Take a good, hard look at the images in front of you. Not at the prizes—the dirt bikes, electric go-karts, and “trip of a lifetime” vacations—but at the message behind them. We have commercialized chesed. We have twisted tzedakah into a transaction. We are teaching our children that the only reason to help others is if there’s something in it for them.
What happened to Yidden being gomlei chasadim—doing kindness for its own sake? What happened to the values we are supposed to instill in our children—that we give and help raise funds for tzedakah because we care, not because we expect to be rewarded? When did we decide that a child will only collect money if we bribe them with extravagant prizes?
It’s no longer about giving to those in need. It’s about winning. And what happens when there’s no incentive? What happens when a child is asked to help someone but isn’t offered a reward? Brochures like these make the answer is terrifyingly clear: They won’t do it.
They are not alone in this. We have entered an era where tzedakah is packaged like a game show. Give enough money, and you get a bigger prize. Raise more funds, and you might win an electric ATV. Work extra hard, and you could be flying off to Eretz Yisroel in luxury.
We have taken something that should be pure and noble and turned it into a competition for material gain.
The results are threefold:
1. A child will collect for an organization they don’t even know, rather than one that actually means something to them.
2. They will knock on doors, not to help, but to win.
3. They will stop caring about tzedakah the second the prize catalog disappears.
We are raising a generation that won’t understand why we give. Instead of feeling the responsibility of kol Yisroel areivim zeh lazeh, they will associate giving with personal gain.
If a child has never been taught the joy of giving without an incentive, how will they learn to be adults who give out of love, compassion, and responsibility? How will they ever truly understand what it means to care for another Jew, simply because they are a Jew?
This is not chinuch. This is not tzedakah. This is a corruption of the very foundation of our values.
I challenge every school, every organization, and every parent to take a step back and ask: What are we teaching our children? Are we showing them that chesed is a way of life—or are we training them to be fundraising mercenaries?
We need to stop dangling prizes in front of our children and start teaching them the beauty of giving. We need to remind them that helping others is the reward—not the grand prize at the end of a contest.
Because if we don’t change course soon, we won’t just be losing a generation of gomlei chasadim. We will be raising a generation that never knew what it meant to give in the first place.
Signed,
Yerachmiel R.
The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.
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36 Responses
Yerachmiel – thanks for the important letter.
I want to comment, to add to it, however, that this issue is not limited to children. There are many adults, especially in certain groups, who make a living from “Chesed”. They go around collecting money, as if they are volunteers for a cause, when actually they are employees, or owner/operators, and take a nice cut (hopefully not more than that either) of what they take in. They also should be put under scrutiny.
We need to create a vaad that oversees each organizations finances and keeps it within certain guidelines. Is this another business opportunity for someone?
Haha,
Since all these org’s need to cover thier costs to post on YWN. You are part of the scheme!
This is barely a start to issues. We need a hechsher on the yeshivas. just because someone has a title or the appearance of such a holy Rosh yeshiva does not mean its ok to send your child there, nor does it mean that he should be a Rosh yeshiva. We need a hechsher and a vaad that they listen or they are removed from their position even if it is their school. or there should be a kol koreh!!
Can we please confine these rants to the coffee room
I have never posted a comment here before.
I got this in the Circle Magazine this past Shabbos, and I saw my kids drooling over this thing. I was so repulsed that I actually took this thing and sent it to one of the leading Gedolim in the United States. I should send my letter to be posted as a mailbag. So this letter writer is not alone. I was just as sickened.
this isnt the only tzedakah that does this. it’s disgusting. but the entire purim tzedakah thing has turned into a disgusting debacle, with my 12 year old nephews harassing me 4 weeks before purim during yeshiva hours from call banks they have set up.
Even 40 years ago there were prizes given out, yes much smaller. The issue is we are living in a materialism world and the yeshivas (both boys and girls) have done nothing to explain money or budgets. Most girls school do not want to talk about budgets as then most will not want to marry a learning boy.
Why don’t we discuss how they have turned our yeshivs Bochrim into a bunch of sleazy fundraisers? How about the Yeshivos having the Bochrim make phone calls for 3 weeks before Purim during Seder?
