Breakthrough Generation is the young leaders initiative of the Breakthrough Institute, a public policy think tank. Breakthrough Generation is dedicated to empowering America’s progressive young leaders to advance bold ideas for a stronger, safer, and more prosperous world.
Breakthrough Generation was founded in 2007 on the premise that America’s youth are faced with an unprecedented opportunity to define a new politics for a new age. A new politics is emerging today, and while its shape has yet to be determined, young people are already taking the lead. Young adults defined the course of the 2008 elections, and the youth energy movement has become the largest student movement in decades. How young Americans seize this opportunity can change the course of the nation — and the world — for years to come.
The Breakthrough Generation fellowship has fostered the development of young thought leaders capable of fully grappling with the scale and complexity of today’s greatest challenges and advancing large-scale solutions over the near and long term. In summer 2009, Breakthrough Generation hosted its second annual Fellowship Program in the Bay Area with 8 recent college graduates from across the nation. One of the products of the 2010 summer fellowship was “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant,” a major report assessing the state of the clean energy race between the China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. “Rising Tigers” was written about in the New York Times, the Wall St. Journal, and the Financial Times, and was cited in Time Magazine’s “Top 10 Green Ideas of 2009.” Applications are currently open for the 2010 fellowship program, and interested applicants should follow application instructions outlined here.
We believe that any effective and long-lasting movement must speak to core values and philosophies, not issues and interests. As a result, we seek to bridge the gap between youth activism and intellectualism and situate ourselves at the intersection of policy, politics, economics, and psychology. Breakthrough Generation – like our parent think tank, the Breakthrough Institute – is committed to creating a politics that recognizes the central importance of prosperity and security for becoming creative, unique, and caring individuals. Our overarching mission is to overcome ecological crises through a new kind of global economic development that increases security, expands opportunity, and unleashes human innovation.
2009 Breakthrough Generation Fellows
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Please contact us if you are interested in making an investment in our work. Tax-deductible donations to Breakthrough Generation should be made out to “Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisers — Breakthrough Institute Fund — BT Gen.”
The Breakthrough Institute
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Breakthrough Generation is a project of The Breakthrough Institute, a special project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3)corporation. As part of its mission and services, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors facilitates the charitable purposes of The Breakthrough Institute, serving as the fiscal sponsor for the initiative. For more information about Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, please visit http://www.rockpa.org.
