Support Our Yom Kippur Appeal!
The gift of tzedakah enables Stephen Wise Free Synagogue to do good in the world and continue to be your Jewish home.
With your generous gift, you’ll be supporting efforts including operational costs, educational initiatives, worship costs, and much more. Donations make meaningful gifts or memorials for loved ones. They are also a wonderful way to say thank you. If you would like to discuss your gift, please contact our executive Director Sandy Divack Moss at (212) 877-4050, ext. 228, or exec@swfs.org.
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue is a 501(c)(3) religious organization (Tax ID #13-1628215) and donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowable by law.
Giving Opportunities
For more than one hundred years, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue has been a center of Jewish communal and spiritual life.
Your gift to Stephen Wise expresses your commitment to provide a sacred place for inspirational worship, educational programs, innovative social action projects, and cultural programming. Your gifts to Stephen Wise are a wonderful way to celebrate lifecycle milestones, honor a special occasion, express sympathy, remember a loved one, or simply to say “thank you.”
Your thoughtfulness will be acknowledged with a tribute card to the honoree(s) informing them that you have made a gift to our synagogue in their honor or memory. We welcome gifts of any size, whether one-time gifts or monthly donations. Your generosity and kindness will help ensure that we meet the needs of our community – now and generations to come.
Gifts for general support supplement the operating income of the synagogue, which is primarily comprised of membership dues, tuitions, and fees. The support of members covers one third of our expenses. Throughout our history, Stephen Wise Free Synagogue has benefited from generous general support donations.
Religious School Scholarships
Every Jewish child is entitled to a Jewish education and our policy is to never turn away families in need. Gifts of any amount are deeply appreciated.
Early Childhood Center
At the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue Early Childhood Center, play is at the heart of the learning process. Classroom experiences are infused with Jewish values and rituals. Gifts to the Early Childhood Center enable the school to undertake a variety of programmatic and physical improvement projects.
Shelter
The shelter in our building, the Next Step Men’s Shelter, provides shelter for up to ten men, five nights a week, nine months of the year. Our goal is to provide a warm, caring, and safe environment for men who are in a transitional period in their lives.
Emergency Food Program
Every Saturday morning, year-round, our volunteers prepare bags of non-perishable food items and give them guests in need.
High Holy Day Appeal
Gifts to the High Holy Day Appeal help contribute meaningfully to our programs, clergy, and staff that make our community so special. Gifts to the appeal help bridge the 25 percent gap between membership dues and actual operating costs. These gifts also ensure that the synagogue never has to refuse membership to anyone who wants to be a part of our community, whatever their financial means. Every year we seek 100 percent participation in supporting the welfare of the entire congregation.
Family Experiences
Gifts to Family Experiences make it possible for us to offer a variety of vibrant Shabbat, holiday, cultural, and educational opportunities for families with children. From our exuberant Shabbat Dinner and Learning series, which features creative prayer, crafts, and stories, to our warm and interactive Tot Shabbat Together serives, these events build community and foster a love of Judaism. Your support goes towards the program staff, musicians, special guests, supplies, and food needed for these events.
Meals and ONEGS
Jewish tradition recognizes a meal as a time for intimacy, fellowship, and significant conversation. Sharing meals is a very important part of Jewish family and community life because eating creates intimacy among people. Join your community at our weekly kiddush or oneg following services. Members can mark special occasions by sponsoring either of these special gatherings.
Congregational Passover Seder
Our congregational Seder reflects our diverse and broad community with young families, singles, senior citizens, members, and non-members. We often have unexpected guests who are visitors in our city. Your gift will help underwrite the synagogue’s expenses that are always over and above the revenue from paying guests. Your gift will also help cover the costs of guests from nearby senior center who are unable to pay.
Memorial
Stephen Wise offers several ways to commemorate a loved ones passing.
Yahrzeit
On the anniversary of a loved one’s death, congregants are sent a reminder that their name will be read at services. It is traditional to make a charitable donation on the anniversary or yahrzeit of a loved one. By giving tzedakah in a person’s memory, we make their memory a blessing.Yahrzeit Plaques
Stephen Wise has a tradition of offering memorial plaques to members who wish to remember loved ones in this customary manner. During the week of yahrzeit, a light is lit next to the name of the departed. The lights beside all the memorial plaques in the sanctuary are also lit for Yizkor services during the holidays (Yom Kippur, Shemeni Atzeret/Simchat Torah, Passover, and Shavuot).
Planned Giving
Help us ensure and safeguard Jewish life into the future. By remembering Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in your will or estate plan, your great congregation will continue for many generations to come. Learn more about planned giving.
