A Profile on Marcus Brandon

I was introduced to YPP through a mutual friend of mine and executive director Omo Moses. I personally have been fundraising for political campaigns for a number of years, and had started making the transition to organizational fundraising by working with Progressive Majority and Equality Virginia as their development director.

Because of my education background and my passion for youth empowerment, I was excited about the opportunity to work with YPP. Coming from the political sphere, where fundraising happens at a much faster rate than organizational fundraising, I thought we could merge the pace of the fundraising of a political campaign to maximize the capitol resource that we have within the organization. Similar to a campaign, your job is not only to get financial support for the campaign, but you have to get organizational support as well. Grassroots fundraising allows you to do both at the same time.

There are all sorts of learning outcomes to this strategy from an organizational and a personal stand point. The understanding of using money as a tool to make more money is one of the essential outcomes in order to create a culture of site led fundraising. The skills that students are learning from being in charge of their own fundraising, allows them to understand what is a cost analysis sheet, effective marketing skills, teamwork, and the sense of ownership over something.

I believe fundraising around QECR creates additional opportunities from the grant level all the way down to the grassroots level. Students organizing on behalf of themselves to create change on the structural level of education,is powerful and marketable.

We have many events planned, from a Dance-Off with the students in our Miami location, to house parties in Chicago, a Fish Fry, Car Washes and a Haunted House in Jackson, Mississippi. Thru these events, we hope to tell the story of YPP, our work in QECR and find other folks that share the frustration and the passion to make change, ultimately becoming sustainable in the process.

House parties and site-led fundraisers have two fundamental goals. Of course raising funds for the organization is the primary goal, but almost equally important, is introducing people to the work of YPP.