Program this year, which embeds a young person who had previously participated in the NYEF process into the facilitation process for the selection of the year’s awardees.
“My highlight as an intern was having the opportunity to see what happens behind the scenes,” Ramiyah added. “I was able to assist with preparation and witness all the hard work that takes place before the reviewing process. I also loved watching the amazing youth work together, bringing their experiences and ideas to the table as they made decisions. Being an intern has helped me build confidence.”
That was true for Darius as a youth reviewer, as well. “NYEF impacted how I approach youth leadership by giving me a space to learn about my community and an opportunity to utilize my voice,” he said. “It was amazing to have the opportunity to engross myself in the needs of our community. Doing this really gave me a new perspective on what it means to be a Northsider. Seeing all of these organizations that are not only willing but actively working to support and engage Northside youth really brought joy to my heart.”
“NYEF impacted how I approach youth leadership by giving me a space to learn about my community and an opportunity to utilize my voice.”
Darius Smith
Because of that wealth of activity on the Northside, the process wasn’t easy. With 88 proposals, we received a record number of applications totaling more than $1.2 million. So, our grantmaking committee split into three reading groups—each group has three youth grantmakers and one adult reviewer to listen, support, guide and learn! The groups read, read, ate some delicious Soul Bowl (#buyblack #buylocal), and read some more. We also engaged in animated debate, and broke up hard decisions with laughter and curiosity.
“It was difficult for me to grapple with the fact that not every person was going to end up on that final list at first, but with the support of the others on the NYEF team I was able to see the bigger picture understanding that this opportunity itself is still a sign that North Minneapolis is working towards creating brighter futures for its residents,” Praise said.
Rabya Hassen of the Mortenson Family Foundation — an NYEF funder, NFG Member and adult reviewer in this year’s NYEF — said she always gains invaluable insights when she collaborates with youth, and this year was no exception. “I was especially inspired by how deeply the youth in my reading group were processing the shifts happening in the country and allowing those reflections to shape their grant making decisions,” she said. “They emphasized the urgent need for programs that teach movement-building, knowing their rights, and systems change—fully aware that this knowledge is essential to pushing back against a government that seeks to strip away their rights and diminish their humanity."
By the end of day one, the groups had moved 24 proposals into the final round of review. And from 24, we began our final collective voting process, which ultimately got us our 12 finalists. We’re thrilled to present and congratulate the organizations and leaders who were selected as 2025 NYEF Grantees.
The NYEF Grantmakers and NYEF Grantees will come together on Wednesday, March 11th for a gathering and celebration where it all happened, at The 927 Building. We’re pretty excited about our process and we know you might be feeling FOMO (fear of missing out; that’s what the youth are saying these days, right?!). Don’t worry! You can get involved too!
If you’re a past NYEF youth grantmaker, look out for internship opportunities coming up in summer 2025!
If you’re a Northside youth, watch for a new application to participate in NYEF as a youth grantmaker!
If you’re a local funder, connect with us to learn more, fund the NYEF via Northside Funders Group, become a member of NFG and test a youth-led process yourself! We are happy to share our insights :)
In the meantime, NFG’s work continues. We raise our budget annually to be able to lead the NYEF youth-led process and put out grants to awesome Northside efforts. We need to raise $225K so that next year we can award 15 grants—or more!
As Praise summarized so well:
“As a youth leader, I got to really advocate on behalf of others helping me to build skills that can translate to my future career or even journey through college and life. I learned that philanthropy is more than just saying “here’s some money”, instead it’s about truly investing in others while building authentic relationships.”