Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston

The Jewish Teen Foundation of Greater Boston (JTFGB) is a year-long, pluralistic Jewish teen philanthropy program for students in grades 9–12 across Greater Boston, Southern New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. This program empowers teens to tackle real-world issues through hands-on fundraising, strategic grantmaking, and values-driven decision-making.

JTFGB is in its eleventh year and its first year at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston. We are proud to have started as a part of the Foundation Board Incubator, a project of Honeycomb (formerly the Jewish Teen Funders Network), meaning that we were one of the first Jewish teen philanthropy boards.

Each year, participants work collaboratively on teen-led boards to:

• Assess community needs

• Choose a critical issue area through consensus

• Fundraise from their networks

• Review nonprofit grant applications

• Allocate significant funding to organizations addressing their chosen cause

While based in Boston, JTFGB's impact is global. Over the first ten years, teens have awarded more than 70 grants to organizations across the world.

In 2025, JTFGB teens raised over $10,000 from hundreds of donors to support nonprofits focused on addressing inequity in education by providing resources to children, and addressing disaster relief by providing resources for people displaced by war, natural disasters, and other conflicts.

Through JTFGB, participants build skills that will last a lifetime:

• Strengthen leadership, communication, and teamwork

• Work closely with real nonprofits to understand community needs

• Learn consensus-building and decision-making

• Explore Jewish texts and values connected to philanthropy

• Challenge perspectives through meaningful debate

• Make new friends from across the region

Mission Statements by Board: 

Morning Board: We are a group of passionate Jewish teens from the Greater Boston area, driven by our values of justice (tzedek), human dignity (kavod), and repairing the world (tikkun olam). We aim to stabilize and support families and individuals in our community facing food insecurity through fundraising and allocating grants to nonprofits that ensure consistent and reliable access to nutritious food.

Afternoon Board: We are a group of dedicated Jewish Teens from the Greater Boston area, guided by our values of human dignity (kavod), responsibility (areyvut), and justice (tzedek). We aim to improve the lives of IDF veterans through fundraising and allocating grants to nonprofits that provide mental health support.