Philanthropy take note, the next youthquake is coming

A young person shares why Australia needs more funders directly backing young people’s vision for the future — and how lowering the voting age is where it all starts.

The Funders’ Collaborative On Youth Organizing (FYCO) is a US-based organisation working to bridge the gap between philanthropy and young people fighting for systemic change and social justice in their communities. Amongst a number of great programs, the FYCO is calling on funders across the US to take a ‘Youth Power Pledge’, essentially a commitment from philanthropy, to provide young people with the resources they need to create the world they want to live in.

Recently, I was lucky enough to sit on a panel alongside Mónica Córdova, the executive director of the FYCO as part of her visit to Australia for the NEXUS Australia Summit, supported by the Foundation for Young Australians. It was incredible to learn how for 20 years, the FYCO has brought together leading American foundations, trusts and individuals to collectively re-direct funds to youth-led organisations fighting for causes such as climate justice, racial justice and an end to gun violence.

To my surprise, Mónica’s experience of campaigning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic was strikingly similar to mine. She noticed that during the pandemic, young people identified the unique circumstances and rose to the challenge of combating the emerging systemic pandemic inequities in education, democracy, public health, and the economy. In both the US and Australia, the pandemic displayed the incredible leadership abilities of young people to step up and fight for their communities when they see inequality and injustice. 

Young people have been fighting for their voices to be heard on the issues that matter to them for generations. Whether it is writing to their MPs, organising rallies or building mass digital participation campaigns, in Australia and abroad, this kind of activism and advocacy is nothing new. In the US, the term ‘youth organising’ has largely been coined to describe this kind of work in which young people are engaged in building movements capable of fighting for systemic and community-based social change.

During the pandemic, after witnessing a huge gap in the political representation and democratic participation of young people in Australia, I founded an organisation focused on  organising young Australians. Run For It is an organisation led by young people, all working to create a stronger democracy and a better kind of politics for future generations. We’ve previously broken down barriers to young people’s political engagement by supporting over 100 young people to run for local council across Australia.

Following the exciting news out of New Zealand last week that the voting age will soon be lowered from 18 to 16, in 2023, Run For It will be running a national coalition campaign to push for a similar change in Australia. We’ll do this by supporting young people who are leaders in their communities to organise strong advocacy campaigns to have their voices heard. We believe that empowering young people to cast a vote at 16 will have a highly significant impact on the entire civic participation landscape of our nation.

Whilst it may sound cliche, young people have a beautiful ability to imagine and create the future they want to live in, and that’s why most successful social change movements have been led by young people, with bold and brave ideas for their futures.

However, at present, our generation is deeply under-resourced in a number of ways; our democracy doesn’t look like us or listen to us, affordable housing is becoming harder and harder to find, student debts aren’t getting any smaller and we’re beginning to feel the impacts of climate change first and worst. 

For young people to step away from these day-to-day challenges and for our society to change for the better, young people need backers who are ready to directly support young people’s vision for their future. So philanthropy, take note: the next youthquake is coming and we need funders who are ready to support youth to fight in their communities and nationally for a better future for everyone.