Tzedek Program Challenges Seventh Graders to Think Like Philanthropists

At last Friday’s Tzedek Program culmination event, the seventh grade announced the recipients of this year’s Tzedek Fund grants. Representatives from the recipient nonprofit organizations (NPOs) were on hand to receive the checks and thank the students. Representatives of NPOs—ranging from LGBT rights to environmental protection, to help for the homeless of San Francisco and care for animals—were universal in their admiration for the students’ deep knowledge of their organizations, expressing their awe of the astute questions asked by the seventh graders who interviewed them. “They asked questions of a higher caliber than some of the journalists I work with,” said one NPO representative. Added another, “It’s an honor to receive this gift from the next generation of social justice leaders.”

 

The Tzedek Program—begun by San Francisco Brandeis Hillel families in 1998 and written about by New York Times personal finance columnist Ron Lieber in both his book The Opposite of Spoiled and in his New York Times Your Money column—pools parent donations, in lieu of b’nai mitzvah gifts to one another’s children, which are awarded by the seventh grade to NPOs the students have investigated and voted on. Seventeen NPOs received a Tzedek Project Grant of $1,000, and five NPOs received a Tzedek Impact Grant of approximately $2,700, for a total allocation of just over $30,500. Through a thoughtful allocation process, led by Dr. Dan Glass and members of the middle school faculty, the seventh graders selected the following organizations to receive the Impact Grants: Larkin Street Youth Services, Lava Mae, Muso, Nature Conservancy, and UNICEF.

 

The Tzedek Program requires students to do investigative online research on an NPO and then conduct interviews with official representatives, asking pointed questions about effective outcomes and the ratio of overhead expenses to total funds raised and direct services provided. Working in groups of two or three, students created oral presentations that they uploaded; their peers then had a week to watch the 21 other videos and fill out a feedback form following each viewing. Said Tzedek Program Manager Jody Bloom, "Within each video, the students described the problem and how their NPO is working to solve it and persuaded their peers to help through citing success stories, relevant Jewish quotations, and connections to Jewish values." The students used a point scale to rate factors such as how effectively the persuaders had conveyed information about the goals of each organization, the source of its funding, and how the money is spent; and to what degree the presentation convinced them of the compelling need for this organization.

 

This first phase of the allocation process narrowed the field from 22 NPOs to 11 being considered for an Impact Grant. In the second phase, the students turned from individual researchers, advocates, and presenters for one NPO into a team of thoughtful decision-makers, seeking a group decision.

"We were so lucky to have Amanda Silber Levitt set up the process for us," said Ms. Bloom. (Ms. Silber Levitt has facilitated a similar process at the Jewish Community Federation, to help them allocate funds to different NPOs in Israel.) Dr. Glass facilitated the process, helping students arrive at a set of shared criteria and evaluating the remaining NPOs through individual and small group thinking. Students broke into four groups for discussion—facilitated by Ms. Bloom, Jennifer Baumer, Debby Arzt-Mor, Allison Stine, and Ali Frank—where they discussed each criterion and how they rated each organization according to those criteria.

 

"In reflection, the students shared that 95 percent of them changed their individual scores for the NPOs when listening to their peers in the small groups," said Ms. Bloom. "They truly had switched ‘hats’ and were no longer individual advocates for one NPO, but instead were part of a team of philanthropists." MORE PHOTOS