Center for Social Innovation

John Goldman is a sixth generation San Franciscan whose family, the descendants of Levi Strauss, have been in San Francisco since the Gold Rush. Goldman and his wife Marcia want to give by helping young people develop philanthropic values. In 2003, they established the South Peninsula Jewish Community Teen Foundation as part of the Jewish Community Federation’s Imprint Endowment Fund. The program allows Bay Area Jewish teens to learn how to run their own charitable foundation by developing mission statements, raising money, and distributing funds. By 2009, the program had gone from one chapter in the South Peninsula to a total of four chapters with 23 teens participating in each one. Over its initial five years, the South Peninsula Jewish Community Teen Foundation program had raised and distributed over $178,328. All of the four teen foundations had distributed $450,051.