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue is a 501(c)(3) religious organization (Tax ID #13-1628215) and donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowable by law.
Ways to Give
There are many ways to make your gift to Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue is a 501(c)(3) religious organization (Tax ID #13-1628215) and donations are tax deductible to the full extent allowable by law.
If you have any questions, please contact our director of membership engagement, Isaiah Benedek, at (212) 877-4050, ext. 223, or ibenedek@swfs.org.
Donate Online
To donate online, please use the form hosted on this webpage or email info@swfs.org and we will send you a secure link. Or call our office (open weekdays from 9 a.m.–5:30 p.m.) at (212) 877-4050, ext. 280.
Donate by Mail
Please mail your check, payable to “Stephen Wise Free Synagogue,” to this address:
Director of Development
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
30 W. 68 St.
New York, NY 10023
Donate by Phone
Please contact our director of membership engagement, Isaiah Benedek, at (212) 877-4050, ext. 223.
Donate by Stock Transfer
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue thanks you for your payment or contribution of marketable equity securities.
Before you begin the transfer process, please advise both our executive director, Sandra Divack Moss at exec@swfs.org, and our accounting department at accounting@swfs.org, of the number of shares and the name of the security.
Please refer to these instructions:
- Instruct your broker to transfer specific securities/shares to the Stephen Wise brokerage account at Merrill Lynch. Please send a copy of your instructions to Stephen Wise (Fax 212-787-7108). Your broker may have specific forms or instructions, but you would likely need to specify the dollar value or number of shares to be transferred, as well as the name of the security.
- The instructions should direct your broker to transfer the shares to the following account:
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
Merrill Lynch Account # 852-02M80 DTC #8862 - Please review the trade confirmation that you receive from your broker for accuracy.
- Please confirm that the transfer has been made by e-mailing exec@swfs.org.
Note: Merrill Lynch will liquidate the securities immediately for Stephen Wise and will transfer the net proceeds (after commission) to the synagogue’s account. The office will credit your synagogue account for the gross proceeds that the Synagogue receives. The synagogue will pay the commission for liquidation of the securities.
After the calendar year-end, you will receive a letter from the synagogue that will list your payments and donations for that year. For marketable securities, the synagogue will list the name of the security, the number of shares received into our Merrill Lynch account and the date received. You or your tax advisor may calculate the value of the securities transferred using an appropriate price on the date of transfer.
Donate by ACH or Wire Transfer
To make a gift by wire transfer, please contact our accounting department at accounting@swfs.org or (212) 877-4050, ext. 232. Please also let them know the amount so we can make sure it is credited correctly to the account.
Donate Through Your IRA-Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD)
If you are 70.5 or older, you can make gifts totaling up to $105,000 (as of calendar year 2024) to registered charities like Stephen Wise, tax free from your IRA. These qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) can qualify toward satisfying your required minimum distribution for the year. QCDs do not require that you itemize, which means that you may be able to take advantage of the higher standard deduction but still use a QCD for charitable giving. Married couples may take advantage of the distribution, for a total of $210,000 each year.
Donate by Planned Gift
To learn more about making Stephen Wise Free Synagogue the beneficiary of a bequest, trust, insurance policy, or other forms of gift planning, please read more about our planned giving opportunities.
Donate by Matching Gift
Many companies offer matching gift programs that will match gifts to Stephen Wise Free Synagogue made by their employees and their spouses. Please contact your firm’s human resources department for guidance.
Donate via a Family Foundation or Donor-Advised Fund
Donating to Stephen Wise Free Synagogue via a family foundation or donor-advised fund is easy. Simply contact your fund administrator to request a distribution form or download the form from your administrator’s website, and recommend that funds be distributed to Stephen Wise Free Synagogue.
Legal Name: Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
Address: 30 West 68th Street, New York, NY 10023
Federal Tax ID Number: #13-1628215
For more information and to confirm your donation, please contact Daniel Pensante at accounting@swfs.org or (212) 877-4050, ext. 232.
Planned Giving
As you think about your financial plans for the future, please think about how Stephen Wise Free Synagogue has enriched your life. Perhaps you remember…
- Passing the Torah to your children or grandchildren
- Celebrating the holidays together
- Finding comfort with clergy and friends
- Cooking a meal for the homeless
- Discovering Israel with us
- Finding the wisdom of the Torah
These meaningful experiences happen at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. Please help us ensure and safeguard Jewish life into the future.
Please join our Fund for the Future Legacy Society. By remembering Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in your will or estate plan, your great congregation will continue for many generations to come.
Click here for more information or call our office at (212) 877-4050, ext. 228.