Windward Youth Leadership Grant

Windward Youth Leadership Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Harold K. L. Castle Foundation
Amount: US $500 - US $5,000
Last Updated: November 26, 2025

Summary

The Windward Youth Leadership Grant empowers youth in Windward Oahu to engage in community service projects that foster leadership skills and community pride. Grants ranging from $500 to $5,000 support initiatives that benefit groups or organizations, ensuring that projects are youth-driven. Eligible applicants include youth groups and nonprofit organizations, with the aim of encouraging creativity and growth in their service efforts. This program emphasizes the importance of planning, execution, and youth leadership in making a positive impact.

Overview

NOTE: Expect the grant processing time with the Foundation to be a minimum of 6 weeks, not including your service project, so plan early! Windward Youth Leadership Fund The Windward Youth Leadership Fund is a way for youth to make a difference in their community while gaining valuable life experience by applying what they learn in school and in life. This program allows youth participants to develop a sense of pride and ownership in their community. To truly experience the community spirit, projects must help someone other than themselves – a group, organization, or place in Windward Oahu. The most successful projects show ingenuity, align with the core mission or focus of the youth group providing service within their communities, remain consistent with traditional and island values, and leverage talents within the young leaders themselves. In addition to engaging youth in community service, one of the primary goals of the Windward Youth Leadership program is to help build leadership skills. Although parents and teachers may provide guidance, the projects must be youth driven. Applications that do not clearly demonstrate leadership of youth in the project planning, implementation, and writing of the proposal will most likely be denied. Youth groups that apply for funding more than once will be expected to show creativity and growth with each subsequent service project. A project that is funded once may not be accepted again if it is the same strategy, serving the same group, utilizing the same framework, or done by the same volunteers. We hope to see youth challenge themselves to do greater things with each new project. Funding Groups can request from $500 to $5,000 for your youth group depending on how much you need, how many volunteers you have, and how many hours you will put into the project. If you don’t need to fundraise for your organization, but you want help paying for a community service project, that’s good too! Youth must plan and lead the community service projects, rather than the adult members, parents, or supervisors. Only youth service hours count. The more hours the youth put in, the more funds your group will be eligible to receive.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Groups with at least three participants up to age 18 may apply including, but not limited to:School classes, teams, clubs, etc.Youth activity groups, hula halau, music groups, scouts, etc.Programs that serve youthChurch youth groupsApplicant groups must either be based in Windward O‘ahu, or most youth participants must be Windward O‘ahu residents. All service projects should serve communities along the Windward coast from Kahuku to Waimanalo.Applicants must be a public school or a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization or have a sponsoring agency that is a 501(c)(3) organization that can receive the funds. The 501(c)(3) is a designation given to nonprofit organizations by the Internal Revenue Service. If the applicant is not a public school, you will need the organization’s 501(c)(3) Tax ID number for your application.Youth groups are also encouraged to undertake projects that broaden their horizons beyond the scope of their everyday activities.Each group can only receive one WYLF grant in a calendar year.Please note that if approved, your group must create a video of the service project.Youth must plan and lead the community service projects, rather than the adult members, parents, or supervisors. Only youth service hours count. The more hours the youth put in, the more funds your group will be eligible to receive.

Ineligibility

Youth groups cannot use the Windward Youth Leadership Fund to raise funds for their own group by doing a service project that also benefits their own group.