B’NAI TZEDEK TEEN PHILANTHROPY FUNDS

Wednesday November 14, 2007
The program is the 10th of ten communities nationally to receive a grant

B'nai Tzedek is a Knoxville Jewish Alliance program, and part of the Knoxville Jewish Community Family of Funds (KJCFF). KJCFF is a supporting foundation of East Tennessee Foundation (ETF).

B'nai Tzedek Teen Philanthropy Program is an exciting initiative of the Knoxville Jewish Alliance. Knoxville was the tenth of ten communities to receive a grant from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation in Western Massachusetts, for financial support to begin a local teen philanthropy program. The program seeks to open up new possibilities for young people to help create a more just society, and to redefine what it means to be a philanthropist - that one does not have to be wealthy to have a personal and engaged relationship to life-long giving. B'nai Tzedek empowers teens to begin to make their voices heard and exposes them to a diverse group of people and organizations that are working for change. At the same time, they learn how money works in the real world.

To begin a fund, teens make a financial contribution, usually at the time of their Bar/Bat Mitzvah. This is matched by their congregation and again by the KJCFF. An initial investment by the teen of $125 becomes $500, the minimum required to begin a B'nai Tzedek Fund. Once established, the teen philanthropists meet to learn about the role of philanthropic giving and will eventually give grants from their funds to Jewish non-profit organizations working on issues of interest and concern for them. In addition to the granting end of the program, the teens will also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of social action and community service projects to benefit their home community of East Tennessee.

The primary objectives of the program are: to help every Jewish teen in our community establish an endowment fund in their name; to provide Jewish teens with skills and knowledge in the area of sources on giving, financial literacy and modern philanthropy; to help teens establish relationships with organizations in our local community and abroad; to offer the opportunity to network with other teens locally and nationally.
Youth philanthropy was pioneered in the 1990s by secular organizations like the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. In 1998, philanthropist Harold Grinspoon saw an opportunity to engage Jewish youth in an innovative way, and he founded the B'nai Tzedek Youth Philanthropy Program from within his western Massachusetts-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation. B'nai Tzedek provides infrastructure and matching monies for young people to create personal endowment funds from which they donate the interest each year to charity. The concept has rapidly gained a foothold nationwide, with the number of local chapters almost doubling to 33 from 18 in the last three years. "My goal is to help create a new generation of Jewish philanthropists who support Jewish causes worldwide," Grinspoon told the Forward.

No longer simply the realm of nickel-and-dime-filled cardboard tzedakah (justice) boxes, giving among Jewish youth is increasingly modeled after adult giving, utilizing formal mission statements, strategic decision-making and financial planning. Jewish youth philanthropy has "matured to a place where, frankly, it can no longer be ignored as a movement," said Ivan Kaufman. The movement now comprises some 50 organizations nationwide, which collectively account for $1.2 million in assets, according to Kaufman, UJC's associate director of planned giving and endowments.

For more information on the Knoxville Jewish Alliance, visit their website, http://www.jewishknoxville.org/.

 

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