Two stories making news in a very quiet week... from JTA: Officials at aid groups mull more cuts in FSU The North American Jewish federation system’s overseas partners are warning of a brewing financial crisis facing the organized Jewish community in the former Soviet Union. Steven Schwager, the chief executive officer of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and Irv Smokler, its president, sent a joint letter last Friday to the top professionals at Jewish federations across North America saying the JDC was in dire need of more money from them. The JDC, which focuses its efforts in the former Soviet Union on delivering social services and community-building activities, is facing a significant budget deficit, according to the letter. The organization already has had to cut … Continue Reading
Breaking The Myths of Innovation
by Bill Robinson Well, it’s a beautiful summer day here in Reisterstown, MD as the fellows and faculty of Project InCiTE take the first steps toward tearing down the myths of innovation to which we have succumbed over the last decade. Fifteen years ago, I entered the world of Jewish education as a full-time researcher for arguably the first national philanthropic initiative - Mort Mandel’s Council for Initiatives in Jewish Education (CIJE) - bringing innovations from general education into a moribund Jewish world. Today, I see our world filled with dozens of new philanthropic initiatives offering innovative solutions for engaging Jews. Great strides have been made and yet at times all seems to remain the same. Everyone is still searching for the next great innovation. We have … Continue Reading
Finding the Right Person: The Search for an Agency Executive
A few days ago I received a phone call from a colleague who asked me to discuss an issue that one of his clients was confronting. Apparently the organization was repeating a search for an executive director following a somewhat negative experience. He wanted to know if there was an approach that could be helpful to them in their search for the right person to provide professional leadership for the organization. Actually, the search process can be a wonderful opportunity for the non-profit organization to look at its purposes, goals, objectives and programs. It is difficult to engage the chief executive officer of an organization without being very clear about the purpose of the organization and the services provided to the community. Prior to formally beginning the search process it is … Continue Reading
Time to Get Away and Recharge
President Obama and family have decamped to Martha’s Vineyard for the remainder of August where it is reported he hopes to get some much needed rest and take time to re-evaluate his strategies for dealing with the various crises that await him. I like the idea that he recognizes the value of “down-time” and how important it is to step away from the day-to-day to be able to look at things from a fresh vantage point. While most of us will not be so lucky to end our summer on Martha’s Vineyard, many of us will get away to relax and to ponder the upcoming issues and challenges that await our return. For those of us who work in the nonprofit marketing and communications field, the challenges we face [alongside our peers] this autumn are already being described as very difficult and not likely … Continue Reading
Tamarack Camps Provides $1.1 Million in Financial Aid
While Tamarack Camps has assisted families in getting children to camp since its founding as the Fresh Air Society in 1902, the summer of 2009 set new records by providing $1.1 million in financial aid to half of the children going to its summer camps. For the first time in its history, the Michigan-based Jewish camping agency expended more than $1 million in financial aid - an amount greater than any other Jewish camp in the world - in order to fulfill its mission of never denying a Jewish child the opportunity to attend camp because of financial circumstances. Roughly half of Tamarack’s estimated $1.1 million in aid has been made possible by a grant from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, the umbrella planning and oversight organization for Detroit’s Jewish community. The … Continue Reading
The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming… Wait, They’re Here!
"Russian-speaking Jews live all over the world, from former Soviet republics to North America to Israel, where they make up a significant percentage of the population. As a group they have been successful in their new homes, yet many are disconnected from Jewish life." So reads the program description for a workshop, The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming… Wait, They’re Here!, planned for the UJC's upcoming GA this November. In Vancouver, the Center for Leadership Initiatives seeks a contract part time Program Coordinator to manage, design and implement leadership development programs targeted at individuals from Russian-speaking Jewish families. And In WestHampton Long Island, 500 (mostly) Russian speaking Jewish Americans gathered on August 9th for A Taste of Limmud FSU: 150 … Continue Reading
NewsBits: It’s a Women’s World
from The New York Times: The Power of the Purse There are more women controlling more wealth in the U.S. than ever before. (Of those in the wealthiest tier of the country - defined by the I.R.S. as individuals with assets of at least $1.5 million - 43 percent are women.) And unlike the women who preceded them - old-school patrons who gave to the museum and the symphony and their dead husbands’ alma maters - these givers are more likely to use their wealth deliberately and systematically to aid women in need... In general, women give differently than men. They are less likely to want their names on things and more likely to give as part of drives (large ones, like Women Moving Millions, and smaller ones, like living-room “giving circles”) that include other women. And they tend to … Continue Reading
Transparency: Ensuring You Register For The Right Game
by Robert I. Evans & Avrum D. Lapin As we cope with the last days of summer and look to the High Holidays, we are also seeing some increasing activity by state attorneys general and other officials around significantly changing policies in the charitable sector. Compliance and required paperwork for charitable registration in states across the U.S. have increased dramatically in recent years, but what is more critical are the changing regulations that vary widely from state to state and cause even the best of us to have a degree of uncertainty about compliance. Looking at the glass half-full, states legitimately contend that stricter rules ensure transparency. And this has truly been a year in which donors have invoked the word transparency and the philanthropic marketplace has changed as … Continue Reading
The Future of Jewish Media
from The New York Jewish Week: A "McKinsey Study" on the Jewish Web In these troubling times for the Jewish community and the media industry, the Internet is a vast resource - but also an underutilized one. To provide a bit of perspective, 4Wall, in conjunction with its Jewish initiative JInsider, released the Jewish Internet Metric Study, which takes a business-oriented, top-level look at the Jewish Web using the practices of the renowned consulting firm McKinsey as a guide. With this analysis the community can better understand the business issues, the competitive situation, and the hurdles and opportunities for sustainability on the Web. The report will create a basis for productive discussion on what individual or cooperative strategy might be considered. Here are some key … Continue Reading
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