J.Team Completes First Year with $7,200 in Grants to Nonprofits

On June 6, 22 Jewish teens presented checks totaling $7,200 to nonprofit agencies they chose as a group over this past school year. This was the culmination of a year of philanthropic learning experienced by members of J.Team, or the Jewish Youth Philanthropy Team, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

While Jewish values of giving are a key component of J.Team, not all agencies receiving money are Jewish. J.Team members allocated the grants to the following nonprofits: First Place Schools $2,000; Jewish Family Service $1,500; Friendship Circle $1,500; Shlomi Municipality in Israel $1,000; American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee $600; and Northwest Harvest $600. (Hearing of the grant by the J.Team, an anonymous Jewish donor matched the $600 to Northwest Harvest.)

While the nonprofits walked away with meaningful grants, the teens walked away with a lot more. “As the months went by, I became more and more satisfied with not only my experience in this program, but also the life lessons I was taking away from it,” explained team member Molly Dubow.

"I was able to hand-select the most deserving philanthropic organization to receive the money, and I have the privilege of knowing how it’s being used and who is actually using it," commented another team member Byron Rosen.

Team member Bridget Matloff said, “As a group, we have visited organizations, and learned about what they do for the community. Together we decided what we liked and disliked about the charity, whether or not it was our responsibility to help them, and if so how much we would give them.”

J.Team is comprised of teens from 9th-12th grade who met monthly over the school year. They participated in nonprofit site visits and community service projects, and learned about Jewish values of giving. Finally, they decided as a group where to distribute a pool of community donated funds.

J.Team Chair Tammy Federman explains, “The short-term goal of this program is to expose the teens to the world of philanthropy from a Jewish perspective. An equally important goal, however, is to show them the power of collaboration – the power they have as a group to make a difference in the lives of others. We are investing in our future by building lifelong philanthropists.”

2009-2010 J.Team participants were: Ashley Bobman, Madeleine Calvo, Alexis Chamberlin, Daniel Drucker, Molly Dubow, Sami Dubow, Robbie Ellenhorn, Maya Federman, Gabe Fruchter, Jordan Gaynes, Sarah Greenhall, Woody Jacobson, Josh Leibsohn, Alec Leibsohn, Bridget Matloff, Zoe Mesnik-Greene, Ali Parsons, Byron Rosen, Max Rosenblatt-Hood, Sonya Saepoff, Emilie Schwartz and Rachel Witus.

Applications for the 2010-2011 J.Team Year are due June 30. Application at www.JewishInSeattle.org/JTeam.