VCF

Vermont

The application to participate in this year’s cohort (2022-2023) of the Vermont Changemakers Table is open through Friday, November 4th at 12 PM ET.

 

 

The Vermont Changemakers Table is a cohort of young Vermonters seeking to drive positive change in Vermont and its communities through relationship building and collective action. The program is a collaboration between Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR) and the Vermont Community Foundation (VCF) and has connected and empowered six cohorts of changemakers from across Vermont since its inception in 2016.

The 2022-2023 Changemakers Table program will convene a group of 20 changemakers under the age of 35 with diverse backgrounds, occupations, and experience for a 7-month series of in-person and virtual gatherings to discuss challenges and opportunities facing Vermont communities and how to utilize levers of change within their spheres of influence.

At monthly gatherings, participants will build connections with one another, discuss and learn with leaders across the state about leveraging change, and design and implement a grant program to provide financial support to organizations and initiatives led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in Vermont.

There is no program fee to participate in Changemakers. Each participant will receive a free Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility membership for the year, providing them with access to VBSR educational programming, networking opportunities, and free admission to two VBSR virtual workshops, along with other member benefits. Learn more about VBSR membership here!

2022-2023 Cohort Details

The program will run from November 2022 through May 2023, consisting of two in-person gatherings and eight virtual gatherings. During the program, the cohort will explore various levers of change including advocacy, communications, non-financial resources (i.e. volunteerism, gathering space), and philanthropy. Participants will also learn about how to utilize those levers of change to make an impact in their spheres of influence including as an individual, in their workplace, in their community, and globally.

Last year’s participants learned about the nuts and bolts of philanthropic grant program and employed what they learned throughout the year to deploy a pool of funds to provide general operating support to BIPOC-led organizations and initiatives focused on meeting individual and community needs (learn more about the 2021-2022 program results here).


Below is the schedule for the 2022-2023 cohort. Please do not apply unless you are confident that you can attend all or almost all of the events listed:

● Opening Gathering (in-person with dinner provided): November 15, 2022 from 5:30 – 8 p.m. – location TBD
● Philanthropy and Vermont’s Funding Landscape (virtual): November 29, 2022 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
● Grant Round Design (virtual): December 13, 2022 from 5:30 –7:30 p.m.
● Advocacy (virtual): January 17, 2023 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
● Grant Round Design (virtual): February 7, 2023 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
● Grant Round Design (virtual): February 21, 2023 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
● Leveraging Your Platform (virtual): March 14, 2023 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
● Grant Round Design (virtual): March 28, 2023 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
● Non-Financial Resources (virtual): April 18, 2023 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
● Closing Gathering (in-person with dinner provided): May 23, 2022 from 5:30 – 8 p.m. – location TBD

Transportation to in-person meetings is not provided; however, participants in past years have often carpooled with other participants in their region. VBSR and VCF will provide a Google Spreadsheet to help participants coordinate carpools.

 

Ideal applicants to this program will be:

● Passionate about exploring and strengthening the communities they live in
● Seeking to build new relationships with people living in Vermont
● Seeking to learn from diverse perspectives and identities
● Eager to participate and engage in in-person and virtual meetings
● Excited to dig into levers of change and learn about grantmaking processes and practices
● Under 35 years of age

The Changemakers program’s success relies on a broad diversity of perspectives and lived experience. VBSR and VCF aim to create a diverse cohort with backgrounds and interests in different sectors (e.g., health care, child development, farming or forestry, environmental advocacy, nonprofit, government, and business). We are working to assemble a cohort that includes people living in different areas of Vermont, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ & gender-nonconforming people, first or second generation Americans, people with refugee status, and Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC). Coordinators of the program will aim to support discussions across differences, but will also work to ensure no one will be asked to speak on behalf of their community.

 

What do our Changemakers Table alumni have to say?

“Thank you so much for organizing and facilitating a wonderful group of folks who did some fantastic work”

“I really enjoyed participating in the grant round, it was so interesting to be able to design it in a way that isn’t typical. It demonstrates that just because things are done a certain way doesn’t mean they always have to be done that way!”

“This is the most diverse group I have ever been a part of, and I really appreciated that.”

 

Questions about the Vermont Changemakers Table?

Email VBSR Education & Events Manager, Molly Barfuss, at: mollyb@vbsr.org or email David Rahr Community Philanthropy Fellow at The Vermont Community Foundation, Britney Lux, at: blux@vermontcf.org