Fundraising

As clichéd as it sounds, money makes Tzedakah in Action go 'round. Without funds, there's no foundation. Therefore, fundraising will definitely be a central component of your work. It's also one of the areas that will vary dramatically based on the size of the class and the financial resources of the community and institution. Finally, the level of fundraising that your class can sustain will determine the size and number of grants that the foundation can support and therefore the types of organizations you can target to support. With all that in mind, it's important to know that the project can have a successful educational impact regardless of the size of its financial resources.

In other words, while the impact of the foundation's grants matters, the process of actively engaging in the work of tzedakah is far more important for the students than the size or number of the grants. If the students gain an appreciation for the value of tzedakah as an imperative in their own lives, their continued giving over a lifetime will magnify the immediate effects of the project many times.

It's also important to note that large class size poses challenges as well as benefits. While smaller classes may have a more difficult time raising large sums of money, their discussion and decision-making processes will likely be more accessible and interactive. You should recognize both the challenges and the opportunities presented by your unique situation.

With some hard work and determination, a small class of 10-15 students should certainly be able to raise $2,500-$5,000 and a large class of 60-80 should be able to raise at least $15-20,000. While the organizations that a $3,000 foundation can target will often be different from those that a $25,000 foundation can target, there are effective and well-run non-profits at every level of the grant-receiving spectrum. These can range from local short-term efforts to ban animal traps to massive national and international non-profits, like Greenpeace, Doctors Without Borders, and Oxfam, for whom even the largest Tzedakah in Action donation is going to represent a very small percentage of their annual budget.

The goal is to set a fundraising target that will challenge students, but one which they will be able to achieve. If it takes some work, the students will appreciate their accomplishment much more.

REDIRECTING RESOURCES FROM OTHER AREAS-THE BAR/BAT MITZVAH SHELL GAME

The first source of fundraising to consider ought to be the students themselves. Not only are they a potentially lucrative resource, but gaining a personal stake in the project by making a financial sacrifice can have a significant impact on student ownership of the project. They will be much more invested in the outcome if they feel like they are giving away their own money.

In the case of a seventh grade class, there's an obvious and simple first source to think about – Bar and Bat Mitzvah gifts! The easiest way is to ask the class to agree not to buy each other gifts when they become B'nai Mitzvah. Each family can then donate to the foundation the money it has saved by not having to buy these gifts

Parents will certainly appreciate the fact that they will not have to keep track of gifts that need to be purchased and that their gifts will be tax-deductible donations. And don't underestimate students' desire to do the right thing! The choice to make this kind of sacrifice (and it really must be a choice that the class undertakes voluntarily and democratically) is historic, momentous, and transformative, and students and their families should be applauded for their courage and menschlikeit.

When implementing this strategy, it's a good idea to set a baseline recommendation for each family's donation to the foundation. The recommended minimum should take into account the size of the class – you should be able to roughly equate the recommended minimum with the cost of the gifts each family would have had to buy without this provision. The economic resources of the community must also be taken into account when determining the baseline donation.

As a somewhat more cumbersome variation on the strategy above, students can be invited to donate a certain percentage of the cash gifts they receive. While this method seems more equitable, its fairness is offset by a number of problems. First of all, the collection logistics are complex. Secondly, it will be more difficult to accurately predict the ultimate size of the foundation's assets and therefore, more difficult to set funding goals. Finally, it doesn't allow for a timely collection of funds. Seventh grade students often become B'nai Mitzvah well into eighth grade. This means that a certain (potentially significant) portion of the class would not contribute to their own foundation.

This strategy can be adapted to work in other grades as well, though the pool of available funds may not be as large or as obvious. Certainly a Confirmation or graduation linkage would be easy to make, and may in fact be easier to pitch to students, since they are older and may be more receptive to the idea of personal sacrifice.

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