As a follow-up to yesterday's post, The Wired Wealthy, we bring you this guest post by Katya Andresen, who summarizes the key points of this new survey and study.

Why You Need the Wired Wealthy

The economic news is sobering. Foundations are cutting back on grants as their endowments shrink. Corporations are reducing philanthrophic programs. What’s a fundraiser to do? One of my all-too-predictable answers, of course, is to look for new audiences online. That won’t surprise you - urging nonprofits to get online is part of my job and my belief system. There are younger, generous people online that you probably aren’t reaching in your other outreach. A typical online ...

"Are some charities more worthy than others? This seems to be the implication of a bill before the state Legislature that would require philanthropic foundations to document the so-called diversity of the charities they support. The inference is that the more diverse a charity's board of directors and staff, the more worthy it is of philanthropic funding. As a private foundation, Koret seeks to maximize our impact in achieving the philanthropic goals developed by our board of directors. We look for nonprofit partners who will produce the most positive impact in carrying out our initiatives, whether in the area of K-12 education reform, arts and culture, or strengthening organizations that serve the Jewish and general communities." ...

Affluent people are increasingly likely to use the Internet to make their charitable donations, according to results of a study released today. But charities are also turning off some of their biggest donors — people who give $1,000 or more. Some charities send too many messages to donors who say they don’t want them, while others don’t take advantage of the interest many donors express in expanding their online interaction with nonprofit organizations. Two key findings:

• Four out of five donors said they had made a charitable gift online, and a little more than half, 51 percent, said they prefer to use the Internet for their donations. Some 46 percent said that they expect to make a greater percentage of their charitable ...
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  Tags: web 2.0

(eJP note: this letter was received yesterday, after Shabbat began here in Israel; it is posted in full. Shavuah tov to all) Dear Friends, Articles appeared in today's press concerning a proposed plan to close the Aliyah Department. We would like to emphasize that the Aliyah Department will not be closed. The Department's mission, which is no less relevant and important today as it was in the past, and perhaps even more so today, will continue to be the spearhead of our actions. Promoting aliyah is our top priority, as it has been for the 80 years of the Jewish Agency's existence and especially since the establishment of the State of Israel. In light of the changes that ...

A media firestorm has erupted in Israel during the past twenty-four hours over the "outing" of an internal working paper by JAFI Director-General, Moshe Vigdor. As we posted yesterday, and reported in both the Hebrew and English versions of Haaretz, The Jewish Agency is planning to close one of its most historically important branches, the Immigration and Absorption Department, as part of a radical restructuring plan. Then this morning, from the Jerusalem Post, two related articles: Jewish Agency officials angrily denied on Thursday media reports suggesting that the agency had committed to dismantling its Aliya Department and scaling back its commitment to aliya. "This was an evil leak that caused damage," said agency head Ze'ev Bielski. "Aliya is our lifeblood. I have ...

Hag Purim Sameach

According to an article in today's Haaretz, "The Jewish Agency is planning to close one of its most historically important branches, the Immigration and Absorption Department, as part of a radical restructuring plan, Agency sources said Wednesday. The plan, which Agency officials consider to be a major change in the identity of the organization that predates the creation of Israel and has existed in its current form since 1948, will introduce reforms aimed at addressing a series of financial and political blows that have plagued the organization in recent years." "The Agency has been taking punches from every direction in recent years; politically, organizationally and [in terms of] its image," a senior Agency official said. Donations made by individuals in the ...

Last week was the Inaugural Conference hosted by The Center for the Study of Philanthropy in Israel at Hebrew University. Dr. Leslie Lenkowsky, Director of Graduate Programs at The Center on Philanthropy (Indiana University) spoke eloquently to the (mostly) academic attendees, focusing largely on who gives, why they give and how they give. You can read about it here and here. In today's Jerusalem Post is a follow-up interview, "The Gain of Give and Take", between Professor Lenkowsky and Ruthie Blum. In response to her question, what constitutes good fundraising, Professor Lenkowsky replies: "A good fundraiser understands that his or her job is not only raising money for his own organization, but enhancing the culture of philanthropy in a community ...

Billed as a "a one-stop shop for tools to help advance your organization's mission in a smart, cost-efficient way," the newly launched Google for Non-Profits portal offers quick links to the most commonly used tools in the Google suite of services. It also highlights some cost-saving benefits that are available only to nonprofits. This site features ideas and tutorials for how you can use Google tools to promote your work, raise money and operate more efficiently. And to get inspired, you'll also find examples of innovative ...

The shekel-dollar exchange rate continues its downward trend, falling to NIS 3.36/$. (as of 4:30 pm IST, Wednesday) At the recent JAFI Board of Governor's Meeting we heard about the significant effect the falling dollar was having on this year's budget. On CNN yesterday, an in-depth report on American citizens working in Europe paid with dollar salaries and how the falling value effects their everyday purchases at the market. Now, today in Haaretz, an article on how this historic low is challenging the local NGO community. "Hundreds of local social charities and nonprofit groups that depend on funding from abroad fear that the continuing decline of the dollar exchange rate, combined with the growing U.S. economic crisis, will force them to ...