Grant Request Young Playwrights’ Theater

Hermanowski Family Foundation Initial Request Form


Organization Name: Young Playwrights’ Theater
Legal Name (if Different):
Also Known As:
Mailing Address: 6925 Willow St. NW Suite LL-230
City: Washington
State: DC
Postal Code: 20012
Main Phone: 202-387-9173
Main Fax:
Organization Website: www.yptdc.org
Employer ID Number: 52-2102391
Organization Tax Status: Non-Profit 501c3

Proposal Information


Today’s Date: 6/4/2019
Requested Amount: $2500

Project Title: Young Playwrights’ Theater General Operating Support
Project Description:

In 2020, Young Playwrights’ Theater (YPT) will celebrate our 25th anniversary. For the past 25 years, YPT has been a driving force in the DC arts education community. Through innovative and academically rigorous in-school and after-school playwriting programs and professional performances of student-written work, YPT seeks to create social justice by inspiring under-resourced young people to discover the power and value of their own voices. YPT has served the DC community since 1995, expanding as the need and demand for our programming has surged in the face of reduced funding for arts and creative writing programming in schools. We now serve an average of 1,000 students annually in all eight wards of Washington, DC, and the surrounding region, with our In-School and Out-of-School Time Playwriting Programs, and we reach an additional 1,000 audience members through our Annual Performance Series of professionally-produced student-written work. Our strategic frame, built on the Crossroads Anti-Racism Organizing method, guides us to respond to the needs of our communities and focuses us on reaching chronically under-resourced schools and neighborhoods, especially those east of the Anacostia River. The Hermanowski Family Foundation has played an enormous role in supporting these efforts, and YPT respectfully requests a $2,500 grant in our pivotal 25th Anniversary year, so we can sustain recent growth while expanding our FY19 pilot initiatives—our arts integration program at the SEED School of Washington and YPT’s first ever fully-produced multi-week run of a student-written play. With your support, we will work to close DC’s academic achievement gap and break cycles of poverty by inspiring youth to realize the power of their own voices.

Total Project Budget: $974,693

Other Funding
Sources For The Project (Committed & Potential): Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Cafritz Foundation, Capital for Children, Capitol Hill Community Foundation, Clark-Winchcole Foundation, Corina Higginson Trust, Dimick Foundation, Dominion Guild, Herb Block Foundation, Harman Family Foundation, Hermanowski Family Foundation, Mars Foundation, Morningstar Foundation, Nora Roberts Foundation, Polinger Foundation, Posner Foundation, Rainmakers Giving Circle, Replogle Foundation, Share Fund, John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Wasserman Foundation, Webber Family Foundation, Marriott, Wells Fargo, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, OFffice of the Deputy Mayor for Education, Mayor’s Office on LAtino Affairs, Mayor’s Office on LGBTQ Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Donations

Project Duration: August 2019-July 2020
Geographical Area Served: Washington, DC; Maryland; Virginia
Age Group To Be Served: Ages 8+

Contact Information


Contact Prefix (Mr,Mrs etc.): Ms.
Contact First Name: Emma
Contact Last Name: Wesslund
Contact Title: Development Manager
Contact Phone: 202-387-9173
Contact Email: ewesslund@yptdc.org