News

What Happens When We Teach Philanthropy Like We Teach Leadership?

Author

Rabbi Stephanie Max

Date

July 15, 2026

Rabbi Stephanie Max is the executive director of Texas Hillel: The Topfer Center for Jewish Life.

Rabbi Tarfon used to teach: “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.” (Pirkei Avot 2:16)

When I look at the Jewish community on UT Austin’s campus, I see students who build, create, organize, lead, and show up for one another. They are ambitious and deeply engaged in shaping the communities they want and need. I also see a desire to contribute to something bigger, as Rabbi Tarfon teaches. 

Our students are givers. Every day, they demonstrate their care for others through responsibility and problem-solving, following the UT Austin motto of, “What starts here changes the world.” Many students go on to lead organizations, businesses, and communities, and we have the opportunity to prepare them to contribute in a meaningful way. 

What happens when we teach philanthropy the same way we teach leadership, not as a matter of wealth or status, but as a lifelong practice of investing in our values?

This idea found its champions in Joe and Debs Weinberg. After successfully supporting the launch of Campus Champions, a student-athlete philanthropy leadership program at the University of Virginia, they began imagining what a similar opportunity might look like for Jewish students. With additional support and partnership from Karen Kogut and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, that vision became the inaugural Texas Hillel Philanthropy Leadership Lab.

Over the course of six sessions, twenty-five students came together to explore philanthropy, leadership, and community impact. To ground each session, students spoke about the distinct Jewish values that animate our shared responsibility to each other and the world. They met with nonprofit leaders, learned about organizations addressing pressing local needs, and wrestled with difficult questions about priorities, resources, and responsibility.

Participants explored issues ranging from housing and homelessness to food insecurity, women’s health, and domestic violence. Along the way, they gained a deeper understanding of Austin and the organizations working every day to strengthen it, while also building relationships with one another and growing an appreciation for shared purpose and collective responsibility.

Future cohorts of the Texas Hillel Philanthropy Leadership Lab will build on this work through deeper community engagement, expanded volunteer opportunities, and more robust nonprofit evaluation.

The inaugural program culminated in a final presentation before community leaders and philanthropists. After thoughtful discussion and deliberation, the cohort selected Mobile Loaves & Fishes as the recipient of a $10,000 grant in recognition of its work addressing homelessness in Central Texas.

While the grant itself was never the primary goal, it gave students a real-life understanding of how they are already philanthropists — and generosity is learned through practice. We become more generous by giving, more responsible by taking responsibility, and more connected to our communities by showing up for them. The Philanthropy Leadership Lab was designed to not only teach students about philanthropy, but to help them live it. 

As I look ahead, I see the Philanthropy Leadership Lab as more than a single program. It is part of a broader effort to help students develop the skills, values, and relationships that will shape them throughout their lives, building future Jewish leaders who understand they have both the opportunity and the responsibility to contribute to something larger than themselves.

As Rabbi Tarfon reminds us, the work is not ours to finish.

But it is ours to begin.

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