KSVT Becomes Member of Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund Third Cohort of Youth-led Organizations

Today, the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund (RTYPF) announced $1.9 million in funding to support 24 youth- and intergenerationally-led organizations working to create a safer, more equitable digital ecosystem. Kentucky Student Voice Team is honored to be among the 24 organizations supported in this third cohort. This is RTYPF’s third year of investing in the youth-led responsible technology movement, and its newest cohort arrives as mounting legal scrutiny of social media’s impact on young people and urgent conversations around AI safety converge to affirm that the work of building a safer digital ecosystem is more critical than ever. 2026 grantees will use grant funding to advance work across a variety of issues, including tech accountability, youth mental health, responsible AI, and technology-based climate solutions. The fund’s grantees are receiving one-year grants of $50,000 to $100,000, allocated based on organizational capacity and funding needs.

‍

‍Reimagining Power in Philanthropy‍

RTYPF was founded with the acknowledgment that traditional philanthropic organizations too rarely center the voices of the communities they serve — especially young people. The Fund has deliberately engaged in power-sharing in grantmaking, inviting young leaders to move from recipients to decision-makers.

Now in its third year, RTYPF has continued to elevate youth leadership on its steering committee and has mobilized a cumulative amount of $7.5 million of support for a diverse group of young leaders, with investments from co-funders, Allen Family Philanthropies, Archewell Philanthropies, Arthur M. Blank Foundation, Carmel Hill Fund, Hopelab, Omidyar Network, Pinterest, Pivotal, Stuart Foundation, and Susan Crown Exchange, and an intergenerational grantmaking approach. By reimaging power structures in funding decisions, RTYPF demonstrates what is possible when young people are centered in decisions that transform the potential of grantmaking.

“Creating change requires bringing the voices, lived experience, and grassroots action of young people to decision-making spaces”, said Neha Shukla, Founder of Innovation for Everyone and RTYPF Steering Committee Member. “We can be the leaders, organizers, and activists standing alongside older generations to reimagine a safer future of technology."

‍

2026 Grantee Cohort

The 24 organizations joining the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund’s third cohort represent a diverse cross-section of youth and intergenerationally-led work addressing critical challenges at the intersection of technology, health equity, and community well-being.

• #Halfthestory is moving the world from screen-fear to screen-free fun by putting teens at the table of tech decision-making.
• Agents of Influence helps young people take back control of their attention, their decisions, and the technologies shaping both.
• AI Consensus builds environments that let young people come together and decide what AI becomes.
• Center for Intimacy Justice works to hold technology platforms accountable for ensuring that young people can access accurate health education online without stigma, censorship, or algorithmic bias.
• Civics Unplugged shapes young leaders to redefine civics as a verb and become active world-builders in their communities.
• Cyber Collective gives people the tools, language, and support to stay safe online.
• Decifer Studio allows people to pull the curtain on emerging technologies, look behind the scenes, and imagine themselves at the steering wheel.
• Design It For Us believes that young people should be at the center of the solutions to creating safer, more productive online spaces.
• Despierta helps young people and families build healthier relationships with technology, themselves, and each other by blending mental health education, youth leadership, and culturally responsive learning.
• Future Incubator is an operational partner for youth-led initiatives, providing administrative support in finance, HR, and legal compliance, removing barriers for young leaders to fundraise, hire, and scale, and stay focused on leading.
• Gen-Z for Change brings together attorneys, creators, strategists, and organizers to translate digital influence into meaningful civic engagement.
• Generation Patient is building a future where young adults with chronic conditions lead the way in reshaping care, through peer support and systems reform led by lived experience.
• Innovation for Everyone is a youth-led movement mobilizing for AI ethics literacy, reaching 70,000 students across 35 countries to preserve critical-thinking and youth agency in the age of AI.
• Kentucky Student Voice Team is a laboratory for democratic participation where young people investigate the education systems that shape their lives and help redesign them.
• Kinston Teens, Inc empowers young people through service, leadership, and civic engagement.
• NClude Inc. works to unlock employment and economic independence for people with disabilities by transforming inaccessible digital systems into inclusive opportunities through accessible, responsible AI.
• Next Gen Men creates a positive shift in the way boys and men think of themselves, relate to others, and are viewed in the community.
• NoSo Connection Collective empowers young people to reclaim control over their time, attention, and well-being by forming healthier relationships with technology, using it as a core strategy to improve their mental health.
• Our Subscription to Addiction inspires young people to reclaim their agency with social media, equipping them with the confidence, tools, and resources needed to build a better relationship with their phones and to contribute their voices to solutions.
• Reboot is a publication by and for technologists.
• Rooted Futures Lab is a research and action collective dedicated to centering environmental justice principles in technology.
• trubel&co (pronounced like "trouble") is a tech-justice nonprofit that mobilizes youth and communities to leverage local data to tackle challenges that matter most.
• Young People’s Alliance is empowering young people to ensure that AI's encroachments on our humanity create the conditions for us to collectively prioritize policies that put our humanity first.
• Youth for Privacy – Privacy Runway is a youth-led, youth-centered group advocating forprivacy, with a mission to raise awareness of privacy through education, outreach, research, and advocacy.

‍

‍About the Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund (RTYPF)‍

The Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund (RTYPF) is a first-of-its-kind philanthropic initiative that supports youth- and intergenerationally led organizations in collectively defining what responsible technology looks like for their communities. By reimagining power structures in philanthropy — inviting young people to move from recipients to decision-makers — the Fund is building solutions that shape a more equitable and safer digital ecosystem. Now in its third year, the Fund has raised $7.5 million to support 501(c)(3)-eligible public charities, with award amounts ranging from
$50,000 to $125,000 depending on the organization's stage and funding needs. Grantees work across tech accountability, youth mental health, responsible AI, and technology-based climate solutions. Learn more at www.rtyouthpower.org.

About the Kentucky Student Voice Team

‍The Kentucky Student Voice Team (KSVT) is an independent, statewide, 501(c)(3) organization co-founded in 2012 by a group of Kentucky high school students. As a collective of young people, KSVT is on a mission to co-create more just, democratic Kentucky schools and communities as research, policy-advocacy & storytelling partners.