The San Francisco-based Jim Joseph Foundation has announced grant awards from its Fall 2014 Board meeting, totaling more than $5 million to a variety of Jewish education organizations. Grants were awarded to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, American Institutes for Research, Birthright Israel Foundation, and Kevah.

The Foundation focuses on creating effective and compelling Jewish learning experiences for youth and young adults (primarily ages 13-30) in the United States. A full breakdown of the Foundation’s grants can be found in its portfolio analysis.

Details of Major Grants from Fall 2014 Board Meeting:

Contemporary Jewish Museum: Innovation Fund 2.0 (2014-2018)
Total Awarded: Up to $1,200,000
Purpose: Innovation Fund 2.0 will support creative, cultural exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area to engage youth and young adults, and further educate museum curators and Jewish educational practitioners from museums across the country (this is the second grant for the Innovation Fund).

American Institutes for Research: Cross Community Evaluation of the Community-based Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative (2014-2018)
Total Awarded: Up to $800,000
Purpose: Conduct the Cross Community Evaluation of the Community-based Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative; Funds will be used to execute on a cross-grant evaluation of initiatives operating in up to ten communities; Rosov Consulting and Professor Steven M. Cohen will serve as sub-contractors. Key objectives will include:

1. Assess the success of the collective initiative based on achievement of shared goals
2. Ensure that findings from ongoing local evaluations are comparable across communities
3. Identify and make accessible key learnings that emerge from evaluations of the local initiatives and additional data that will be collected as part of this evaluation
4. Provide actionable feedback to strengthen national support structures
5. Ensure ongoing shared learning over a four year period beginning in October of 2014.

Birthright Israel Foundation: Birthright Israel Trip Support (2014)
Total Awarded: Up to $2,500,000
Purpose: To provide trip support for Birthright participants from the United States.

Kevah: Support Growth in the Number of Kevah Groups and Kevah Educators in the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and Denver (2014-2017)
Total Awarded: Up to $750,000
Purpose: The grant will fund Kevah educators in the Bay Area, and provide subsidies to Kevah’s young adult groups. Kevah plans to expand from 50 to 125 adult Jewish study groups over the next three years.