Youth-led movements transform society. Together, we’re investing in our collective future.
The California Youth Power Fund (YPF) is a statewide collaborative fund resourcing the long-term infrastructure needed to advance youth organizing, leadership, and advocacy for social, economic, and environmental change. Through our unique model, young people drive funding priorities and decisions, demonstrating an emerging approach to philanthropy that is trust-based, community-rooted, and accountable to those most impacted.
What We Do
YPF was initiated in 2020 by Youth Organize! California (YO! Cali) and allied funders to meet mounting challenges in funding youth-led organizations while advancing the opportunity to strengthen and scale the youth movement ecosystem.
Our approach is simple: stable, multi-year investment in youth-led organizations through grants and capacity-building. We resource the backbone of youth organizing: the leaders, organizations, strategies and networks that make long-term change possible.
YPF strengthens California’s youth organizing ecosystem by:
Funding multi-year, general operating support
Practicing participatory grantmaking with youth leaders and field experts
Activating a dynamic philanthropic community where funders collaborate, share power and pool resources to move youth power forward at scale.
After five years of grantmaking and with new leadership capacity, YPF is mobilizing the resources needed at this moment to deepen impact across California, led by our communities’ most vulnerable yet powerful population: young people.
Since 2021, YPF has granted $6.6M throughout the Bay Area and Northern California regions. We are now raising $5M through 2026 to expand into the Central Valley and Southern California, with deployment beginning January 2027.
Join us In Scaling Youth Power Statewide
“Youth are the hopeful, creative, and courageous leaders society needs to follow. They see possibilities adults often miss, and that’s essential in moments like these.”
— Josh Lee, Director, Youth Power Fund
