This work explores ways nonprofits can foster lifelong philanthropic habit in today's youth. Editor Bill Stanczykiewicz, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute, and contributors examine successful youth engagement programs that illustrate that philanthropy is a habit that can be demonstrated, taught, and inculcated at a very young age. Progams discussed include a YMCA program encouraging civic activity among children with backgrounds in lower income communities and lower academic achievement which demonstrates that the instruction of philanthropic values and behaviors can transcend traditional qualifiers of income and education. Contributors also present results of a four year study on college undergraduates who earn college scholarships that require recipients to participate in community service, and show how they reveal increased philanthropic values these students, in addition to other personal skills that benefit civic engagement and service to others. Other aspects of youth philanthropy examined include the significant legal issues surrounding adolescents raising money for organizations, youth serving on nonprofit boards, and youth casting deciding votes on board matters. The issue also includes an informative primer on youth and philanthropy that demonstrates how young people learn philanthropic behavior from several sectors within civil society, including community foundations, nonprofit organizations, schools, and government. With insight from professionals in the field, as well as the passionate voices of philanthropic youth themselves, this issue illustrates how we must be actively engaged in the lives of children and youth in our families and in our communities not just to develop healthy habits of philanthropy, but for their overall healthy development.
