National Philanthropy Day 2018 was held on Nov. 16 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Wichita Chapter. Southwestern College Philanthropy Board was honored with the Youth in Philanthropy Group Award.

The student-led board currently consists of Ashleigh Hollis, Quinlan Stein, and Raquel Resendiz. These three accepted the award on the behalf of the board's work and past student board members over the last 10 years. The November issue of the Wichita Business Journal highlighted the board in a two-page spread including Laura (Morgan) Gottlob, who started the board as her senior leadership project in 2008.

“It is important for young people to be involved in philanthropy because it gives them a chance to represent a cause they believe in,” Hollis says.  “To me, this honor means that youth philanthropy work is not going unnoticed.  This is important to our organization because we can show future youth philanthropy groups that they can do good work and make a difference no matter how young or old they are.”

In 2008, Southwestern was selected as one of 10 academic institutions to participate in the students4giving program, an initiative that provides opportunity for students to give grants to nonprofits. Gottlob set up the Southwestern board in response to this grant, which allows other students to learn about the giving cycle and give out grant money to non-profits. Since its inception, the board has awarded over $10,000 grant money to a variety of organizations. The organizations and non-profits are selected under direction and guidance from the board through a non-profit class at Southwestern, currently taught by Lindsay Morgan.

Beyond the honor for national philanthropy day, the class and board held their own grant ceremony on Dec. 13 to feature their 2018 choice for grant recipients. With the board's leadership, the class officially decided to fund the Circles local chapter with $950 for their collaborative work on a children’s curriculum and stipends for their leaders, and the Wichita Sexual Assault Center with $500 to host an event in Cowley County. This ceremony gave some history of the grant, featured the recipients, and announced future new board members.