Rhizome

Year Founded: 2021

Rhizome’s purpose is to build collective power for young people to create the safer, happier, healthier world they want to live in. They envision a world where everyone has the time and resources needed to prioritize love over survival, and their mission is to activate young people’s identities into action and help youth treat civic service as the work of a lifetime. Co-founded by 90 young people in 2021, Rhizome has grown quickly while training young people to organize and increase civic engagement in their communities.

In a time of rupture, Rhizome believes the most viable path to reduce unnecessary suffering is by investing in the long-term leadership, civic habits, and connections of young Americans. Rhizome attends to the root causes of decaying democratic dynamism, civic education, and social connection by training youth leaders to organize, increase civic engagement, and nourish visionary narratives in local communities. They seek to reduce suffering by building leadership capacity and civic infrastructure in communities across the country. Rhizome’s theory of change is that it will transform the world by transforming what young people know themselves to be capable of.

Rhizome has built improbable momentum since being co-founded by 90 young people 4.5 years ago. In their first year, they laid their foundation as a volunteer-led and youth-led nonprofit. In their second year, they raised enough to pay Youth Organizers while implementing the initial iteration of their model. In their third year, they hired full-time staff, moved Youth Organizers to hourly, and grew to teams of Civic Service Fellows in 100+ high schools. Last year Rhizome grew to four full-time staff and 80 Youth Organizers working 4-5 hours/week to empower nearly 1,000 Fellows organizing over 200 schools. Rhizome now has six full-time staff, employs over 80 Youth Organizers, increased Organizers hours to 8-10 hours/week, and anticipates doubling their Fellowship growth by the end of 2026. Rhizome was part of New Profit’s Fourth Civic Lab Cohort in 2024, and they’re organizing the Campaign For a Free and Fair Democracy in 2026.