Fund kids for Jewish school just by paying taxes — really!

By Julia Umansky Director of Gift Planning and EITC

It’s true! Individuals and businesses can direct their personal and/or business taxes — money you would need to pay anyway — toward Jewish school scholarships.

Here’s how it works:

Eligible taxpayers can receive tax credits of up to 90% through Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program for contributions to a scholarship organization. In the Lehigh Valley, the Jewish Federation serves as a local supporting organization administering EITC scholarship monies to the Jewish Day School and the JCC.

While contributions to the program are typically limited to businesses, the Lehigh Valley Jewish Foundation has created a Special Purpose Entity (SPE), the Lehigh Valley Jewish Scholarship LLC, to allow individuals access to the state-offered tax credit.

The SPE acts as a separate entity whose sole mission is to provide needs-based scholarships to the JDS and JCC.

“This is a fairly straightforward program that provides a win-win situation for all involved,” said Julia Umansky, director of gift planning and EITC at the Jewish Federation. “Let’s say you owe $10,000 in state taxes as an individual tax payer. You apply to the Jewish Foundation’s SPE to be a contributing member and send a $10,000 check to the entity. This money is distributed to the local schools the Federation supports, and you receive a 90% state credit — a 90% state tax credit in this situation. It’s that simple.” Since participating in the Pennsylvania EITC program, the Jewish Federation has been able to distribute over $3 million in scholarships benefitting low-income families of the JCC and JDS. Since the establishment of the SPE in 2019, it has raised and contributed over $700,000 in scholarship money to local schools. This equates to over $630,000 in tax credits being applied to individual contributors.

The deadline for first-time business participants is July 1, and Umansky is available to walk you through the application process to make it easy and straightforward. You can contact her directly at julia@jflv.org or 610-821-5500, ext. 331. For individuals, there’s almost always an opportunity to participate, and Umansky will help you with this process and any questions you may have. The SPE is always looking for donors in the community to sign up as contributors and it takes contributions on a first-come, first-serve basis. The foun- dation encourages you to communicate with your tax adviser to determine your estimated taxes before making your contribution to the SPE. For more information, application forms and step-by-step instructions, you can also visit jewishlehighvalley.org/ eitc.

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