What do the Jewish Community Teen Foundations do?

Board Regions

As board members of one of the four Jewish Community Teen Foundations, participating teens develop a group funding mission and requests for proposals. The teens then carefully evaluate grant proposals and invite agency representatives to make in-person presentations. After a thorough allocation process, the Teen Foundations announce their grants.  Through this process, the Bay Area Teen Foundations have given more than $652,000 in grants to deserving community groups over the past five years.

What do teens get out of it? They get to:

• Connect with Jewish teens
• Enhance leadership skills
• Develop Jewish identity
• Debate tough choices and engage in social justice issues
• Contribute to a fund being matched by the program's funders
• Become effective grantmakers and strategic philanthropists
  

Participation in the Jewish Community Teen Foundations requires a one-year commitment. The board members dedicate themselves to a weekend retreat and attend seven Sunday teen board meetings held from 4:00 p.m - 8:00 p.m. (3:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. for Marin/San Francisco). These meetings are part skill-building and part teen-led, and further the work of each Foundation.

What does it cost?

Each Jewish Community Teen Foundation board member is subsidized by over $4,500 from various funders and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund. While the Foundation program is free to board members and their families, we do ask each board member to cover the $350 cost of the three day Bay Area Youth Philanthropy Retreat at the Embassy Suites Hotel. Scholarships are available to assist families in covering this cost. If you would like to request a scholarship, please fill out this form.

More information

Congratulations to all of our 2009 grant recipients!

The Jewish Community Teen Foundations awarded $166,360 this year in grants to 27 projects.
Click here for more information on grants

Advisory committees

The Jewish Community Teen Foundations are mentored and guided by a talented group of lay leaders, community professionals, philanthropists, Teen Foundation alumni, Jewish Community Endowment Fund staff and each foundation’s project director.
Advisory committee members meet three times a year to advise the teens and may also participate in the interview process to select teen board members. The advisory committee offers advice to the project director and teen board on outreach and policy issues and grant processes, as well as potential sources of additional matching funds.

Read about our teens in the press

• In good we trust (sfmagazine, June, 2009)
• Hero and Zero (Pacific Sun, May 15, 2009)
• Teen-serving nonprofits benefit from local grants (Marin Independent Journal, May 10, 2009)
• Podcast (KSRO, July 16, 2008)
• The new philanthropists: Silicon Valley teens (San Francisco Chronicle, July 14, 2008)
• Bay Area teens raise $204,000 for agencies around the globe (j., June 13, 2008)
• Jewish teen group earns 'A' in philanthropy (San Francisco Chronicle, June 8, 2008)
• Hadassah Magazine - Family Matters: Teach your children (Hadassah Magazine, May 2007)
• Funders invest in teen philanthropists (JTA, March 25, 2007)
• Hearts as wide as the world: teaching philanthropy (San Francisco Chronicle, December 16, 2005)
• Teens learn philanthropic ropes (j., August 19, 2005)

For more information contact:

Other opportunities to get involved on a national level

There are also opportunities to get involved with youth philanthropy on a national level.  Please visit Jphilanthropy.com to learn about the latest national youth philanthropy activities.

The Youth Philanthropy Initiative and Jewish Community Teen Foundations of South Peninsula, North Peninsula and San Francisco/Marin and the East Bay, are sponsored by the Jewish Community Endowment Fund of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, in cooperation with The Jewish Community Foundation serving the greater East Bay and in partnership with: an endowment from the Serrano Foundation, Laura and Gary Lauder Philanthropic Fund, L and R Lawrence Family Foundation, Albert L. and June M. Maisin Foundation, Osher Jewish Philanthropies, all supporting foundations of the JCEF; the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Breetwor-Evans Philanthropic Fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and The Morton and Amy Friedkin Supporting Foundation of The Jewish Community Foundation.

Major funders include: Jewish Teen Funders Network, Stanley S. Langendorf Jewish Fund, Diane and Howard Zack, Alijon Charitable Trust, Barbi and Warren Lazarow, Susan and Alan Rothenberg, Jerrold Schwartzman Philanthopic Fund, Anne and David Steirman, Zoe and Dan Scheinman, the Ronald and Gail Rubenstein Philanthropic Fund of The Jewish Community Foundation, and the Shoresh Foundation.

Contributors: Susan Lowenstein and Joyce Newstat, Jay Cohen, Newt Harband, Adam Greenstone, the Etrog Fund, Valli Benesch Tandler and Bob Tandler, Ellen and Jerry Saliman, Ann and Irwin Bear, Selma and Sandy Tandowsky, June Cooperman and Larry Litvak.

We are seeking additional support funding to secure funding for the North Peninsula, Marin, San Francisco and East Bay Teen Foundations. Interested parties should contact Judy Bloom.