 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
ABOUT JCF  |
|
| WAYS TO GIVE |
|
| HOW WE HELP |
|
| CALENDAR |
|
| RESOURCES |
|
| ISRAEL & THE WORLD |
|
May 8, 2009 (San Francisco, CA) – Last year, 100 Bay area Jewish teens raised over $204,000 to help people in need across the globe. The teens who raised the money for those grants were all board members of one of four Jewish Community Teen Foundations: San Francisco/Marin, the South Peninsula, the North Peninsula and the East Bay. This year, despite the continuing recession, these teen philanthropists are poised to announce $162,000 worth of grants to support nonprofit run programs in the Bay Area and throughout the world. The program, initiated by the San Francisco based Jewish Community Endowment Fund, teaches teens to be strategic philanthropists and agents for change. Teen Foundation Board members spend a year learning to run their own nonprofit foundations. Through a weekend retreat and seven Sunday afternoon meetings, the young foundation members discuss Jewish thought and ideas and participate in a series of exercises designed to teach them how to become philanthropic leaders informed by Jewish values. The teens define their own philanthropic priorities for each of the four Teen Foundations. They then invite charities that operate within their area of philanthropic focus to submit grant requests and make in-person presentations. And they raise the majority of funds used to pay for their philanthropic priorities. One alumni of the 2008 program year commented, “Serving as a member of the Jewish Community Teen Foundation has changed who I am. Now, I look at almost everything and try to find a way to help to change the world. I know that I can now, and that if I get some more people involved, I can do it even better.” The grant awards will be announced at a series of siyums (celebration of good works) happening in the four regional locations:
The grant announcement siyums offer an opportunity to both learn about the work being done by Bay Area nonprofits to change lives across the globe and to meet the teen philanthropists who raised the funds that are helping to enable the nonprofits’ missions. Teen Foundation Board members are currently reviewing grant applications to help refugees in Darfur to install gray water projects to seed and grow vegetables; to fund eye care for impoverished Arab Israeli and Ethiopian Israeli children; to use art therapy programs to aid Bay Area homeless children; and to offer support to the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda and their Christian and Muslim neighbors by providing healthcare, insecticide-filled nets, and hygiene education for an entire village. Deciding which programs to fund will require the teen philanthropists to make some difficult decisions. To attend one of the four siyums please contact: You can learn more about the Jewish Community Teen Foundation program and past grant history at jewishteenfoundation.org.
The Jewish Community Endowment Fund (JCEF) of the Jewish Community Federation administers funds which serve as a lasting legacy of Jewish philanthropy. The JCEF provides expertise in all areas of grantmaking and serves as a major resource in the Jewish and general communities by meeting emergency needs, seed funding innovative projects, and providing ongoing support to organizations and programs around the globe. The JCEF is home to more than 920 donor advised philanthropic funds and 74 supporting foundations. In fiscal year 2008 more than $285 million was allocated in grants by JCEF-affiliated funds and foundations.
For more information please contact: ###
|
