What's Jewish Youth Philanthropy

Since 1997, Jewish teens in organized youth philanthropy programs have given or arranged more than one million dollars in grants to nonprofit organizations across the continent and the world. . .

In the past decade, formal Jewish youth philanthropy programs have been launched all over North America. Though the emphasis varies from program to program, each one is concerned with:

valuing and empowering teenagers as members of the Jewish community and as Jewish citizens in American society, in the face of cultural forces that often degrade or manipulate teens
teaching the skills of thoughtful and effective giving
combating many of the messages about wealth and responsibility that pervade American (and often Jewish) society
initiating a new generation into an intergenerational dialogue about Jewish philanthropy and communal planning
making Jewish participation and Jewish civic ideas exciting, relevant, and nourishing to the soul

All youth philanthropy programs engage teenagers in some of the formal aspects of philanthropy and grantmaking, as distinct from more casual giving.

Jewish youth philanthropy programs to date have typically been organized in these ways:

Individual Youth Endowments -- a community-wide program through which bar and bat mitzvah -age youth establish an individual endowment fund through a Jewish community foundation
Youth Foundation -- a group of 10-20 teens (usually high school age) has responsibility for allocating a substantial sum of money
7th Grade Fund -- a younger youth foundation, in which the bar/bat mitzvah group or class at a synagogue or day school agree to contribute money to a central tzedakah pool rather than give each other individual gifts

There are of course many combinations and variations of these models. Programs have generally been set up by individual Jewish foundations, Federations and community endowment funds, day school classes, synagogues, or youth groups.

The idea of Jewish youth foundations was inspired by a project of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in the late 1980s to create youth committees for community foundations throughout Kellogg's home state of Michigan. The first Jewish youth foundations included the Rose Youth Foundation, the Community Youth Foundation of San Diego's Jewish Community Foundation, and the Jewish Youth Philanthropy Institute in Washington, DC. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the first Seventh Grade Fund was started in 1997 at the Brandeis Hillel Day School.

Nationally, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation created the B'nai Tzedek program in 1997 originally to foster individual youth endowments. Now B'nai Tzedek helps communities across the country set up both individual accounts and youth foundations (many local programs have adopted the name B'nai Tzedek as well.)

Who is doing Jewish youth philanthropy around North America?

Principles for an excellent Jewish youth philanthropy program

Feedback Survey

JPhilanthropy.com is an initiative of the Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation in partnership with Jewish Family & Life!