Two nonprofits completed a merger last month that combines their efforts to teach high schoolers how to initiate philanthropic ventures.
Youth Re:Action Corps, based in Phoenix, merged with the San Francisco-based New Global Citizens, in a venture that goes by the latter’s name.
Founded in 2003, New Global Citizens created clubs “to educate, train, inspire and mobilize high school students for a life-long commitment to global change,” according to its website. The organization focused entirely on international projects, while Youth Re:Action Corps pursued a similar mission domestically, with hopes of going global.
“Youth Re:Action Corps always intended to become global, but were always local, and New Global Citizens is international,” said Nicole Sanchez, who founded New Global Citizens. “And now we [New Global Citizens] can do domestic issues.”
Courtney Klein, who founded Youth Re:Action Corps three years ago on a $1,000 grant from the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, said she read a profile of New Global Citizens, called Sanchez (then its executive director) and knew within days that something more than a partnership would be best for the organizations.
“Since we merged, our reach is much farther, and we are able to connect with communities around the world on issues of war, poverty, health and raising awareness,” said Klein, who became CEO of the merged organization, while Sanchez became its chief strategist.
The organization has 10 employees and a $1.2 million budget, Klein said. Before the merger, Sanchez said, each organization had five employees and about a $500,000 budget.
The new organization will keep both the Phoenix and San Francisco offices.
New Global Citizens is working on 42 projects with 50 high schools in five cities, involving several hundred youth, Klein said. One example is a group of youths who identified a need for a mobile toy- and book-lending system for children in Orissa, India, and raised $16,000 to buy a bus to facilitate the effort.
The nonprofits’ funders have included the Pat Tillman Foundation and the Flora Family Foundation. Sanchez said much of costs of the merger was covered by the Phoenix-based Lodestar Foundation.
Contact: (602) 263-0500, www.newglobalcitizens.org.
