Rivers Givers Attend Philanthropy Summit
Members of Rivers Givers, the Upper School youth philanthropy group, attended the Northeast Youth Philanthropy Summit at Tufts University on Sunday, October 22. Students had the opportunity to attend workshops led by nonprofits, college students, and foundations on topics such as racial justice in philanthropy, developing a leadership style, utilizing systems thinking in solving problems, and understanding nonprofits for better impact.
The Rivers students who participated in the conference came away with a much greater understanding of the different facets involved in effective philanthropy, and will benefit from that knowledge as they choose several local non-profits to receive Rivers Givers funding this spring. “I understand more clearly how to evaluate non-profits,” said Isabel Teixeira ’18.
“I got to look at real-life scenarios, and see all the stresses and factors that go into social problems,” commented Nora Brown ’19. Gigi Goldaber ’18 added “I did a real-life simulation of how to respond to housing needs, and saw how hard it is to find adequate housing.”
A highlight of the day for Rivers students was a workshop led by Marissa Byrne, ’15, who was herself a member of Rivers Givers and who started a philanthropy group at Tufts University. Birne returned to Rivers last spring to help kick off RISE Day 2017, talking to sophomores at breakfast about her non-profit organization Art to Heal - her own RISE initiative in 2012 - that offers free art workshops for children with disabilities, residents of assisted living homes, and the homeless of New England.
Birne, a peace and justice studies major at Tufts University, was recently featured in a video produced by The Thomas Foundation, which funds innovators and leaders who inspire positive change in their communities.
Also speaking at the conference was Lizzie Jack ’20 who co-hosted a workshop entitled Discover Your Passion for Change for attendees who were new to philanthropy. She and a fellow member of Youth Philanthropy Connect (YPC) spoke about utilizing the skills they have to help make change happen and the importance of understanding the ins and outs of an issue in order to help solve that problem. Lizzie led workshops at two recent YPC conferences at Disneyland, and also volunteers locally and serves on political campaigns.
“We got to choose and focus on what we are passionate about,” said Sophia Pacific ’18. “We saw how root causes affect and play into each other.”
The conference, sponsored byBrandeis University’s Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy, and hosted by the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, was attended by high school and college students from all over New England.
“I liked how we met other students who were engaged in conversations in their communities about important issues such as police brutality,” commented Thando Khumalo ’19 while Charlotte Paul ’19 enjoyed meeting and learning from such a variety of people involved in philanthropy during the day.
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