Teen Tzedakah creates a foundation for
future philanthropy

For Ariela Lovett of Livingston, two years of involvement in the Iris Teen Tzedakah Program has prepared her for a lifetime of philanthropic giving.

Lovett was a member of the program during its first two years of operation, when she was a junior and senior in Livingston High School.

At the beginning of each year of the program, students donate $200 of their own money. “It is supposed to be our own money,” Lovett said, “money we made from baby-sitting or doing other jobs. It was not supposed to come from our parents.” The money is then matched by the Herb Iris Youth and Family Philanthropy Endowment. (In the program’s first year, matching funds were offered by an anonymous donor.)

The participating students then spend two years learning about Jewish philanthropy. “Every month, we’d have a guest speaker,” explained Lovett, “and we’d learn about things like Maimonides’s levels of giving, and we’d study the different needs in the community.” On one occasion, Lovett’s group “speed-dated” a variety of different agencies.

“Representatives of different agencies that request funding sat at tables. We moved around from table to table and met with them, and they all told us what their agencies do.”

At the end of each year, the students receive grant requests, and they meet and come to decisions about distributing the available money to the agencies that have asked for funding. Students in their first year of the program meet separately from those in their second year, and each group makes its own allocations of its own funds.

“The decision-making process we went through is similar to what is done at the federation level. You have to learn how to decide what the most important needs are. In fact, when we met, Max Kleinman was meeting with his group in the next room, deciding on funding. So, we were doing the same thing they were doing.”

Having done it twice, Lovett recommends the decision-making process and the entire two-year-long experience of Teen Tzedakah to all teens.

“Teenagers do a lot of volunteer work, but you don’t hear very often about teens donating their own money and learning about the entire funding process. This is a unique program. It prepares us for becoming involved in charity when we get older. We learn how to consider what the needs of the community are, where the money we give ought to go, and above all, you see that your contribution can make a real difference. It draws you closer to your immediate Jewish community.”