Between heightened security needs, rising costs of living and cuts to government social services funding, North American Jewish life now comes with a heftier price tag than in years past — for individuals and communal institutions alike. Will there always be enough philanthropists to foot the bill?  

In an interview with eJewishPhilanthropy earlier this month, historian Jack Wertheimer estimated that between $13 billion and $14 billion a year was donated by Jews to Jewish causes in the early 2020s, nearly double what it was six or seven years prior. But while funding might be increasing, he added, the number of funders isn’t. 

“The sum of money that Jews are giving to Jewish causes has increased quite dramatically… The not-so-good news is that the base of donors who are contributing that sum continually is shrinking; that more and more money is being raised from fewer people,” he said. 

Furthermore, though Jewish giving has consistently outpaced that of other religious groups, most Jewish philanthropists donate a majority of their funds to nonsectarian causes. 

According to findings in Wertheimer’s new book, Jewish Giving: Philanthropy and the Shaping of Jewish Life, in 2019 “big givers” to Jewish causes (those that allocated $250,000 or more to some Jewish or Israeli cause) directed 70% of their grant dollars to nonsectarian causes. In 2020, for the first time in decades, the Pew Research Center found that a minority of Jews surveyed — 48% — had given to a Jewish cause in the year prior, suggesting declining commitment to Jewish causes among a growing portion of the American Jewish community.

It was in part due to this reality that the Jewish Future Promise was born in 2020, aiming to secure for Jewish causes $600 billion of the $68 trillion estimated to transfer between generations over the next 25 years. By 2023, the JFP — which asks philanthropists and community members to pledge to commit 50% of all charitable giving upon their death to Jewish and Israeli causes — had grossed an earmarked $2.4 billion.

More than 101,000 entities — individuals, organizations and foundations — made the promise following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks and resultant surge in Jewish engagement, Hadara Ishak, president of JFP told eJP. 

Five years into the initiative, the number of those signed on has topped 127,000, an estimated $5.25 billion between them. That number includes 19 organizations, 44 foundations and over 126,000 individuals, said Ishak. Among them are some of the biggest names in Jewish philanthropy, including Charles Bronfman, the late Bernie Marcus, the Charles & Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and the deToledo Family Fund.

A recent survey by the initiative also found it has led to forward motion in the real world: 42% of “promisers” say they have shared the pledge with friends, and 28% say they are taking material steps to put it into action. 

“We’ve grown not only through organizations and social media, but through friends and family, which is huge for us,” said Ishak. “That’s one of our goals, to create a cultural change, if you will, within the Jewish community of giving Jewishly, or considering giving a certain amount Jewishly.”

JFP aims to encourage current Jewish philanthropists to create an ark big enough to sustain the Jewish community against unforeseen challenges in the future. To know for sure if it can will take decades.