Since 1991, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, along with our generous partners and funders, have invested more than $700 million in programs that make Jewish life and Jewish community more vibrant and connected. Today the Foundation supports an assortment of innovative programs, grants, and award opportunities - with the newest initiative always just a spark of inspiration away.
FOUNDING
The Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) is established to enhance Jewish and community life in Western Massachusetts and around the world.
LAUNCHED
JCamp 180 is created to support non-profit Jewish overnight and day camps with grants and mentoring to strengthen the camps and inspire philanthropic support. (JCamp 180 was originally called the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy and renamed in 2012).
LAUNCHED
PJ Library is created as a free program sending Jewish-themed books and music to 200 families in Western Massachusetts. It continues to expand to communities across and beyond North America and inspires joyful Jewish experiences by sending storybooks and activities monthly to families with children ages 0-12 and offering ways to connect with community.
LAUNCHED
JCamp 180 (known at the time as the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy) hosts its first conference for camps in the JCamp 180 program in Harold’s living room. From 2008 on, JCamp 180 hosts the conference annually as its signature professional development and learning offering. JCamp 180 goes on to expand on this gathering over time to offer regular professional development programs on governance, fundraising, and strategy, enrollment, and technology & communications for camp professional and lay leadership.
EXPANSION
PJ Library’s program expands outside the U.S. for the first time, providing books to young readers in Canada.
LAUNCHED
Keren Grinspoon Israel (KGI) is founded to increase the number of quality books in Israeli children’s homes and instill a love of reading in their hearts.
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Sifriyat Pijama ("Pajama Library” in Hebrew), the Israel-based version of PJ Library, is created by Keren Grinspoon Israel as a classroom-based reading readiness program that distributes high-quality children’s books emphasizing shared Jewish/Israeli heritage and values to classrooms in Israel.
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PJ Library hosts its first-ever gathering of local professionals for learning and networking to bring back to their hometowns. It has since grown into an annual international conference for professionals and parent connectors across North America.
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Voices & Visions is created as poster series that utilizes power of art to interpret the words of great Jewish thinkers. Several poster series are created and offered as gifts to organizations to beautify their spaces, spark conversations, and create new programming.
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In partnership with Jewish Federations and foundations, Life & Legacy is created to help Jewish day schools, synagogues, social service organizations, and other Jewish entities promote legacy giving and endowment-building through consulting, training, peer-to-peer learning, and grants.
EXPANSION
PJ Library moves into Australia as well as Mexico and begins distributing books in Spanish.
EXPANSION
Maktabat al-Fanoos (“Lantern Library” in Arabic) is established by Keren Grinspoon Israel to help Israeli Arab children develop literacy skills and a love of reading through the gift of Arabic language books.
LAUNCHED
PJ Our Way, the next chapter of PJ Library, is created as an extension of PJ Library to provide tweens aged 9-12 the gift of exceptional Jewish middle-grade books and graphic novels through a personally tailored program where kids get to choose their own book every month. PJ Library now officially runs from birth to b’nai mitzvah!
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Life & Legacy hosts its first ever conference to support organizations to create sustainable legacy giving programs in their local Jewish communities.
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The first edition of PJ Library’s Haggadah, In Every Generation: A PJ Library Family Haggadah, debuts at Passover seders (ritual meals). It is followed by editions in six languages, enlarged print, and braille.
MILESTONE
By 2020, just eight years after the Harold Grinspoon Foundation launches Life & Legacy, sixty-three Jewish communities across the US and Canada have secured more than $1 billion in legacy commitments.
MILESTONE
PJ Library furthers its global reach to more than 30 countries and celebrates the publication of books in seven languages: English, Hebrew, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
LAUNCHED
JCamp 180 extends its support to Day Camps, investing in nearly 30 days camps in the US to fund physical improvement projects.
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Life & Legacy expands from 4-year to 8-year program, continuing to offer grants, training and consulting to over 50 Jewish communities throughout North America.
MILESTONE
PJ Library's gift of free monthly storybooks reaches a milestone: 50M books distributed worldwide to date! Families around the world use these books as tools to create joyful Jewish experiences and memories.
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HGF begins financially incentivizing peer-led, meaningful, Jewish micro-communities through the PJ Library Get Together initiative. The program expands nationally across the US and Canada in 2024.
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JCamp 180 launches the Forward Together grant, infusing $25 million over five years to provide unrestricted support to more than 100 overnight camps along with support for capital investments and physical improvements.
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The Harold Grinspoon Foundation announces a new grant to support permanent endowment-building for Jewish overnight summer camps affiliated with JCamp 180. The $4M, four-year commitment leverages at least an additional $12M in total for the field, seeding cash endowment funds.
LAUNCHED
The Amber Awards is created to recognize five outstanding professionals in the Jewish communal field annually and honor their work with $10,000 and the chance to “pay it forward” to two more impactful individuals.
MILESTONE
The program, a collaborative effort across 70+ communities, is paving the way for a vibrant Jewish future across North America.