How will the goals of the Seventh Grade Fund be accomplished?
A study unit on the history and practice of philanthropy and the Mitzvah of Tzedakah will be incorporated into the Seventh Grade curriculum. In addition, the students will prepare and distribute an application to potential grant recipients, review the submitted applications, and invite selected organizations to follow-up their applications with presentations before the Board.
The Fund will act as a vehicle for channeling financial resources away from consumption and towards social justice. It does not represent an additional expense, but instead, a redirection of family resources that would otherwise go toward the purchase of gifts.
Distribution of money from the Seventh Grade Fund will benefit one or more charitable service organizations.
During its first meeting, the Seventh Grade Fund Board of Directors selects an issue or cause on which it will focus its grant-giving activities. Each Board member takes responsibility for identifying several potential grant recipients to which Request for Proposal and Applications will be sent.
Every student in the class will have a role in raising money and deciding how that money will be distributed to organizations that foster positive change in our community.
The Board of Directors of the Seventh Grade Fund is comprised of all members of the Seventh Grade Class (regardless of their families’ financial participation in the program) and is advised by the Seventh Grade teachers and TA’s and interested parents. All decisions of the Board are made by simple majority, with a practical system of point-awarding in order to make the final decision.
What is the Target Population?
Temple Isaiah ’s Seventh Graders are the chief target population of the SGF. During a process of constant Tzedakah education, brainstorming and researching, and decision by majority, the Seventh Graders are transformed into the Trustees of a real charitable foundation. Tens of thousands of dollars in grants are distributed each year to qualifying organizations approved by the Board of Directors (the Seventh Graders). Each Seventh Grade class consists of anywhere from 70 to 90 students.
We request an 80% majority secret ballot vote in favor of this project in order to implement it each year. The family of each Seventh Grader will receive one vote per child in Seventh Grade.
We may invite interested and qualified parents to form an advisory committee that will work cooperatively with the teaching staff to educate the Board on the principles of philanthropic giving, collect contributions to the Fund, maintain proper accounting records, solicit matching funds, and solicit grant requests.
What is the Role of Congregational Involvement and Volunteers?
The SGF is advised and coordinated by a staff of four adult teachers and four teenage teacher’s assistants (TA’s). The Seventh Grade Coordinator oversees all logistics and finances for the SGF.
The students undertake research and fundraising projects essential to the operation of the SGF with the support and participation of parents.
This program takes place within the confines of the Religious School budget, with all expenses (printing, supplies, etc.) covered by the Education department as part of its normal operation. The SGF does not require any expenses beyond standard the standard costs of operating a Hebrew School class.
Each member of the class agrees not to purchase gifts for his/her classmates when they become B’nai Mitzvah. Instead, each family pledges $234 (Chai [18] X B’nai Mitzvah age [13] = 234) into the fund. Financial participation in the project is voluntary, but all students are bound by the obligation not to give one another gifts. The forfeit of gifts from other Seventh Grade families is their profound contribution and is a highly honorable and meaningful act of Tzedakah.The 2004-2005 class numbers 79 students, bringing our anticipated initial investment to $18,486. In addition, the Fund welcomes outside donations and will pursue a modest fundraising campaign.
Over the past four years, each Seventh Grade class has raised between $18,000 and $22,000. These funds are placed in a special account maintained by the Seventh Grade Co-ordinator. The funds are raised through collection of a standardized donation per Seventh Grade child, and additional fundraising efforts such as the Seventh Grade Silent Auction.
What is the History, Impact, and Continuity of the Seventh Grade Fund?
The Seventh Grade Fund was initiated by the Seventh Grade Class of 1998-1999. During its first year, the Fund distributed $16,500 to five organizations that provide services to Children in Need. In 1999-2000, the Fund awarded grants totaling $17,125 to four organizations that provide money for Medical Research and Treatment. The class of 2000-2001 adopted the cause of Animal Rights and the Environment, and donated $22,000 to these organizations that dealt with those causes. The class of 2001-2002 chose to focus its charitable efforts on organizations that advocate for and defend Human Rights, and awarded grants totaling $18,000 to five organizations. The 2002-2003 class chose World Health and distributed grants totaling $18,000. The 2003-2004 class raised $20,000 for the following four Children’s Health organizations: Free the Children, American-Nicaraguan Foundation, J.F. Kapnek Charitable Trust Pediatric AIDS Fund, and American Jewish World Service.
This program promotes social and economic justice by following an in-depth series of lessons on social action causes and the humanistic Mitzvot of Judaism with a profound and deeply felt act of collective Tzedakah in which all students share and of which all students are an integral part.
The life-saving and life-changing carried out by non-profit organizations with funds from the SGF is the most obvious effect of this program. But those who experience it know that its benefits do not stop there. The Seventh Graders do not just learn about peace and human relations, the necessity of defending the weak, and defense of human and civil rights. They study in-depth, real life cases of desperate need- and they heed the call to action in the framework of a highly organized and well-planned Jewish structure.
Seventh Graders most often complete this program with a new set of Jewish values and priorities that puts paramount importance on Tikkun Olam. They will wake up every morning of every day knowing there is something they can do to help. We have set up a small but powerful force for good, whose ripple effect has positively impacted thousands over the years- and saved an unknowable number of lives.
In 2002, an organization that assists children who had been attacked by roving governmental gangs that often used violent physical intimidation, pled with the SGF Board of Directors for financial assistance to carry out crucial work with those communities. The organization’s director stood face-to-face with our Seventh Graders, and stated bluntly that his appeal was a matter of life and death. One student later wrote:
“Our top choice for the Seventh Grade Fund this year is the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities. It was unlike any other. Like a sudden, shrill scream, this organization projected a desperate cry for help. Most people today think that the worst problems are being taken care of with donations, volunteer work, and military and political help. However, the worst problems are those that few or no people know about other than the victims and the perpetrators… The desperate cry has finally been answered.”
(Please see the attached “Quotes on the Seventh Grade Fund by past Temple Isaiah Seventh Graders” for more SGF memories.)
The Seventh Grade Fund has become an institution at Temple Isaiah, and at present, we plan to continue the program indefinitely- as long as consecutive 7th grade families continue to vote the Fund into existence and support the program.
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