Young people are not only inheriting this moment, they are already leading it. YPF works to scale their leadership for greater impact.

The California Youth Power Fund (YPF) is a statewide participatory grantmaking collaborative investing in youth-led and intergenerational 501(c)(3) organizing across California. Anchored by Youth Organize! California (YO! Cali) and Northern California Grantmakers (NCG), we pool philanthropic resources to strengthen the long-term infrastructure young people need to build power and transform systems.

Why Youth Organizing

Across campaigns, communities, and crises, youth organizers are the through-line: they build relationships, move people to action, and make tangible the belief that a better world can be created. Youth organizing works, but it has never been resourced at the scale this moment requires.

Young people, especially youth of color, are navigating political attacks, economic pressure, housing insecurity, immigration crackdowns, environmental harm, and a growing mental health crisis. Meanwhile, Gen Z and Millennials are becoming the largest voting bloc in the country. The future of our democracy depends on whether youth have the resources to lead.

Josh Lee, Director

Josh Lee is the inaugural Director of the California Youth Power Fund (YPF) and comes to the role with deep roots in youth organizing and long-standing involvement in YPF’s creation and growth. Josh was part of YPF’s founding design in 2020, and supported its development as a program officer at local community foundations, including as a Senior Program Officer at the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF). In 2025, he transitioned into YPF’s first full-time director role to guide its next phase of statewide expansion.

  • Born and raised in Oakland, Josh began his career as a youth organizer and later served five years as Executive Director of AYPAL: Building API Community Power, where he focused on developing BIPOC youth leadership. His work has consistently centered young people as the architects of community change.

    Before stepping into his full-time role at the Youth Power Fund, Josh worked across multiple philanthropic initiatives supporting grassroots organizing, movement strategy, and long-term civic infrastructure. He brings a dual perspective shaped by frontline organizing and funder collaboration, with a strong commitment to resourcing communities in ways that advance equity, collective leadership, and sustainable change.

    Josh holds a Master’s degree in Higher Education (with a focus on Social Justice) from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor’s degree in American Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives in the Bay Area with his family.

Olivia Nava, Head of Strategy & Impact

Olivia has been a strategic advisor with YPF since March 2022 and, in January 2026, transitioned from a part-time consultant to a near-full-time employee as the Head of Strategy and Impact. Olivia helps early-stage initiatives like YPF find their footing. She bridges across classes and cultures, guiding strategy, momentum-building, and aligning funding. Her approach blends systems thinking with human-centered design—connecting big-picture vision to grounded implementation. In this role, she will guide organizational strategy and operational structure, learning frameworks, and support narrative framing and funding alignment for long-term sustainability.

  • Growing up in Modesto, California, surrounded by almond and peach orchards, she experienced the intersection of small-town life and global movement. Modesto was both agricultural and suburban, shaped by migration, faith, and layered cultural identities. That legacy shapes how she approaches complexity—grounded, adaptive, and attentive to context in both creative and strategic work.

    Prior to joining California Youth Power Fund, Olivia was a social innovation consultant co-creating approaches with frontline communities both globally and domestically, applying systems thinking and equity design to a range of issues, including climate justice, global health, and renewable energy. Earlier roles included Design Director at Gobee Group, a social innovation design firm in Oakland, California; Co-founder of Juabar, a renewable energy company in Tanzania; and Program Officer for the Community Clinics Initiative, a joint project of Tides and The California Endowment.

    Olivia holds an MBA in Design Strategy from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and a Bachelor of Arts from UCLA.

YPF Core Members 

  • René Casas
    Program Officer, Sobrato Philanthropies

  • Hawi Desta
    Youth Organize! California

  • Sarah Frankfurth
    Director of Regional Programs & Partnerships, Northern California Grantmakers

  • Eduardo “Lalo” Gonzalez
    Program Officer, Power, San Francisco Foundation

  • Zuleika Godínez
    Senior Program Officer, S.H. Cowell Foundation

  • Bella Lopez
    Program Officer, East Bay Community Foundation 

  • Hana Ma
    Senior Program Officer, Silicon Valley Program, Sobrato Philanthropies

  • Amy Price
    Program Officer, Zellerbach Family Foundation

  • Joyce Roys-Aguilera
    Implementation Strategist, The California Endowment

  • Linda Sanchez
    Co-Director, Youth Organize! California