The Wood Foundation has appointed Lizbeth Paul as Director of the Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI). YPI is the foundation’s flagship active citizenship programme that empowers secondary school pupils in Scotland to compete to win grants to award to local charity projects.
Lizbeth has been with the wider Wood Foundation since 2024 as Excelerate Lead Coach, where she worked to transform the educational experiences of young people by giving them the knowledge, skills, and experiences to make informed decisions about their futures. Her background is in secondary education and she was a teacher for almost 30 years, spending nine of those as head teacher. Her experience both in teaching and delivering skills focused education will be vital in getting YPI into more schools and making the programme accessible to all learners.
Sarah Chew, Chief Executive of the Wood Foundation, said:
“YPI is central to our mission to achieve systemic, sustainable change that supports young people’s development in Scotland. YPI has encouraged hundreds of thousands of young people to become enterprising, independent, tolerant, and caring members of society.
“We’re really excited about what Lizbeth will bring to the programme as Director of YPI and I look forward to working closely with her to champion the philanthropists of tomorrow.”
The Wood Foundation is the operational manager and majority funder of the programme which has seen £8.5 million donated to Scotland’s charities.
Lizbeth Paul, incoming Director of YPI, said:
“Philanthropy is such an important lever that we can use to strengthen communities and drive long-term change in areas like health, education, and the environment, promoting human welfare and building a more compassionate society in the process.
“I look forward to using my experience to help YPI teach even more young people the value and impact of community involvement.”
Lizbeth will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of YPI’s activity in schools and partnerships with charitable organisations. She will work directly with practitioners, to lead its professional learning offering to educators, currently in 290 schools across all 32 local authorities across Scotland.