I never signed up my Bochrim for this. I pay fuill tuition to my sons Yeshiva, to give him Chinuch. You want him collecting on Purim for boys in the yeshiva that can’t afford to buy shoes or suits for Pesach or a TAT for Bochrim who can’t aafford their own Chasunos? 10000%! That is what Chinuch is. We all collected on Purim for things.
But this level?! 1 million dollar funds that 60 bochrim are working on for 4 weeks?
Enough is enough.
25 Years ago there were also prizes and I collected cause there was a prize – a very cheap prize but nevertheless I collected for the prize. Stop insinuating that kids used to collect for chesed and these prizes are changing the landscape. Not sure why you chose the prizes as opposed to the chinese Auctions? – fact is people collect and give for incentives and they give and get a lot more as opposed to no incentive. Ask organizations that ran campaigns without an incentive vs. with – its the reality – incentives were always around just maybe on a smaller scale but the “gomlei chasadim” claim is just false – nothing changed.
The real issue is Organizations spending a fortune on prizes etc. once were at it salaries, wasteful, unwarranted spending. What we need is some kind of watchdog for all these organizations and maybe they can grade them.
Yerachmiel R,
It seems you are tired of Winning. You must be a Trump supporter. You don’t have sympathy for these POOR CHILDREN get an opportunity to earn what they’re rich friends parents are getting them. This is Tzedakah in it’s self. I rich children don’t need to raise funds due to they get what they wish for. Did you reach out to the organization? They do have Rabinical endorsement listed in their booklet. They provide funds for Israeli families it states. Someone told me the prizes are donated. Now you have a choice of many Chesed organizations which one are you going to raise money for? Are you going to disrupt your routine in order to do Chesed for free.
I’m a great-grandmother, and prizes were given for collecting Tzedakah when I went to elementary school (sixty or more years ago). The prizes were much less substantial,
and there was no publicity about it. It seems like one more thing that has NOT gotten better over the years together with the increased stress on gashmius, and use of public relations.
I’d also like to comment about the annoying deluge of fund raising calls which disturb the fabric of the family. It’s annoying and interrupts family time, even if one does NOT answer the phone. I feel we need some NACHSHON Rabbonim to take a stand on these issues.
Glad you wrote this and shared it. We have been discussing this at home. I’ll add that these prizes raise the bar for what our children will now expect to have.
Hey everyone
I live in Israel and i know personally a few ppl that sit and learn all day and can only put bread on their tables cuz this org!!
Mr` Yerachmial R, cuz u don`t have a job why in the world would you write up a mailbox on an amazing org??? They give hundreds of dollars to poor ppl in Israel and one picture you forgot to post is the 4 Haskumes from the biggest Gidoilem these days!!!
Next time if your bored don`t scream on ppl that help others sit and learn!!
What’s wrong with giving kids an incentive with prizes. You want to monitor yeshivas. What about Beis dins that are corrupt. Who is monitoring their behavior if anyone is paying them off. Nothing wrong with motivating kids to raise Tzedokah and giving them a prize.
Warning – long rant to follow:
I agree with the idea of this letter but while we’re on the topic, I would like to take it a little further.
How about we stop turning our children into schnorers. Whether incentivized or not, it should not be the students’ job to raise money for their schools. I’m not talking about a class chesed project or bake sale, but the full blown hire a “professional fundraiser/motivator” and make the kids make a video and spend the day acting as if they’re on a Jerry Lewis telethon cold calling random lists of people from the phone book instead of spending their day doing what we pay an exorbitant amount of money for, namely, learning Torah and receiving an education. I had the audacity to ask if the money spent on one of these guys would perhaps be better spent by keeping it in the Yeshiva’s bank account, and I was told that these pros know how to get the donations flowing. OK. I listened to the spiel. He said call someone you have no connection to and ask for a donation. Apparently that’s where the money is hiding. So I called the “fundraiser” and asked him to donate to my son’s Yeshiva under our name. That netted us a big fat 0.
