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Community Foundation Launches Ninth Annual $10,000
Community Spirit Youth Giving Challenge
Published: December 05, 2025
at 09:45 a.m.
By: Press Release from Northern New York Community
Foundation
Community Foundation Launches Ninth Annual $10,000
Community Spirit Youth Giving Challenge
Tri-County Seventh, Eighth or Ninth Graders Could Win
One of Ten $1,000 Grant Awards to Support a Favorite Local Charity
WATERTOWN — The Northern New
York Community Foundation’s 2025-2026 Community Spirit Youth Giving
Challenge is now open to tri-county students.
The challenge seeks to engage seventh, eighth, and ninth graders in
learning about their communities while they compete for an opportunity to
award a $1,000 grant to a local nonprofit organization of their choice.
This is the ninth
year of the program, which is made possible by donors to the Community
Foundation’s Friends of the Foundation Community Betterment Annual Fund,
major corporate support from Community Bank and a major gift from an
individual donor.
Students
presently enrolled in seventh, eighth and ninth grades in schools in
Jefferson, Lewis, or St. Lawrence counties are eligible to compete for a
share of $10,000 in total grant awards. Ten students will be selected to each present a $1,000 grant to a tri-county charitable
organization of their choice. Entries are competitively judged and should
be well-written and articulate a compelling case for support.
The initiative
aims to have students explore their view of “community” and select a local
charity for a grant award that makes their community a great place to live.
To enter the competition, students must complete an essay-based application
in writing. Schools are encouraged to create a class project or somehow
incorporate it into the curriculum.
“This is a great
initiative for students across our region to make a difference in ways that
matter most to them as they consider their role in civic engagement,” said Rande
S. Richardson, Community Foundation executive director. “We hope to see
a wide range of applications, both geographically and also in the way the
grants will impact our local communities.”
In its first
eight years, 132 students and an entire class from two-dozen different
tri-county school districts have been selected to present 139 grants
totaling $80,000 to nearly 100 nonprofit organizations that serve Northern
New York residents.
Applications are
available online at nnycf.org/givingchallenge,
at local schools, or at the Community Foundation, 131 Washington St.,
Watertown. Students selected to award grants in previous years are not
eligible to enter.
Entries must be
made online, postmarked, or hand-delivered to the Community Foundation no
later than Friday, January 30, 2026. A grant review committee will
judge all entries and select 10 winning students to present grant awards.
Eligible recipient organizations must be a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization
in Jefferson, Lewis, or St. Lawrence counties.
An announcement
of winning submissions and grant awards will be made in mid-February. A
Foundation representative will then contact winning students to schedule
them to personally visit their chosen organization, learn more about its
work and mission, and present their grant award. Contact the Community
Foundation, 315-782-7110, or info@nnycf.org, to learn more
about the Community Spirit Youth Giving Challenge.
About the
Northern New York Community Foundation
Since 1929, the
Northern New York Community Foundation has invested in improving and
enriching the quality of life for all in communities across Jefferson,
Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties.
Through
partnerships with businesses and organizations, charitable foundations, and generous families and individual
donors, the Community Foundation awards grants and scholarships from an
endowment and collection of funds that benefit the region. Its commitment
to donors helps individuals achieve their charitable objectives now and for
generations to come by preserving and honoring legacies of community
philanthropy while inspiring others.
The Community
Foundation is a resource for local charitable organizations, donors,
professional advisors and nonprofit organizations. It also works to bring
people together at its permanent home in the Northern New York Philanthropy
Center to discuss challenges our communities face and find creative
solutions that strengthen the region and make it a great place to live,
work, and play.
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