Learning To Give: Teens Explore a Philanthropic Future
04/25/2008
We
often think of teens as spending time and money on iPods, videos and
other electronic gadgetry. But Tribe Three-Sixty has faith in the
inherent goodness of teens and knows that to ensure the future of
Jewish philanthropy, it is imperative that teens learn not just the why
of helping others, but also the how.
So with a $10,000 grant
from the Jewish Teen Funders Network and matching funds raised locally,
Tribe instituted the Door and Ladder Society with a select group of
10th-graders. The name is a play off l'dor v'dor (from generation to
generation) and uses the ladder as a metaphor for increasing giving to
repair the world.
The role of the Door and Ladder Society, Tribe
Three-Sixty executive director Cheri Levitan said, is to teach all
about philanthropy through a Jewish lens. As a group, the teens study
possible recipients of charitable dollars, then allocate $20,000.
"The
Federation believes that teaching philanthropy at all ages is critical,
especially in our teen population, so that they understand their
responsibility and their opportunity to change the world," said Steve
Rakitt, the president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta,
which finances Tribe Three-Sixty. Tribe was born last summer as the
successor to the Center for Jewish Education and Experiences with the
goal of strengthening Jewish identity in high-schoolers.
High
school sophomores were selected through applications and interviews to
ensure they were serious, ready and eager to participate. Rabbis and
day school administrators were asked to nominate three students they
thought would be a good fit. The agency also wanted to reflect Jewish
Atlanta's demographics.
The 18 students represent nine
synagogues, five geographic areas and 10 schools (five public, three
private secular and two Jewish). The work began in earnest with a
two-day Martin Luther King Weekend session emphasizing team building,
personal values, nonprofit organizations, Jewish texts, social action
and the division of group responsibilities. By the end of the weekend,
the teens had crafted their mission statement:
"As the Door and
Ladder Society, we strive to financially empower organizations who are
working towards supporting the less fortunate and the environment, to
give them an ability to make a lasting and sustainable positive change
in the Atlanta Jewish community."
"It's amazing to see the way
18 teens can, in the course of two days, move from being a random group
of teenagers to a society based on common values, passions and
commitments to improving the Atlanta Jewish community," said Stefanie
Zelkind, the director of the Jewish Teen Funders Network, who visited
Atlanta for the Door and Ladder Society's orientation weekend. "The
teens raised many key questions: What does it mean to be a Jewish youth
philanthropy group? What does it mean to give Jewishly? How will the
group have the most impact with their grant making - by giving one
large gift or several smaller gifts? How can they make a lasting change
with their philanthropy? I was impressed by the thoughtful nature of
the teens' discussions and have no doubt that the Door and Ladder
Society will be a powerful force in the Atlanta Jewish community."
There
are 60 to 75 teen philanthropy programs Zelkind knows about in the
United States and Canada. Synagogues, congregational schools, day
schools, boards of Jewish education, camps, federations and other
communal organizations host the programs. Some establish individual
accounts for teens to donate; others focus on shared decisions and
collective giving, as is the case in Atlanta.
The Jewish Teen
Funders Network, launched last year by the Jewish Funders Network, set
up a grant program to meet the desire of donors around the country to
take their local models for teen philanthropy nationwide. Atlanta was
one of 10 communities to win a grant of $10,000 a year for three years,
contingent on raising matching donations. Zelkind said more than 20
communities applied.
"Each program runs quite differently. We will be interested to see the results," Zelkind said.
The
Jewish Teen Funders Network is holding its national conference at
Congregation B'nai Torah in Sandy Springs on June 17 and 18 to discuss
best practices and trends in teen philanthropy. By then, the Atlanta
teens may have finished evaluating grant applicants and allocated the
first $20,000.
Adam Griff, Tribe's experiential education
coordinator, said the agency "has struggled with how much we want to
guide them as opposed to letting their conversations lead where they
want to go. I've been impressed with them, their questions, the way
they talk to people we've brought in. One of the presenters who talked
about what a nonprofit is was impressed with how much they already
knew. They are going about this in a serious, deliberate way."
Griff
said the teens were asked to identify their passions to help judge
where their donations could best be used. The money had to support the
Jewish community.
That's not a simple standard, as the teens
learned, because few agencies serve the Jewish community exclusively.
Jewish Family & Career Services, for instance, has clientele from
across the local population, and the Jewish-sponsored night shelters
serve a largely non-Jewish population.