When every Yeshiva is asking the student and parent body to fundraiser for them, and we just all end up asking each other, what’s the point? If people can’t afford the $80,000 plus a year for their own kids’ tuition, how do you expect them to then donate thousands on top of that to their schools, let alone to schools that they don’t even send their children to? Using the students to try and pull at the heartstrings of parents isn’t the answer. Maybe the schools making tuition a normal amount and spending time teaching the kids what tzedakah is really about instead of pushing them to collect for their unreasonable financial burdens would be a better way to handle both issues.
Ferd,
I was still typing when you posted, but you said it much more succinctly than I did. You’re 100% correct.
There might have been prizes twenty five years ago, but the prize sheets were given out after the campaign was over. There wasn’t a catalogue rivaling the latest holiday shopping guide distributed in advance. We went around with a pushka or receipt booklet, and then found out afterwards what we could get for the amount collected. This is more direct and distasteful. Also, back then, the kids were asked to collect for their yeshivos. They aren’t in any way connected to the organizations distributing prize booklets.
Remember the man that went around for Peilim (I forgot his name)!?! He was a Chashuva yid and we drooled over the prizes that he was offering, and we got them. The objective to get children interested and involved in colleting has not changed. We have!
We need a DOGE for organizations:
Department
Of
Gabbai Tzdakah
Efficiency
Instead of attacking a highly important organization or its supporters, do your research before bashing them. The damage you’re causing is serious, and there will be major consequences.
Yeshiva World, you need to take responsibility. If donations drop because of what you published, families in Eretz Yisroel who rely on this organization for basic necessities will suffer. That’s on you, and you’ll have to answer for it before Hashem.
Fundraisers and online campaigns have always existed, so why are you suddenly targeting this organization? There are plenty of similar organizations out there, yet you’re singling this one out. To me, this looks like one big scam on your part—maybe you’re even making money from this. Instead of exposing some great injustice, you’re just bringing down an organization that helps people.
There’s nothing wrong with an incentive of a sefer or even sefarim or liHavdil, other (smaller) nice things. But making it “transactional”, meaning for a serious prize, is a different matter.
I was equally disgusted. My kids crunched the numbers with me. These organizations are giving over 40% back to the kids in the form of prizes.
One of my older working children noticed the booklet of one of these organizations and said hey I want that 24 six prize for myself it would cost me $150 to buy it along with the 6 month subscription that it comes with, Can I just give $215 to this organization using my maaser money and get it for free?
What are we coming to?
We in the U.S. have failed the “nisayon” of “gashmius”. Do we need exotic Pesach “vacations”? Even if you can afford it, what are you teaching your children? We do our Gedolim to speak out.
The issue many people miss is the reason they do this. Most yeshivas have a small raffle or collection and they give SMALL prizes. Non affiliated orgs need to compete so they offer HUGE prizes to woo kids away from their yeshiva campaigns. This should not happen.
PS The tzeddaka part of mishkan yosef is great, I am only against the fundraising they do.
What kedusha hasn’t been perverted to the excessive gashmiyus repulsiveness? Find one thing that is still left to it’s Holiness. There’s been a mass corruption that hasn’t been stopped. Everything is falling to materialism and the glorification of luxury and charity is no exception. A Jewish mind has to be finely tuned to sense when something doesn’t smell right. Just because of publication is full of ads for Jewish businesses and pictures of rabbis doesn’t make it a holy publication. Most of them don’t have any supervision it’s just business guys behind it, the same for a massive number of organizations that don’t have anything to do with rabbanim and guidance, just guys trying to make a buck. Always that buck. Watch your eyes, watch your ears, and watch your hearts! Know when something is legit or not, do not send money to a shady looking tzedaka, we have enough poor Ehrlich Talmidei chachamim starving in EY because of this erev rav yemach shemam. Send money to Them!
It keeps the kids busy & happy for weeks. Most kids don’t collect enough for a really expensive prize. It helps Aniyim who wouldn’t get the money without this incentive. I don’t have a problem with it.
