Archive for August, 2008
JAFI and NBN Form New Partnership
Jewish Agency and Nefesh B’Nefesh
Reach Historic Agreement for Increasing Aliyah
from North America
A “one-stop Aliyah shop” has now been created by both organizations to streamline the Aliyah process for North American Olim
Nefesh B’Nefesh and the Jewish Agency for Israel have reached a successful conclusion to the mediation process which has been held between the two parties over the last several months. The two organizations announced today the signing of a new agreement outlining an unprecedented collaborative venture for North American Aliyah. In this new “Collaborative Venture”, Nefesh B’Nefesh will have primary operational responsibility for marketing and promotion. The Jewish Agency continues its exclusive responsibility for the Aliyah eligibility process with the appropriate authorities in Israel, and to pay the airfare of every new immigrant to Israel. (more…)
As You Teach, You Learn
It’s been a long, hot summer here in Jerusalem. For our American visitors, we hope you enjoy the long holiday weekend. We’ll “see you in September” as we begin to welcome new regular contributors, some new areas of focus and continue to bring you up-to-date, innovative and useful information on Jewish Philanthropy in a Web 2.0 World.
Shabbat Shalom
image: Mordechai Rosenstein, Advancement of Learning
Jewish Philanthropy in a Web 2.0 World is a registered trademark of eJewish Philanthropy.
Enabling Jewish Professionals
An opinion piece from the Forward:
Give Professionals Time To Dream
More often than not, young professionals in the non-profit world “do” what they “are.” In the Jewish communal world, this is constantly evident: The professionals who work in our communities also pray in our communities, socialize in our communities and volunteer in our communities.
They are the personification of the sense of community that we aspire to have felt by Jews throughout our community. But among this group of the Jewish community’s most dedicated, there is a serious problem that ought to cause alarm among the rest of us: Far too many young Jewish professionals are frustrated about their ability to make a difference.
Nonprofit Recruitment and Retention: An Action Agenda
According to this week’s Chronicle of Philanthropy, and based on a newly released report from John Hopkins University, values and mission are the selling points charity leaders should focus on when they seek to recruit new employees.
Charities, for example, ought to emphasize that the nonprofit workplace can offer a greater sense of personal fulfillment and flexibility than many jobs in the business world.
The report from Johns Hopkins also discusses how to handle practical matters about recruitment, too, like the salary considerations that may discourage young people from taking nonprofit jobs. It says that student-debt burdens often make it challenging for college graduates to pursue careers at charities when they typically can make more money at for-profit organizations.
Read the Chronicle article here and access the John Hopkins project findings here: Nonprofit_Recruitment_and_Retention.pdf
The Rise of Social Media
5 Questions For Social Media Fundraising, posed by Richard C. McPherson in his book Digital Giving:
- Is someone in your organization responsible for monitoring the online communities and blogs that actively discuss your issue? The findings must quickly reach someone able to spread the word to your supporters and program experts.
- Are your providing tools to your supporters so they can easily show their support online and invite others to join them? Include links to your Web site and email to important blogs or social networks.
- Have you asked your supporters to identify their favorite online groups? Do you know where your core supporters spend their time online, or are you guessing?
- Do you have a “Virtual Volunteer Committee” to monitor relevant online communities? Is someone assigned to write or post to blogs or viral networks?
- Do your organization’s email messages go beyond pushing out information and requesting donations? Provide interactive opportunities and customize email messages based on donor relationships.
Philanthropy and Politics
a guest post by David Roth and Ardie Geldman
The Olmert-Talansky affair has placed the interplay between philanthropy and politics on page one. Several months ago, the prime minister was accused of accepting a number of envelopes filled with cash from Morris Talansky, a US fund-raiser, for personal gain and/or political purposes. This was soon followed by another criminal investigation of Olmert involving the billing of multiple nonprofit organizations for the same overseas fund-raising trips. While these scandals have received extraordinary attention because they implicate a sitting prime minister, there are other examples of interaction between philanthropists and Israeli politics.
The name that most often comes to mind in this context is Arkadi Gaydamak. The Russian-born tycoon has donated millions to numerous causes in Israel, yet it is no secret that he has political ambitions. Last summer a bill was proposed in the Knesset, commonly known as the Gaydamak law, which would count charitable donations of more than NIS 1 million a year for the four years preceding an election as campaign expenses, should a mega-philanthropist choose to enter politics. (more…)
It’s Time to Focus on a New Generation
Back in June, at JCSA’s annual meeting, the focus was on Maximizing Technology. The keynote speaker for the event, complete with the incredible live-streaming JCSA provided, was Allison Fine, the author of Momentum. Now, in an opinion article from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Allison urges non-profits to take advantage of all that the millennial generation has to offer.
