Create an Endowment

Why Give 

A gift to the HIAS Foundation is one of the most powerful gifts you can make to the world’s refugees—those in need of help today and those who will need our support tomorrow. 

When you make a philanthropic gift, the HIAS Foundation invests it in our long-term endowment, allowing you to make an impact that lasts not for one or two seasons but for generations to come.

It’s a way to create a legacy, one of compassion and hope that will grow in perpetuity, bringing enduring hope to displaced people around the world.

Why Us

For more than 100 years, HIAS has been the Jewish community’s response to the global need to protect and support refugees. 

Our work draws on Jewish principles and extends to everyone. In the past year alone, we delivered vital services to over 1,000,000 in 185 field locations in more than 23 countries. In addition to providing emergency aid, HIAS helps displaced people learn new skills, assists them in settling and integrating into new communities, and works to end the gender-based violence too commonly faced by refugees seeking safety.

Time and again, people who were helped by HIAS say that what they most remember was the dignity and respect with which they were treated and that this made all the difference during some of the darkest days of their lives.

When you make a gift to the HIAS Foundation, you make a lasting mark and help ensure that HIAS can continue welcoming the stranger in perpetuity.

Why Now

At a time when record numbers of people around the world are facing displacement—an estimated 117.2 million at the end of 2023, according to the UN—it has never been more critical that HIAS remains strong, well-resourced, and ready.

The HIAS Foundation empowers HIAS to reach refugees in crisis and supports them for the long haul. 

Your gift to the HIAS Foundation provides a stable foundation for this work, ensuring that HIAS can serve as a source of life-saving services and hope far into our shared future and beyond.

Endowed funds, starting at $100,000, are held in perpetuity with the principal invested for long-term growth. The use of the income from endowed funds may be either unrestricted or restricted to a specific purpose. Income is determined by a spending policy set by the board of directors and reviewed annually. 

The HIAS Foundation encourages gifts of the following endowments:

• Unrestricted endowments are assets that can be spent, saved, invested in perpetuity, and distributed at the discretion of the Foundation.
• Term endowments are funds that can be set up to be used only after a certain time and for a limited period of time, such as a fixed number of years or until a specific event occurs. 
• Quasi-endowments are funds that have been designated by a donor or by the Foundation board of directors to function as endowments but have been set up for a limited period of time, such as a fixed number of years or until a specific event occurs. They are not restricted in perpetuity.
• Restricted endowments are funds that have been legally restricted by the donor to a specific purpose in perpetuity.

To learn how you can establish an endowment, please contact Executive Director Jonathan Boiskin at jonathan.boiskin@hiasfoundation.org or (301) 844-7900.