Grantmaking

Deliberate Grantmaking Process

The Foundation invites applications from organizations that serve Jewish young children and their families, youth, teens, college students, and young adults within the United States, or that send these age cohorts to Israel and other settings of Jewish significance for Jewish educational experiences.

All Deliberate grant applicants must have a current 501(c)(3) determination letter or otherwise valid tax exempt status under the Internal Revenue Act. The Foundation is unlikely to support individual schools, camps, congregations, or youth groups except in remarkable cases where programs of a unique nature merit Foundation consideration.

Jim Joseph Foundation considers Deliberate grant requests by invitation only.

Our Partners

We strive to forge strategic partnerships with both well-established and more recently founded organizations that show promise for success. The Foundation searches for philanthropic opportunities through ongoing conversation with prospective grantee partners whose organizational mission and goals align with the Foundation's.

Deliberate grants are subject to a proposal request, development, and review process that generally includes:

  1. Invitation of Grant Request

    Overview of organization, proposed initiative, and purpose.

  2. Investigation and Professional Review of the Grant Inquiry

    Ongoing dialogue with potential grantee partner to clarify and improve proposed initiative and to develop evaluation benchmarks.

  3. Proposal to Jim Joseph Foundation Board of Directors

    Upon invitation by the Board of Directors, a prospective grantee may submit a proposal to the Foundation consisting of a narrative, a full budget, a specific funding request, and supporting documentation. The proposal will be presented to the Board at one of its four regularly-scheduled quarterly meetings held each year.

  4. Grant Agreement

    Upon approval, a grantee will receive a grant agreement that consists of two parts: (1) a narrative that describes the purpose and goal of the grant, and (2) a series of deliverables which includes financial documentation and programmatic benchmarks that are tied to grant payments (All grants approved by the Jim Joseph Foundation are "up to" amounts based on budgeted programmatic or organizational support).

  5. Ongoing Funder/Grantee Interaction

    For the purpose of understanding all aspects of the grant’s implementation:

    • Oversight – The Jim Joseph Foundation is a private, non-operating Foundation, but building trusting relationships with grantee partners is integral to our work. From the outset of the grantmaking process, partners work closely with Foundation professionals to maximize the likelihood that a grant will achieve the desired outcomes.

    • Evaluation – As a Foundation firmly rooted in educational values, we believe that our investments provide a learning opportunity for the Foundation and its grantee partners, as well as for the entire field of Jewish education. For many grants, particularly those above $250,000, generally between 5-8 percent of the total grant award is budgeted for purposes of external evaluation. Grantee partners work together with Foundation professionals to prepare an RFP for project evaluation and to retain a highly qualified, independent evaluator. Ideally, the evaluation will provide insights to inform current decisions around the project or program as well as decisions around future grants. Learn more about the Foundation’s evaluations.

Total Awarded

The Jim Joseph Foundation has invested more than $800 million in support of Jewish learning.