Donate

Parents and grandparents of current students who make a gift of $360 or above are entitled to membership in the Jewish Life at Duke Parents Circle.

Your support helps Jewish Life at Duke provide a warm and welcoming home-away-from-home for your student.  In appreciation, Parents Circle members may select one of the following appreciation gifts: a parent (or grandparent) T-shirt, power bank, or embossed journal. 

Jewish Life at Duke's endowment helps ensure the vitality of the Jewish community at Duke in perpetuity. Unrestricted endowments can be established with a gift of $50,000 or more; endowments established with gifts of $100,000 or more may be designated to specific programs or areas of interest. 

To learn more about endowment giving and our funding priorities, please contact Joyce Gordon, Director for Jewish Life at Duke at 919-681-2911 or by email at joyce.gordon@duke.edu.

Gifts made through a will, retirement account designation, or life income gift may allow you to provide lasting support for Jewish Life at Duke while accomplishing your own personal and financial goals.

To learn more about supporting the future of our Jewish community and Duke or to notify us of your intentions to make a legacy gift, please contact Aviv Sheetrit, Associate Director for External Relations at 919-684-1949 or by email at aviv.sheetrit@duke.edu or our  liaison in the Office of Gift Planning, Jeremy Arkin, at 919-613-6195 or by email at jeremy.arkin@duke.edu. 

We are grateful to all of our donors. In addition to endowment donors, those at the following giving levels are acknowledged in the Jewish Life at Duke annual report:

• Pillars:$100,000+
• Patrons:$50,000+
• Cornerstones:$25,000+
• Visionaries: $18,000+
• Sustainers:$10,000+
• Leaders:$5,000+
• Benefactors: $2,500+
• Chai: $1,800+
• Builders:$1,000+
• Partners:$360+
• Parents Circle:$360+

Deciding how to allocate your gift? You can support Jewish Life at Duke in a number of ways, including:

• Jewish Life at Duke General Support Fund:Donating to this fund ensures your donation will be used wherever it’s most needed. Unrestricted donations fund everything from student programs to guest speakers to facility maintenance, operations, and more. This is the funding source that allows us to do our foundational work and also allows us to say “yes!” to new opportunities. •
• Freeman Family Program Fund:Support student-focused programs including JFAM (Jewish First-Year Advisory Mentorship), the B’nai Mitzvah Program, and Host-Your-Own Passover Seders.
• High Holidays Programs Fund:Support services, meals, and operations for annual High Holiday services including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We engage with hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and community members during the High Holidays, and meals are always free for students.
• Israel Programming Fund:Support Israel programs including lectures, guest speakers, seminars, conversational groups, and events; student travel for Israel policy conferences; Israel student groups; and programs related to our full-time Jewish Agency Israel Fellow.

As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life at Duke University, we look ahead to our future. What better way to celebrate two decades of Duke’s Jewish home-away-from-home than by ensuring its endurance for generations to come?

“Just as my ancestors planted for me before I was born, so do I plant for those who will come after me.”
-Talmud 

25 by ’25 is a 5-year planned giving campaign to support the future of Jewish Life at Duke University. In partnership with Duke’s Office of Gift Planning, our goal is to secure 25 legacy gifts by 2025, and we need your help.

Join your fellow Duke Jewish alumni, parents and friends by remembering Jewish Life at Duke with a legacy gift in your will, trust or retirement account.

Welcome to the Duke Heritage Society
A gift to Jewish Life at Duke is a gift to Duke: Your planned gift to Jewish Life at Duke grants you membership in the Duke Heritage Society, honoring alumni and friends who have included Duke in their estate plans or have made another type of planned gift to Duke. You will receive a Duke Heritage Society lapel pin and certificate, will be invited to special events, and can elect to receive the quarterly Duke Blueprints e-newsletter.

Ways to Give
Plan your estate and charitable giving in a way that benefits you, your family, and Duke’s Jewish community. Enjoy tax and income benefits by giving in one of the following ways:

• Bequests and Retirement Plans
• Charitable IRA Rollover
• Charitable Gift Annuity
• Donating Real Estate
• Charitable Remainder Unitrusts
• Charitable Lead Trusts
• Donor Advised Fund
• Publicly Traded Securities
• Privately Held Securities

How to Get Started 

Making a legacy gift to Jewish Life at Duke can be rewarding and relatively simple.

1. Contact Jewish Life at Duke or the Office of Gift Planning to explore planned giving options that may help you meet your personal and financial goals.
2. Discuss your options with your financial advisor to develop a gift plan that meets your needs. 
3. Once your plan is in place, please let us know so we can say “thank you!” We would also like to record your intentions to ensure that your gift is used exactly as you’ve directed. We can certainly keep your gift anonymous if that is your preference. 

If you have already included Jewish Life at Duke in your estate plans — thank you! We invite you to share your confidential and non-binding estimate by contacting Aviv Sheetrit at 919-684-6422 or aviv.sheetrit@duke.edu. 

About Jewish Life at Duke

• Approximately 11% of Duke’s undergraduate student population is Jewish. Over 70% take part in events, programs, and holiday services offered by Jewish Life at Duke each year.
• Jewish Life at Duke (JLD), comprising the Freeman Center for Jewish Life and the Rubenstein-Silvers Hillel, is the hub for all things Jewish on Duke’s campus. It offers a vibrant, diverse, and pluralistic Jewish environment in which students can celebrate Shabbat and holidays, enjoy a good meal with friends, discuss Israel, and explore leadership, travel, and educational opportunities.
• Jewish Life at Duke is both a department within Duke’s Division of Student Affairs and an accredited Hillel.
• Students are supported by a seven-person professional staff including a director, a full-time campus rabbi who also oversees kashrut policies of the kosher kitchen, and a Jewish Agency Israel Fellow.
• Guided by a mission to inspire Jewish students through community building, collaborative ventures, leadership opportunities, and educational experiences, JLD offers programs that focus on community-building, Jewish observance, exploration of Judaism and Jewish identity, and connection to Israel.

The Senior Giving Challenge raises awareness in the senior class about the role of philanthropy in the Duke experience, and encourages seniors to make a donation of any amount to any area at Duke before they graduate.

Seniors, did you know that you can designate your senior gift to Jewish Life at Duke? 100% of JLD's operating budget is funded by donations; all the programs, meals, and opportunities you've loved are made by possible by philanthropic donations.

Make Your Donation

1. Any amount: Don’t let the amount be a barrier – even $1 counts! What donation amount is meaningful to you? Consider $20.22 to honor your class year. Donations of $100+ make you a Senior Leadership Donor.  
2. Easy to give: Give via credit card, flex, Venmo or the Duke Mobile App with Apple Pay/Google Pay.
3. Honor a mentor: Consider making your donation in honor of someone who has made a difference in your Duke experience. Honorees will receive a certificate with your sentiments, and donors and their honorees will be invited in the spring to enjoy a cup of coffee on campus paid for by the Senior Giving Challenge. (All donation amounts are private).

Three Ways to Make Your Senior Gift

1. Venmo on mobile

Search for @DukeSeniorFund, Comment: Jewish Life at Duke

2. Give via credit card
3. Give via flex 

Celebrate your Mentor!

Has someone you know made all the difference in your Duke experience? Honor them with your senior gift!

Here’s how

1. Make your donation of any amount to Jewish Life at Duke—donation amounts are private.
2. The following week you’ll receive a thank-you email from the Senior Giving Challenge committee with a link to fill out the form for your mentor(s).
3. Fill out the survey and honor up to three mentors.
4. A certificate with your sentiments will be sent to your mentor.