Jim Joseph Invests 1.9m in BBYO for Jewish Education

Upon the launch of a new strategic plan for BBYO, Inc., the Jim Joseph Foundation of San Francisco announced that it will grant $1.9 million over three years to fund three new Jewish enrichment positions for the organization that currently reaches more than 31,000 teens annually. This partnership will enable BBYO to deepen the Jewish experiential learning offered to its teen-led community and prepare Jewish teens for a lifetime of Jewish involvement.

Operating as an independent organization for the past ten years, BBYO has grown to become the Jewish community’s largest year-round platform for reaching Jewish teens in North America. This success has fueled the launch of a new five year strategic plan with a key focus on strengthening the Judaic experiences being delivered to the teen audience by creating positions for Directors of Jewish Enrichment. The new professionals will be dispersed in key geographic hubs and will be networked together as a dynamic team of educational entrepreneurs. They will be given the opportunity to work with teen leaders, volunteer adult advisors and program professionals to impact programming from local and regional events to international travel programs.

This commitment by the Jim Joseph Foundation follows the release of BBYO’s Impact Study revealing that the BBYO experience results in young adults who are more inclined to have Jewish friends, believe that being Jewish plays an important role in their lives, hold leadership roles in their community and are committed to having Jewish families.

The Jim Joseph Foundation has a track record of investing in Jewish professionals, including the creation and implementation of BBYO’s Professional Development Institute (PDI), which provides fully-funded MBAs from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and degrees in Informal Jewish Education from Hebrew College in Boston to talented BBYO professionals. PDI graduates have instilled an institutional curiosity and desire to apply theory and new ideas to BBYO programs, opening the door to new creative content that will be continued through the work of the Directors of Jewish Enrichment.