Idyllwild Community Fund (ICF) announces the return of Idyllwild Youth Grantmakers at Idyllwild School for fall 2023. The service club, which nurtures community awareness and leadership among Idyllwild’s seventh and eighth grade students, will resume this week following a three-year disruption due to COVID.

ICF co-sponsors Youth Grantmakers in affiliation with Inland Empire Community Foundation (IECF). In 2009, IECF established The Youth Philanthropy Initiative, also known as Youth Grantmakers, to teach youth to meet community challenges by making grants to projects that address youth concerns. IECF provides formal training to Youth Grantmakers at high schools throughout Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Youth Grantmakers program was recently included in presentations to Bill Gates during his two-day visit to the Inland Empire. (The Gates Foundation supports education initiatives in the Inland Empire region.) Idyllwild School is unique, in that all other Youth Grantmakers are high school students. In a staunch demonstration of appreciation for Idyllwild community youth, in 2012, IECF reached out to ICF to bring Youth Grantmakers to Idyllwild School.

Idyllwild Youth Grantmakers does not raise money. The group receives $4,000 annually from ICF and IECF ($2000 each). Guided by ICF’s Youth Grantmakers Chair Jon Zorn and Sean Sullivan, Idyllwild School faculty adviser, Youth Grantmakers will meet monthly to review applications for projects that benefit Idyllwild’s young people. Funding recommendations will be forwarded to IECF and presented at an awards ceremony at Idyllwild School in spring 2024.

Idyllwild Youth Grantmakers has funded more than $29,000 to date (2012-2020) to Idyllwild’s nonprofit organizations supporting Idyllwild School’s student community.