“The millennials are coming! The millennials are coming! In hallways, boardrooms, and conference calls across the nonprofit world, this warning cry is ringing out.
But too many in the nonprofit world forget that the millennials are already here. They are the people born from 1982 through the late 1990s dominating the world around us. They outnumber the baby boomers who are alive today.
Not preparing for and welcoming the millennials is more than a missed opportunity. It is a significant and perhaps devastating error in judgment by traditional organizations because they need millennials more than the millennials need them. If they are unhappy with their reception by nonprofit organizations, they will simply start their own efforts — overnight, online, at almost no cost.”
Read some of Allison’s JCSA comments here, JCSA Gets It!
The Chronicle article is based on Allison’s work with Social Citizens.
MediaWatch: Around Our World
from the London Jewish Chronicle:
Charities ‘not being open enough’
Jewish charities are the worst in the country at being transparent and open about their work, according to a survey by an independent agency.
Intelligent Giving (IG), a not-for-profit organisation which monitors charities, has examined this year’s accounts and annual reports of around 500 charities, including 23 focused on Jewish causes. The 10 charities with the lowest scores out of the 500 surveyed by IG this year were all Jewish.
Last year, a survey by the agency found similar results.
from Boundless Drama of Creation:
eJP note: We previously wrote that at the 2008 Summit in Washington, D.C., Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life announced a $10.7 million grant from The Jim Joseph Foundation to expand the Experiential Educator Exemplar (E³) Program and to support the Campus Entrepreneurs Initiative.
During a recent program at Camp Ramah, Seth, along with some professionals from the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, had the chance to speak with two of the Hillel team that developed this program. His observations:
and from Haaretz:
Conference brings together virtual Jewish world in real-time
More than 200 Jewish bloggers, most of them immigrants from North America, attended the First International Jewish Bloggers Convention in Jerusalem this past Wednesday. Attendees seemed as much if not more interested in meeting fellow bloggers than in panel discussions dedicated to the agenda of taking Jewish blogging to the next level.
For our take on the Conference check out, How Do You Measure Success.
How Do You Measure Success
Last night was the First Annual (?) International Jewish Bloggers Convention.
Some 200 of us showed up to this Nefesh B’Nefesh sponsored event; and according to their communications director, an additional 1230 participated through the Webcast.
Was it successful? The numbers alone certainly make it so. But a careful reading of all the many posts around today gives it mixed reviews. (note to NBN: in evaluating last night’s program, be certain to check them and the public comments out).
Of course, it would be helpful to know what NBN’s goals were for the evening.
To help ‘motivate’ bloggers to deliver an Aliyah or Hasbara message? Quite frankly, even to blogs like eJP who do not generally address Aliyah, NBN was preaching to the choir. A friend told me that out of the 200 in attendance, there were three native-born Hebrew speakers. I doubt the crowd who came does not champion Aliyah.
If the event was a purely social and networking evening it should certainly be deemed a success.
However, the audience was so diverse with how and why they use the blog-o-sphere, the panelists were almost uniformly off-topic and many were clearly unprepared, and we were bogged down with a very basic and tedious marketing presentation by the MFA (where NO Web 2.0 strategies were even mentioned), it was hard to follow the evening flow.
As to all the comments about the make-up of the panel, the agenda being very “right” oriented, I’ll mostly stay away from that. Except to say, I was told by NBN everyone was welcome. I have no doubt. But where this event was promoted here in Israel guaranteed a certain audience and the absence of others (including all the incredible native Hebrew bloggers).
Anyway, just a few suggestions as to missing pieces I would like to see, because after all, professional conferences should also be educational. And as bloggers, we are professionals.
Discuss “tachlis”. Some ideas:
- how do you increase readership beyond the obvious linking and comments
- what are the pros and cons of the various blogging platforms
- are advertisements, Google AdWords, links to Amazon, etc right for your blog
- should social networks be used to reinforce your blog; with some of the people in attendance last night this alone would have made for an informative and lively evening.
All in all, I think it was truly a great beginning and hope NBN goes forward with this endeavor. I’ll certainly come and support it.
The New 990
Completing the first major overhaul in a generation of the informational return that most charities must file with the federal government, the Internal Revenue Service released this week final instructions for the redesigned Form 990.
The IRS modified some language in the instructions, including tinkering with the definition of a “key employee” to limit the number of executives whose compensation must be reported.
Read more from The Chronicle of Philanthropy. And in all cases, consult your organization’s tax advisor or attorney to see how/if these changes will effect you.
