Youth and Philanthropy Initiative Canada

YPI Canada is an innovative public foundation committed to supporting local social justice charities now, while contributing to the conditions for systemic social change. We do this by operating an inclusive, multi-award-winning youth civic engagement program for high schools across Canada, which directs hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to local charities every year, 100% based on the hands-on research and peer-to-peer advocacy of tens of thousands of teenagers.

YPI was created as a project of the Toskan Casale Foundation in 2002, and has been recognized as the world leader in youth-led participatory grant-making. 650,000 students have participated in YPI at hundreds of high schools across Canada, the United Kingdom, and New York City. Each year, at every participating school, student teams research and advocate for social justice issues and a local charity of their choice: the team with the top research presentation earns a CAD$5,000 grant for their charity, funded by YPI’s generous supporters in each country.

In 2016, YPI Canada was launched as a new public foundation to continue and build on the work of our founder. YPI Canada works at the unique intersection of philanthropy, secondary education, and the charitable sectors, and we create impact by connecting participants across all three sectors.