October 24, 2023 05:50 AM

Elianys Soto knew little about philanthropy less than a year ago, but over the summer, she helped revise a grant-making process that will award millions to students and educators over the next several years.  

Soto, a junior at John Marshall School of Engineering, participated in a summer youth employment program through the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Youth Opportunities Unlimited that saw students learn the ins and outs of philanthropy. 

The students learned grant writing skills, received advice from various philanthropic organizations in Cleveland and helped the CMSD improve the process of awarding money from the Get More Opportunities Fund, which was created using the district’s $20 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.  

The Get More Opportunities Fund pays for projects and initiatives that support CMSD students and educators. Managed by the Cleveland Foundation, the fund will distribute Scott’s gift, which was awarded to the district in 2022, in increments of $4 million over the span of five years.

The district’s goal is to have students and faculty decide how to use the money, said Rosa Cruz, a teacher at Lincoln-West School of Global Studies. In the spring of 2023, CMSD held its first allocation round, inviting students to help select grant proposals to award.

Dr. Marcy Shankman, chief organizational learning officer at CMSD, said the first round of allocations was meant to serve as a prototype.

“When you prototype something, you essentially put a new idea into practice with the idea that you’re going to fail fast and learn from it to get better,” she said. “We wanted to have a deliberate way to get better and realized the best way to do would be to bring together students.”

Shankman said CMSD pitched the idea of creating a summer program focused on philanthropy to help refine the grant process during the spring meeting. It was approved and funded through the Scott gift. Over the summer, CMSD launched the "Get More, Give More: How to be a Philanthropist" program, which occurred between June 26 and July 21. 

Eighteen students from across the district’s high schools participated in the program, where they developed grant-writing skills, learned from local philanthropic organizations and revised the grant distribution process.

“They got to learn about philanthropy, they got to learn about different grant writers, the process of grant writing, and the experience of not just being the grant writer but being the one in charge of accepting the grants,” said Cruz, who taught the program.

Through the grant, the students were paid for each day they attended.

Students attended classes from noon to 4 p.m. They developed and pitched their own grant applications and critiqued each other’s proposals. They also heard from leaders of Cleveland-area philanthropic organizations, who taught them about philanthropy in the real world.

“The course itself, it was not just about grant writing, but the whole process of seeking for grants, identifying places that need the grants and evaluating grants and how grants affect organizations,” Cruz said.

She said the students oversaw 150 applications that ranged from new equipment, uniforms, technology, travel and field trips and opportunities for students to pay for driving school.

Shankman said the students then got to apply what they learned to the prototype for the Get More Opportunities Fund and make recommendations for improvements.

Soto, the student, learned about the philanthropy class in April. The 16-year-old said she aspires to become an attorney. She decided to apply for the program because she felt it would be a positive experience that would stand out on her resume.

She said the program taught her there is a lot more to philanthropy than simply awarding money—it’s about bettering a community.

“I enjoyed the people and the opportunities,” Soto said.

Allie Levin, communications and marketing lead at Youth Opportunities Unlimited, a workforce development nonprofit based in Cleveland, said the concept is unique because it allows students to take what they learned about philanthropy and put it into practice.

Youth Opportunities Unlimited was one of the organizations that spoke to the students about philanthropy in the real world.  

“Not only are young people learning financial literacy on an individual level (…) but at this level they’re seeing a practice that most people don’t see until they’re deeply into their professional careers,” Levin said.

Cruz echoed that sentiment.

“I graduated from CMSD,” she said. “I’m a grant writer now, where I write grants for projects that I do in my community. I didn’t have anyone tell me ‘This is how you write a grant.’ I just wrote it, and sometimes I didn’t get accepted. (Students) having this experience while they’re in school is amazing.” 

Shankman said the fund has awarded more than $1.5 million to about 150 recipients so far and that students have been thoughtful and diligent in deciding which projects to award money. Fifteen of the 18 students who participated in the summer program came back to help with the fall allocation earlier this month, she said.

It’s unknown whether the program will take place again next summer, Shankman said, but the work the students did over the summer will continue to be used in future allocation rounds.

Cruz said she would love to see the program happen again.  

“Grant writing can start as early as possible,” she said. “It’s a skill that you need, and it inspires you to look at those issues that you might be able to solve if you actually put in the effort to write a grant.”