Three short months after ground was broken on new headquarters for the Island Wide Youth Collaborative, community members gathered Thursday in Oak Bluffs for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a tour of the new facility.
One of the first beneficiaries of the donor group MVYouth, the building will serve as the hub of a new program overseen by Martha’s Vineyard Community Services to coordinate mental health and counseling services for Island children.
Community Services executive director Juliette Fay told a crowd of about 60 that funding for the program comes from a variety of sources, including the state, the town boards of health and the Tower Foundation.
The building itself was entirely underwritten by MVYouth, a fledgling philanthropy group founded in August 2014 with an innovative fundraising model and a commitment to give away $1 million a year to an array of youth causes.
At the one-year mark, MVYouth is off to a strong start, its founders said this week in an interview with the Gazette.
“The level of excitement is very high,” said Dan Stanton, who conceived MVYouth with his friend Jim Swartz. Both are longtime Edgartown summer residents and retired businessmen.
At the outset 40 founders pledged $25,000 a year for four years, which translated to a commitment of $4 million, or $1 million per year. A pooled, direct funding approach allows all the money to go directly to the causes. This year $1 million has already been given out, including $180,000 to complete a new home field in Oak Bluffs for Martha’s Vineyard Little League, $620,000 for the Island Wide Youth Collaborative building dedicated this week and $325,000 in four-year scholarships for five graduating seniors at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.
MVYouth is deliberately lean on staffing and has one paid executive director, Lindsey Scott of Chilmark. Her salary and all other administrative costs are paid from a separate fund established by the founders to cover those costs. Many of the founders are first-generation summer residents. Charitable giving is divided broadly into two parts: scholarship awards and expansion grants.
Reflecting on the first year, Mr. Stanton and Mr. Swartz said this week that the group has already exceeded its initial goal of 40 founders and has a little more than 50 founders. A recent golf tournament raised ore than $100,000. And they said they were pleased with the projects funded, singling out the Little League Penn Field project as a perfect example of the MVYouth mission, which aims to help pay for capital projects and expansion programs, not operating costs.
“I loved that story especially,” Mr. Swartz said. “I think it really speaks to the essence of what we were trying to capture. Here was a group of people with an organization that serves hundreds of children who had been trying to make something happen for years — and it would have taken years more for them to raise the money. We were able to some in and essentially replace the fundraising.”
Penn Field was completed this spring and is now the home field for Vineyard Little League.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the youth collaborative building this week, Ms. Fay echoed the praise.
“This new, incredible building was made possible due to the generosity of MVYouth,” she said.
MVYouth will begin a new round of grant applications in the fall. An engaging video about the organization that includes the names of the founders, appears on its website.
Mr. Swartz and Mr. Stanton said they look forward to the next cycle; as for MVYouth, they said the plan is to take a measured approach.
“It’s not about getting big, it’s about doing it well and trying to have an impact,” Mr. Swartz said.
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