Penny Harvest: A Year in Pictures

The Penny Harvest is a free, service learning program that follows the traditional school year and teaches students about giving back. Last year, 43 schools in Colorado raised more than $53,000 and made over 130 grants to nonprofits, individuals, and their own schools!


Follow the pictures below for a step-by-step demonstration of the program in action.

Step 1: Gather Pennies

Step 2: Research Community Issues
















Step 3: Make Grants















Step 4: Volunteer






















Step 5: Celebrate!!

YAB Growing Gardens Project: June 12th, 2010

The 11 Youth Advisory Board Members spent several months planning a service project for Global Youth Services Day, which focused on composting and recylcing. The students were able to partner with a nonprofit in Boulder, CO called "Growing Gardens." During the project they learned about creating a composting pile at home or school and then were able to go into the gardens, collect the "greens" and the "browns" to add to the compost, and build their own pile, which the organization will use to fertilize it's gardens this coming Fall. Congratulations Youth Advisory Board on an awesome project!

For more information about YPF and our Youth Advisory Board, visit our website: http://www.ypfoundation.org/

To learn about Growing Gardens, visit: http://www.growinggardens.org/

To learn about Global Youth Services Day, visit: http://www.gysd.org/

Don't Miss out on the 3rd Annual Count-a-Thon!

Join us for the 3rd Annual Count-a-thon!

Help us celebrate the 44 Penny Harvest Schools who have gathered more than 4 MILLION pennies from their communities!

Every cent will be donated to a charitable cause chosen by the students.

All are welcome to attend: students, parents, community members, as we tally up all of the coins collected by local schools.

Date: 12/03/09

Time: 9-11am

Location: UMB

1635 E. Colfax Avenue

Denver, CO 80218

9-9:30: Refreshments

9:30-10: Count-a-Thon

10-11: Interactive Coin Processing

Please RSVP to Amber by 11/30/09: 720.221.9218 or agerding@ypfoundation.org

Guess what is taking place...

...The Extraodinary Penny Harvest!!!

Students from 44 Colorado schools are gearing up for this year's program by hosting "Kick-Off Ceremonies," making presentations in classrooms, reaching out to their neighbors and identifying important community issues.

Here are some awesome ways are students are preparing for the Harvest:

Lowry Elementary Student Leaders present the Penny Harvest program to their peers.

Kickoff Ceremony at Lowry Elementary with special guest Denver Councilman Linkhart. The students used a video, student presentations, the Wheel of Caring, a slide show, and many other great tools to get their peers excited.

McKinley-Thatcher Elementary Students gather the student body to help identify key issue areas and organizations to add to the Wheel of Caring:

McKinley-Thatcher All-Star Leaders perform their school cheer to get their peers motivated!


Graland Country Day School Leaders create a nice loud PENNY--HARVEST Chant...

Teller Elementary Student Leaders sing a Penny Harvest Song they wrote, while displaying the Piggy Bank that will collect all of the "lucky pennies."

Great job student leaders!! Keep up the fantastic work. For more information on our participating schools, visit our website: http://www.ypfoundation.org/

The Pennies Keep Rolling in...

The following message was written by a new Penny Harvest Coach regarding her experiences:

"Today I took pictures of the progress of Penny Harvest and thought I would share them with you. I am very proud of the progress we have made in only 1 week. I was afraid we wouldn't get one bag of pennies let alone 6 and they keep rolling in. I am very proud of the teachers and students working so hard to make this such a successful project. Hope you enjoy the pictures!"

YPF is supporting 44 local schools in this year's Penny Harvest. We are expecting close to 5 million pennies to be collected by the first week of December! All of the money will be used by local school children to make grants to organizations that support issues kids care about.

Keep up that Harvesting!!

"What it Means to Give and Share"--from a child's perspective...

The Young Philanthropists Foundation caught up with Penny Harvest Student Leaders from Holyoke Elementary School during a neighborhood service project to find out what the program means to them, and how they make their tough grant decisions.

As one student leader commented: "Penny Harvest is hanging out and talking about stuff, and telling people what it means to give and share." When asked where they granted the money they collected, the student replied: "Homeless and animal shelters, I think those were two main ones, and also orphans, and people who don't have things, like for disaster relief." The Holyoke Roundtable Leaders also granted a portion of their grant-making budget to two local residents in need.

Thanks for sharing student leaders! You guys are making a huge difference in our community!

For more information, or a list of student grants, please visit our website: http://www.ypfoundation.org/

And we call her "Florence Nightgown"

Last Friday, I had the privilege of joining Holyoke Elementary and High School students as they participated in a Neighborhood Service project at the Colorado Humane Society. The Penny Harvest Student leaders granted $500 of their roundtable grant-making budget to the nonprofit, after identifying animal welfare as an issue in their community, and chose to combine the funds with a day of service.

The day was wonderful--all of the staff were very helpful and friendly, and provided many opportunities for the students to interact with the dogs and cats. And how powerful it was for the students to see where their funds had gone, and the animals they were directly benefitting! (And also for the organization to see the powerful young individuals who are funding them).

As we all ventured out for a nice (very long) walk with the dogs, staff members began to pair up animals with small groups of students. A shelter employee handed the leash of a small,very cute, dainty pup over to two young boys and explained that the dog’s name was Florence Nightingale. Minutes later, the students began telling their friends: “This is Florence Nightgown, isn’t she so cute?”.

Animals are one of the top issue areas identified by our Penny Harvest Students in the "Wheel of Caring" which is composed by the entire student body during the first few months of the program. For a list of other grants made by students participating in the Penny Harvest, please visit our website: http://www.ypfoundation.org/