About Alex

Helping institutions build a future young people can believe in

I’m Alex Edgar, a Gen Z philanthropic strategist and Principal of AWE Strategies. I work with foundations, nonprofits, and institutions to rethink how they invest in young people and their communities, share power across generations, and respond to a rapidly changing world.

My work sits at the intersection of philanthropy, governance, workforce, civic life, and education, but it is ultimately driven by a simple question:

What would change if young people and community members weren’t just invited into the room, but actually helped decide what happens there?

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I grew up believing institutions could work for communities

I grew up in Simi Valley, California, in a family that believed deeply in service and community. My dad has taught at the same community college for more than four decades, and from an early age I saw how institutions can expand opportunity when they work well and leave people behind when they don’t.

As a teenager, I got involved in civic engagement, from registering young voters with Buen Vecino to serving my community as an Eagle Scout and expanding youth programming through the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Those experiences showed me the power of community-led and institutional pathways to help young people find meaningful ways to participate and lead locally.

Those experiences illuminated a question that has guided much of my work since:

How do we build a future that young people can see themselves shaping, not just navigating?

When I arrived at UC Berkeley, I started building the spaces I wished had existed for me. I worked to elevate youth voices in civic life, created pathways for young people to lead inside institutions, and pushed for cultural change in places that weren't designed with us in mind. Over time, those efforts grew from campus organizing into national strategy work across foundations, federal agencies, and civic organizations.

Then I went inside institutions

I spent over two years at Made By Us, a national coalition of hundreds of museums, historic sites, libraries, archives, and cultural institutions working to connect young adults with history and civic participation.

There, I co-founded and led Youth250, an initiative designed to make young people architects of America’s 250th anniversary, not simply an audience for it.

Through Youth250, we built a network of 100 paid young advisors from 45 states and territories, helped organizations across the country rethink how they work with younger generations, and advised hundreds of institutions on how to move from engagement to genuine partnership.

Youth250 reinforced something I continue to believe:

Young people don’t need more invitations. They need more opportunities to shape what comes next.

Today, I work where young people and institutions meet

Through AWE Strategies, I advise foundations, nonprofits, and institutions on how to build stronger relationships between generations and create more meaningful pathways for young people to contribute.

My work includes:

  • Advising foundations on youth investment and broader grantmaking strategy

  • Designing youth advisory and intergenerational leadership structures

  • Helping boards diversify by age and experience

  • Supporting organizations responding to generational change

  • Building capacity for youth-centered and intergenerational practice

  • Exploring the future of work, education, and opportunity

Current Engagements

  • Lead cohort design and experience for a grantee cohort focused on youth wellbeing and technology, embedding youth co-design and leadership principles into the deployment of $2M in regional grantmaking.

  • Lead the “Next Gen Works” initiative, developing a definition of a next-gen-enabling workplace for the HR community to build a future of work that supports all Gen Z and Alpha talent. 

  • Serve as sole youth advisor to the $1B+ foundation, guiding a multi-year, eight-figure expansion of its youth development investment strategy at regional and national levels, with a focus on youth governance in WA. 

  • Youngest co-designer of $100M venture philanthropy’s biennial gathering, building a multi-day experience focused on building a more equitable future with social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and cross-sector leaders.

  • Advising the world's largest organization dedicated to volunteer service on their youth volunteerism strategy with a major technical partner.

  • Youngest advisor at the largest association of legal professionals in the world, advising ABA staff on how to advance public understanding of law and its role in society, with a focus on engaging young adults.

  • Serve as governance advisor to the board of Kentucky’s largest youth-run education non-profit.

  • The youngest advisor supporting the design of a new federal policy outline for higher education in the next presidential administration.