United Yeshiva and Hebrew Day School Funds,
plus Life Insurance Policies Can Benefit Yeshivot

I am currently doing a little research on different fundraising ideas that various day schools and Yeshivot throughout the United States are employing to raise funds for either the present or the future. Here I found an interesting idea that is very inexpensive for families and can yield large amounts down the road.

"All of us can help the school simply by remembering Yeshivat Rambam in our estates. For younger families, joint life insurance policies are an inexpensive way to provide the school with a lump sum bequest at a modest cost. For example, a premium as low as $200 per year, tax deductible, can buy a $100,000 life insurance policy for the benefit of Yeshivat Rambam. Depending on your circumstances, and with interest rates now so low, a life-income gift to Yeshivat Rambam may offer some of us very special tax advantages."

I have heard that in the Catholic Church it is basically a requirement for members to take out an additional life insurance plan that benefits the church and its schools. This looks to be a very inexpensive way for families to, after 120 years, give a major gift to benefit Jewish education.

However, I believe that planned giving and endowments where only one institution is a beneficiary, are highly unattractive for your average family. As Mr. Pasik states in an article titled "Resolving the Yeshiva Tuition Crisis," it is necessary that the Orthodox community establish a "The United Yeshiva and Hebrew Day School Fund." There are many ways to establish such funds. There could be a national fund or even regional funds. But, like Mr. Pasik points out there must be a central address for donations.

• The future is uncertain and donors prefer certainty. There is no way to know that any Yeshiva will continue to exist into the future. Unfortunately, many Yeshivot come and go.
• Grandparents and great-grandparents want to benefit the schools that their grandchildren are attending or will attend. With large families spread throughout the United States and the world, it does not make sense to give large gifts to individual schools; it makes more sense to give to a central fund or regional funds that will benefit the grandchildren no matter what school they are attending or will attend.
• Charitable organizations, especially our schools, are notorious for living for yesterday and not the future. Donors want to see their large gifts outlive them and continue to provide a Jewish education l'dor v'dor. Knowing that the gift could be borrowed against does not encourage the type of giving that needs to be encouraged.
• And, naturally, donors want to be ensured that a fund is being run with integrity and professionalism. A central fund has much greater potential of fiscal transparency which is a necessity to attract sizable gifts. As this letter writer to the Jewish Press stated in last week's letters to the editor entitled "Financial Accountability" states, "We must eradicate the perception that yeshivas and Jewish schools are run by individuals who are gaining personally from donations and contributions from the Jewish public. Let us work together to ensure the integrity of our yeshivas and that they meet high standards of financial accountability."

We need to call upon our Yeshivot and Day Schools to unite when creating endowment plans. Sharing ideas will only be to everyone's benefit. An umbrella organization to collect the funds has a much greater potential to actually organize donors and start collecting the large gifts that are currently going to designated for more "attractive" causes.