Making GOOD Even Better, Microsoft Launches Matching Campaign

UPDATE - 2:00 p.m. PT, March 18: A big thank you to everyone who has participated in supporting our 20 inspiring nonprofits through the Give For Youth Challenge. Due to your unprecedented response, our $100,000 in matching funds were claimed within the first hour! We want to encourage you to continue to support these great projects so we’re providing an additional $100,000 to match your donations.

The Give for Youth Challenge has reached its final stage and now it’s your turn. Working with GOOD, and thanks to nominations and voting by people across the United States we’ve found 20 inspiring nonprofits who will be featured on GiveforYouth.org and eligible for $100,000 of matching funds from Microsoft.

Give for Youth, a Microsoft YouthSpark program in partnership with GlobalGiving, is a global micro-giving marketplace focused specifically on raising funds for nonprofits that support youth causes around the world.

From providing STEM education, to inspiring change-makers, to providing art and music programs in orphanages, each one of the winning organizations provide young people with an opportunity for a better and brighter future. You can make it even brighter.

Photo courtesy Rock Paper Scissors Children’s Fund

How can you help?

• Double your impact! From March 18- March 27 (or until funds are exhausted), Microsoft will match donations to the micro-projects listed by our 20 winners on Give for Youth.
• Spread the word. Help us welcome our new nonprofit partners to Give for Youth by encouraging your friends and family to support them. Follow #YouthSpark on Twitter to keep up-to-date with the challenge.

Here’s a random sampling of some of the organizations that made it to the final round of the challenge:

Rock Paper Scissors Children’s Fund

Rock Paper Scissors Children’s Fund has two projects underway to help the youth of Cam Duc, Vietnam. The Fund works to offer art and music classes to poor children living in the area, including those at a local orphanage. The Fund’s goal is to provide the school’s music teacher, Tuan, with professional instruction as well as continue to provide art supplies and paper for their Dream of Art School and other community schools. Read more here on how the Fund plans to help youth living in poverty through art and creativity.

The Center for Arab American Philanthropy

Through their specific Teen Grantmaking Initiative (TGI), the Center for Arab American Philanthropy “teaches high school students about community issues, grantmaking, nonprofit management, communication and community leadership.” Through this program, TGI offers grants to student groups that support education and health initiatives. The youth in the TGI program fundraise in their own neighborhoods and also learn to make important decisions surrounding social issues in their communities. Learn more here about how TGI is helping youth serve their local areas.

LIFE Humane Heroes Club

An after-school program, Leaders in Furthering Education (LIFE) Humane Heroes Club teaches children about the role animals play in our lives. Their goal is “to create a generation of young people dedicated to the work of building more humane communities for animals and for all of us.” Through their after-school activities and curriculum, the organization educates children about the human-animal bond and advocates in their communities for animals in need. Learn more here about their successful humane education programs, and how they plan to further animal education for youths.

Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund

The Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) is hoping to improve low postsecondary education attendance rates in the Pacific Islands (PI). By raising funds to sponsor four PI students, the organization hopes they can empower these students to “engage in a dialogue with key stakeholders who shape higher education policies and programs.” As the only national scholarship nonprofit supporting PI students, APIASF hopes to support and empower the next generation of PI leaders; find out how they plan to do so here.