You guys are crazy!!!!!! (Sorry my language but this guy named yerachmiel and who might(most probably)make poor family’s in Israel suffer y”t because they don’t have food and what to wear is most probably going to………… up there because of what he did hear)
I personally know the guy who does it and personally know that he gives out hundreds of thousands of dollars to poor people in Israel!!!!!!!!
You come with no knowledge it says a name in the catalog you asked people if they no about it? Call him up and ask him who do you think you are to post something like this and kill someone AND thousands of families!!!!!
You know how many families are waiting for this money for y’t!!!!!
And I’m just saying I sent an email to YWN right after they posted it TAKE IT OFF with explanation!!!!!!!!!! they didn’t respond….
You guys have a platform and post stuff with out any information YOU GUYS ARE BRUTAL!!!!!!
WHICH רבנים BACK YOU??????
seems like Noone so are shut down or get someone to back you guys
PUT OUT AN apology right now or will have to go to the רבנים to close you guys down named YWN MAYBE CHANGE IT TO………. ( You name it )……..
Don’t Chazal say מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה?
Firstly, we have a lot to learn from the Satmer Rebbe (I am not a chassid) who taught his kehilah from a very young age that they are REQUIRED to collect for others.
That being said I understand the criticism but let’s also understand that there is no other people on earth that do as much chessed as frum people do. We are all taught this from a very young age and we far surpass any other group on this planet and we should be proud of that. We are also very hard on ourselves for good reason always looking at how we can be better and of course we always should.
I remember as a young child in elementary school when the gabbai tzedakah would come around to ask us to collect and they gave us a booklet that had prizes in it he would preface his speech with ‘ I don’t like to call them prizes. They are a token of our appreciation’. On each of the pages with a receipt for the tzedakah we received there was a picture of a part of a building. And if you collected enough to give out all the receipts in the book, those pictures next to the receipt would have a sticker that could be moistened, and in the last page of the book, you would wet the sticker and build a building of a mosed. It helped you feel like your efforts are building entire institutions. It was a very meaningful concept and left an impression on me and I’m sure on others. Yiddin do some much good if we just focused on that we could do so much more good.
YWN YOU CAN’T DELETE SOMETHING EVERYBODY SAW ALREADY (I SEE YOU DELETED PART OF IT) YOU GOT SOME BRAINS
BUT THAT DOESN’T FIX THE MESS YOU DID HEAR!
RIGHT AN APOLOGY YOU DID A BIG MISTAKE!
AND ERASE THIS THEARD NEVER SEEN SOMETHING SO NONE THANS!!!
NOBODY ASKED YOU FINED A JOB!!!
Agree completely with this letter
Prizes are great and keep the kids motivated but they shouldn’t cost a lot and thus eat up the charity that was fundraised.
Furthermore I don’t like my kids asking for random organizations. I’m ok with their yeshiva or something they know about but I do believe it’s gone overboard in recent years.
My most serious gripe is the number of organizations out there
My community seems to open a new one every Tuesday. We have ads for bake sales and raffles at least 10 times a week. For mental illness. For kiruv. For soldiers. For food packages. For pesach food. For this school that shul, this fund for the poor, that bridal fund….
It’s gotten really insane how many there are and many of them do the same thing! Combining resources would make much more sense but people seem to love opening them and what happens is that they all just divide a shrinking pool of donations. I know some organizations that are very poorly run by well meaning but dollar foolish people who can’t even balance their home budget let alone for a charity.
THIS IS CRAZY TAKE THIS MAILBOX DOWN YOU DONT WANT TO BE THE ONE THAT WILL MAKE HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE STARVE ON PESACH!!!!!!!
Ferd, the Yeshiva’s that I went to never allowed us to fundraise during Seder. Maybe you should reconsider the yeshiva you are referring to.
I don’t see the major issue with this, there are incentives to help fight laziness/ encourage kids to raise more money than they would have otherwise. No one is saying they should fundraise for the prize. It’s a way of making it easier to do it. It’s obviously the job of the parents and the school to provide proper chinuch on chesed to children in the context of the reality that kids may need an extra push to encourage them to do it.
I used to get a small yearbook from one mosad that was the right size for me and I was happy to use it and remember the name of the organization. Nowadays, they probably send ipads.