Tzedaka is important to Matthew Davis, an 11th grade student from Randolph — so important that rather than hang out with his peers during his free time, he spends it with other Jewish teens, discussing which Jewish causes deserve their charitable giving.

“I want to help people. I see this as training for the rest of my life,” he said.

Davis is one of 36 teens in this year’s Teen Tzedaka Program, a joint project of JCC MetroWest, United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey, the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, and the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life. Begun in December 2005, the program’s goal is to develop a new generation of philanthropists.

Last year, 18 teens piloted the program, which allows them to pool their own contributions and matching gifts and distribute the funds to initiatives that they study through the course of the program.

The family of philanthropist Herb Iris, who died in April, has just given the project a major boost. The Herb Iris Youth and Family Philanthropy Endowment is a permanent fund that will support teen and family programming and in particular the newly named Iris Teen Tzedaka Program. The endowment has been launched with an up-front gift from the Iris family of $150,000 and $150,000 in matching funds. The match has been fully met by other donors.

“My husband was very concerned with young people and leading them to giving,” said his widow, Milly Iris. “Giving is what he was all about.”

When she decided to do something for the community in his name, this project seemed the perfect fit.

“Herb was a role model,” she said. “I lived with the man for 50 years. He never talked about himself. His motto was, ‘Get out of yourself, and go do it.’ But he felt young people might not continue to be so interested in the Jewish community. He felt, if they’re not learning it from their families, how about if they teach it to their families?”

“Herb Iris did many many things for our community. He was past president of his synagogue, UJA campaign chair, and a prime builder of our community – bricks and mortar and everything else,” said Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey. “He was so very concerned about Jewish peoplehood in a global sense as well as a local sense; and he was concerned about the next generation picking up the mantle. This teen Tzedaka program really implements Herb Iris’ two passions: his sense of responsibility toward the Jewish people and engaging the next generation.”

Participation in the program is limited to 18 new teens each year. (Teens can stay in the program through high school.) All are required to contribute $200; each gift is matched, previously by an anonymous donor, and now by the endowment fund, and then all of the gifts are pooled together. Teens take the time to learn about local Jewish agencies, and they eventually decide together where to donate the money.

The New Jersey program is part of a national trend of youth philanthropy that has been traced back to 1997, when the Community Foundation of San Diego created the Community Youth Foundation. The next year saw the start of two more initiatives, the Jewish Youth Philanthropy Institute in Washington, DC, and the B’nai Tzedek Teen Philanthropy Program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation in Western Massachusetts. By last spring, 51 similar programs were in operation around the country.

In the spring, four delegates from New Jersey attended the first national conference on youth philanthropy.

Earlier this month, Milly Iris attended a meeting of the Iris Teen Tzedaka Program. She commented on the teens’ excitement and enthusiasm. “There’s a lot of positive stuff there,” she said, and added, “Believe me, Herb’s presence was there.”