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ENDOWMENT |
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| TAX & ESTATE PLANNING RESOURCES |
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| COMMUNITY INITIATIVES |
Overview and historyBased on successful programs piloted by Jewish Community Federations in Washington DC and San Diego, among other models, the Peninsula Jewish Community Teen Foundation (PJCTF) has established groundbreaking programming and its own unique identity in the exciting new field of youth philanthropy. It has built upon the local model of the “Seventh Grade Fund” formerly at Brandeis Hillel Day School, and the “Seventh Grade Tzedakah Project” currently at Gideon Hausner and Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day Schools. The PJCTF’s “pilot” board was established in the spring of 2004. Over the course of a six-month process, the founding board of 22 Jewish youth learned the ins and outs of Foundation work and philanthropic giving from a Jewish ethical perspective, and evaluated no less than thirty grant proposals. In September 2004, the Board approved the allocation of a total of $9,500 to three non-profit organizations. The third PJCTF Board demonstrated a new level of commitment and passion by raising an unprecedented $40,944 which they distributed to nine nonprofit organizations. This past year, the 23 PJCTF teens raised $45,500 to fulfill their mission “to fund programs that address issues of poverty, poor nutrition, abuse and homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area and Israel, through early intervention and empowering people to help themselves.” The fifth board of the PJCTF launches this fall. Over the next school year, a select group of Bay Area Jewish youth will attend a regional philanthropy training retreat and meet monthly to explore Jewish values and ideas, gain profound leadership skills and experience and practice informed, directed philanthropy. They will develop a group funding mission and a request for proposal that will be sent to dozens of organizations. The board members will then carefully evaluate the grant proposals and invite agency representatives to make in-person presentations about their social action projects. After an intense, but highly respectful and well-planned allocation process, the board will decide how to distribute the grants. Goals and outcomesThe Peninsula Jewish Community Teen Foundation provides local youth with the opportunity to put into practice the Jewish principles of tikkun olam (“repairing the world”) and tzedakah (the fulfillment of justice through giving) in a group setting, and instills within its participants the skills that may set a life-long pattern of doing and giving: activism and philanthropy. PJCTF participants engage in an in-depth examination of social justice issues, profound discussions of Tzedakah and other Jewish values along with their practical application, and collective decisions on grantmaking. Through participation in PJCTF, our board members will:
SupportThe Peninsula Jewish Teen Foundation (PJCTF) is endowed by the Serrano Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund (JCEF) of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties. PJCTF participation in the 2006-2007 Bay Area Regional Teen Philanthropy Retreat was funded by the Breetwor-Evans Family Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. PJCTF is part of the JCEF’s Youth Philanthropy Initiative also supported by the Laura and Gary Lauder Philanthropic Fund, the Fanny Bess Philanthropic Fund, the Alexander M and June L. Maisin Foundations, the Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation and the Stanley S. Langendorf Jewish Fund For more information contact:Sue Schwartzman |
