Hausner seventh-graders hand out money they raised

Seventh-graders at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School this year raised $42,000 for nonprofit and research organizations in the Bay Area and across the globe.

On May 14, students at the Palo Alto school awarded the money to 17 nonprofit organizations, including Shelter Network in San Mateo, Haven House in Menlo Park, the Humane Society of Silicon Valley, Mazon — A Jewish Response to Hunger and Edible School Yard.

One grantee — a married couple who operate a nonprofit animal rescue in Sonoma — “got up and said, ‘We’re not Jewish, but after being here and seeing the kids at this school, we’re reconsidering,’ ” said Ora Gittelson-David, a seventh grade teacher at the school.

Gittelson-David said this year’s seventh-graders contributed more to local nonprofits than students have in the past. Typically students focus their philanthropy on international causes.

“This class wanted a hands-on ability to make a connection that is more lasting,” she said.

The student fundraising and grantmaking is part of an award-winning initiative called the Avodah L’Olam Philanthropy Program, which began when parents and teachers sought a way to make the b’nai mitzvah frenzy more meaningful.

Parents and students decided to set up and contribute to a philanthropy fund in each other’s honor in place of the typical gift exchange. The students did additional fundraising and then donated the money to nonprofits they researched over the year.

That evolved into a yearlong curriculum about Jewish ethics, values, philanthropy and social change, integrated as part of the philanthropy program.

Over the past 10 years, seventh-graders at Hausner have contributed more than  $500,000 to hundreds of organizations.

The project has made “helping others and giving of yourself a part of the culture of our school,” Gittelson-David said.