BALTIMORE – Philanthropy Tank is an annual competition giving students grades 8 through 11 a chance to pitch philanthropic ideas about ways to improve the City of Baltimore.
If you ask Katherine Guerrerio why she applied to Philanthropy Tank Baltimore she will tell you it came down to representation.
“That’s actually the reason I started this,” said Guerrerio. “There wasn’t anything like this when I was younger, pretty much every book that I read the main character looked exactly like me. So as a result, I grew up unaware of a lot of different issues that were directly impacting people who were really close to me.”
Philanthropy Tank is a non-profit organization, think of a Shark Tank-style competition geared at mentoring and funding student-led community impact ideas.
Guerrerio’s pitch is Community Reads.
“Community Reads aims to reach kids in grades K-2 about diversity through literature, so to do this we partner with different K-2 classrooms and children’s libraries,” Guerrerio said.
The Roland Park Country School student was recognized as a finalist and was awarded funding.
“With the help of Philanthropy Tank, we have been able to expand to a couple of other public schools, in the future we hope to expand to even more schools and libraries,” Guerrerio said.
On Wednesday, June 14, five groups of students will pitch their ideas to philanthropy mentors and investors with the hope of receiving up to $15,000s in funding and mentorship.
“Everyone is so enthusiastic about the prospect of what is to come,” said Leslie Schaller, founding board member of Philanthropy Tank.
Organizers say it’s another opportunity to shine a light on youth in our area who want to solve problems and improve our community.
“Eliminating the barriers so that Baltimore students can really get the opportunity to excel and build things that they love is really what Philanthropy Tank is about,” said Nakeia Jones, Chief Program Officer.
So far Philanthropy Tank has awarded $700,000 in funding to support student-led ideas and has worked with more than 1,000 teens.
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