|
|
|
Jewish World Review May 1, 2008 / 26 Nissan 5768 Faith communities can learn from Orthodox Jews in stimulating private philanthropy for religious education By David Zwiebel
Making good on a promise he made in this State of the Union speech in January, President Bush convened a national summit on faith-based schooling on April 24. The author, the Executive Vice President for Government and Public Affairs for Agudath Israel of America, was invited to be among those to address the gathering and to talk about how private sector resources can be harnessed to help religious schools
In the abstract, it might be expected that parents who seek such specialized schooling should be expected to cover the costs of the service through their tuition payments. After all, they are consumers, and consumers typically pay for the goods and services they consume. In the real world, though, the cost of educating a child is often beyond the means of a tuition-paying parent.
That certainly hold true in the Orthodox Jewish community — the segment of American Jewry most heavily invested in Jewish day schools — where (for a variety of reasons I won't get into here) average family income is relatively low compared to other segments of the Jewish population, and average family size is relatively high. Furthermore, the dual curriculum of religious and general studies programming at Jewish day schools, which results in longer school days, higher operating costs and steeper tuition bills — typically ranging from approximately $5,000-$18,000 per child — makes it necessary for most schools to set up generous scholarship funds for needy parents. A 1997 study by the Avi Chai Foundation found that tuition and fees covered only 57% of Orthodox Jewish schools' operating budgets. (Schick and Dauber, The Financing of Jewish Day Schools (1997), Table 9.)
So if government may not provide the funding necessary for religious schools to maintain their financial viability, and if whatever tuition parents are able to pay is not enough to cover costs, how are these schools able to stay afloat?
The answer for most schools is private philanthropy.
Just about every school has its own fundraising apparatus, targeting alumni, grandparents, and any other individuals it can identify as potential donors. Some schools sponsor banquets, bake sales, parlor meetings and other creative fundraising events. There is no substitute for this type of school-by-school, retail approach toward fundraising, which is clearly the most essential means of bridging the gap between tuition income and the actual cost of running a school.
There are, however, other ways of stimulating private philanthropy. I would like to touch briefly upon just a few of the many broader communal models that have been developed to encourage giving in the American Jewish community, models that might be replicable in other religious communities as well.
Programs Directed at the Broad Grassroots: In Chicago, there has been a major emphasis on promoting broad grassroots support for Jewish education. The Association for Torah Advancement (AFTA) conducts an annual citywide campaign, with the cooperation of local synagogues and other communal institutions, to encourage community-wide membership in (and regular monthly contributions to) its Kehillah Jewish Education Fund. Nearly a thousand individuals have contributed to the Fund, which last year distributed, on a per capita basis, over $550,000 to the nine local Jewish day schools under the auspices of the Associated Talmud Torah school system, as well as an additional $350,000 to three special education programs in these schools.
Another creative approach toward generating a broad base of communal support for Jewish education is "The Five Percent Mandate." The brainchild of George Hanus, a local Chicago activist, this program is designed to encourage every Jew to leave 5% of his estate to an endowment fund for a local day school of his choice. (Mr. Hanus has also independently established a "Superfund" to generate broad grassroots support for Chicago-area Jewish schools.)
Encouraging Bigger Givers: A number of philanthropies have established creative programs designed to encourage larger donors to contribute to Jewish education. For example, the Avi Chai Foundation has successfully attracted new sources of major philanthropic giving by establishing a matching grants program pursuant to which first-time grants of $25,000 — $100,000 to Jewish day schools are matched 1:2 by the program. In 2006, this program brought in a total of over $15 million in new contributions, supplemented by nearly $8 million from the matching fund, which resulted in grants to some 160 Jewish day schools in 25 states across the country.
Encouraging Corporate Giving: Schools are increasingly reaching out to corporate entities that conduct charitable programs within their communities. This is especially true in jurisdictions where there are laws that establish tax incentives for such purposes. For example, in 2007, the Bank of America, taking advantage of Rhode Island's Scholarship Tax Credit program, contributed $200,000 to a tuition scholarship fund benefiting needy students in the two Jewish day schools in Providence. Similarly, in Phoenix, the local Jewish Federation has established a Day School Scholarship Fund to which contributing corporations receive substantial tax breaks under Arizona's tax credit program. In 2003, the fund contributed nearly $1 million in scholarship money to over 200 students attending the seven Jewish schools in the Greater Phoenix area.
Specialized Giving: There is broad variety not only in the sources of Jewish school philanthropy, but also in the purposes for which private contributions are solicited. Many contributions are made to a school's general fund, to be used for general budgetary purposes. Others, though, are targeted at specific programs that would otherwise not be made available through traditional sources of tuition or fund-raising.
For example, in New York, which has the single largest concentration of Jewish schools across the United States, the Gruss Life Monument Foundation has established various programs to support Jewish school educators. In conjunction with the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies (UJA-Federation), the Gruss Foundation has established the Fund for Jewish Education, which (among its other projects) provides millions of dollars annually to subsidize the costs of health and life insurance for Jewish school educators. The Gruss Foundation also sponsors a program to help Jewish schools fund pension plans for career educators, as well as an annual awards program that provides $10,000 cash grants to "excellent teachers" in the Jewish school network.
Another example of a popular targeted program in the Jewish school philanthropic world is the building loan program that the Avi Chai Foundation has established for construction and renovation of Jewish school buildings. Schools are eligible to borrow, existing facilities, repayable over five years. Over the past decade, Avi Chai has made nearly 100 loans under this program, totaling over $80 million.
The bottom line is that there are many different sources from which private philanthropy can be sought; many different means of facilitating such contributions; and many different purposes for which such programs can be established. The relative success that the Jewish community has had in establishing programs of this nature reflect a broad recognition that Jewish schools are a precious communal asset that must command the support not only of tuition-paying parents but also of the community at large.
The first challenge for other faith-based school populations across the United States that may wish to replicate some of the models developed in the Jewish community to encourage private giving is to foster a similar communal recognition of the critical role such schools play in their respective communities. If today's summit serves no other purpose but that of stimulating recognition of that vital role, it will already have made an enormous contribution.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
© 2008, JWR | ||||||||||
