Click here to apply for the 2013 Girls Advisory Board! Application deadline is Friday, June 28th.

Our Girls Advisory Board – GAB!

Now with its ninth class, our award-winning Girls Advisory Board program provides high-school girls living in Chester County with the opportunity to learn about the deep and varied needs in their communities while engaging in strategic grantmaking. Through GAB, the Fund aims to educate a new generation of young women about the importance of philanthropy, community service, and the positive difference each girl can make on the lives of others. To learn more about the program, when to apply, and to keep up on all Fund news, sign up for our e-mail list.The Girls Advisory Board…

  • Responsible for 57 grants, totaling $170,000, awarded to area nonprofits serving girls in Chester County!
  • Co-host of the first national Girls Grantmaking Conference in which more than thirty high-school girls from across the country, including our own GAB girls, taught us and each other how they identify and implement change through grantmaking in their communities. Click here to read the full news release.
  • Brings together girls from 27 different public, private and parochial schools. Nearly every high school in Chester County has been represented on GAB since the program’s inception.
  • Awarded the 2007 “Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy” Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Greater Philadelphia Chapter.
  • Part of the Girls Grantmaking Network, an international network of women’s funds with girls’ grantmaking programs. Within this network, GAB members serve as advisors to similar programs around the world.

GAB Stories: Lindsay Hudson

When I first interviewed for GAB, I don’t think I quite understood the impact it would make on my life. As an adolescent, much of your perspective is limited to what you know. Your family. Your school. Your friends. GAB strives to change that perspective — to open young women up to the larger community around them. GAB challenges them to confront issues we never even knew existed for girls in our communities.

While many of the girls in my high school were facing severe body image and substance abuse problems, other area high schools faced bullying, domestic violence and even homelessness. Here we were, girls from all over the county, brought together by a common purpose to make a difference in the lives women and girls in our community.

“What can I do?” This is the fundamental question almost every GAB girl who graduates from the program lives by. If there is one thing I have learned, it is to never stop asking, “What can you do? There will always be a need to meet, a person who needs you to go the extra mile—whether that is serving them a meal or helping them find counseling. It was apparent to me through my time in GAB, not only will there always be an opportunity to improve the community around you but if you want to call yourself a member of that community, you have an obligation to help.

GAB trains young women to be active participants in the community by looking deeper…. Simply put, GAB is an investment in the future!