The adults supervising
the team decided not to have a hierarchy, but to have the teens take on
different roles, acting as liaisons to nonprofit agencies, answering
questions, taking notes, creating the group's T-shirt and facilitating
sessions to gain leadership experience.
The three
teacher/facilitators begin each meeting - they are nearly weekly -
looking at a text that will frame the discussion. For example, before a
discussion about inviting proposals, they examined a text about not
putting stumbling blocks in front of the blind.
The teens made
decisions on every aspect of the process, from putting caps or minimums
on the amount people could apply for to the majority required to make
decisions (they chose two-thirds) and whether Tribe Three-Sixty, the
Marcus JCC and Federation were eligible to apply (they were).
Robyn
Faintich, Tribe's senior agency director, has worked with similar
projects around the country to develop lesson plans that give the teens
as much information as possible in their limited time.
In the
first two weeks, the team developed an evaluation matrix - a set of
standards to evaluate proposals for grants. They sent a request for
proposals to everyone in Federation's directory, an effort to be
proactive and open the opportunity to as many people as possible.
"We
had to determine what our job was. We made the decisions, created an
application as a team, sent it out and got applications back for
proposals. Now we're going on site visits, to see what needs are and to
ask questions," said team member Benjamin Gluck, who attends Riverwood
High School.
"Most of us go to public schools. You can bring all
your values about what it means to give tzedakah or what you want the
recipient to receive - to eat for a day or teach them to fish and they
can eat for a lifetime. It's about whether you think education is
best," Benjamin said.
He said his mom, who raises money for
CARE, connected him with the program. "My parents have always stressed
tzedakah, its importance to Judaism and our family. We all thought it
was important to learn it at a young age, to understand what $20,000
can do for someone, to be able to decide how to help others."
Beth
Gluck said philanthropy "is often less about money, more about values.
As a major-gift fundraiser, I see people who struggle but are
incredibly generous. On the other hand, I see those to whom money is as
insignificant as drinking a glass of water but don't necessarily give.
There's not a direct correlation between how much you have and how
philanthropic you are. Helping others is a family value. Tikkun olam
and tzedakah are integral parts of how we express being Jewish."
She
said the Door and Ladder Society allows the teens to develop their
leadership and their values. "I'd like as someone who understands the
power of philanthropy to thank the donors of this program for
leveraging their dollars so that they aren't only an investment in an
important cause, but they're using these dollars to invest in
developing future philanthropic leaders. It's a good model. I'm really
excited to see some creative philanthropy coming from the Jewish
community."
Benjamin said the less fortunate and the environment
are strong choices among the teen philanthropists. He has the task of
visiting the Epstein School in connection with its proposal for hand
dryers, an environmental issue because the reduced use of paper towels
would save trees.
The Temple's education director, Rabbi Steven
Rau, introduced Taylor Amsler to the program. For his application
essay, he wrote about Hurricane Katrina. "After it hit, we all rushed
to school and donated money, but it had no impact. I wanted to learn to
give money at the right place and the right time so that doesn't happen
again."
Taylor learned about tzedakah at The Temple with the
Jewish tradition of dropping change into pushkes. The Tribe program has
taught him more of the mechanics of philanthropy. "We learned what a
nonprofit corporation is. We learned statistics and how to determine
where our money goes. We've had plenty of prominent philanthropists
come in and give us compelling reasons to give. One is that the Torah
commands us to. Jerry Weiner told us that he most enjoys making some
kind of change in the world, in somebody's life, even if he doesn't
know who or how."
Taylor's father, Jonathan, said he thought the
Door and Ladder Society would be a good way to teach kids that giving
money away is not easy, "but it's teaching them a lot more, and that's
a good thing - building the leaders of the synagogues of tomorrow. You
have to learn to get along, have discussions, bring ideas to the
forefront, vote on them and basically keep the group moving forward.
While the philanthropic part is a great thing by itself, teaching the
teens to be lay leaders is equally important."
As the program
takes root in a community, Zelkind said, it becomes more competitive to
get involved. Teens are attracted to the opportunity to have adultlike
responsibility and decision-making power. "They feel appropriately that
they are making a real difference in the grants they give. For those
who have been around for several years, it seems more kids are writing
about it in college applications, talking about the transformative
experience, exploring their Judaism through this work."
She said
participants learn what it means to give Jewishly and gain a better
understanding of the Jewish obligation to respond to certain issues.
"We
want to build confident Jewish identities in our teens, teach them to
be proud of their Jewishness and feel great about it," Levitan said.
"We want the teens to have a voice in the community, to be heard by
parents, teachers, professionals and lay people. We can learn from our
kids."
