Piedmont Community Foundation (PCF) invites area students grades 9-12 from Loudoun and Fauquier Counties to join its student philanthropy project, Forward Turn. The program meets once per month between October and April to learn about great philanthropists, grantwriting, and the tough choices involving charitable grantmaking.
“This is a program that teaches our youth participants how to ‘look under the hood’ of a nonprofit charity and gain an understanding of making good charitable choices. The goal is to enable our Forward Turn members to be equipped to be good charitable givers as they reach adulthood,” says Amy Owen, PCF executive director.
Based on research conducted in Michigan where such programs were started, participants involved in long-term programs like Forward Turn report a 94% volunteer rate as opposed to other young adults in the same age bracket with a 15% volunteer rate. Participants in Forward Turn programs report a 88% giving rate; as opposed to other young adults in the same age bracket with a 42% givers rate.
The program is supported by a permanent endowment fund held in the Piedmont Community Foundation created by the Rust family in honor of S. Murray Rust and Mary H.C. Rust. Additional funders include the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, Middleburg Bank, and Dominion Foundation.
The orientation meeting will be held in Middleburg at 101 North Jay Street on October 19, 2013 at 11:00 A.M. For more information contact Amy Owen, (540) 687-5223 or visit ForwardTurn.org.
Piedmont Community Foundation was founded in 1999 and serves Loudoun and northern Fauquier Counties. It provides financial stewardship for almost 30 endowment funds and holds approximately $1.3 million in endowment. Community foundations number more than 700 across America and 29 in Virginia and attract gifts and bequests to benefit local communities to build everlasting endowment.
