Max’s Vision Continues

from Crain’s Detroit Business: Carrying on Max’s vision Fishers continue legacy of giving Five years after his death, Max Fisher’s philanthropic, civic and entrepreneurial legacy lives on – through his wife, five children and, soon, his grandchildren. The Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, one of the largest family foundations in the state, with assets of $235.9 million at the beginning of 2010, continues to support many of the causes Fisher supported during his lifetime, including Jewish communities at home and abroad, the city of Detroit and local arts institutions. Fisher left some philanthropic values for his wife and children, but no specific instructions. … The foundation has made grant commitments totaling $53.8 million since 2007-2008, when distributions... Continue Reading

New Data Privacy Law You Need to Know

from Philantopic: Mass Morass: New Data Privacy Law There’s a new Massachusetts regulation that affects nonprofits that access or store personal information provided by residents in the state. Do you accept gifts from Bay State donors and process their credit cards? Process or save copies of their checks? Are you seeing or holding the Social Security numbers of constituents? A “yes” to any of these brings your organization within the purview of Title 201 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations Section 17.00, Standards for the Protection of Personal Information of Residents of the Commonwealth. And compliance isn’t pretty. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Public Policy Update

The Association of Fundraising Professionals Winter 2010 Public Policy Update contains information on the proposed caps on the charitable deduction, the IRA Rollover provision, the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency and the charitable mileage deduction. It also includes state issues in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. The update also covers the Canadian government’s recognition of National Philanthropy Day and the elimination of the disbursement quota. Follow this link for the update. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Changes in Cross-Border Giving in Europe

from Civil Society Fundraising: Continental drift: Changes in cross-border giving in Europe The world did not have cross-border charitable giving in mind when it organised itself into separate nations. Charities, over the centuries, have been typically local or national although a relatively small number have always been truly international.  However, in recent years this has changed as both individual donors and civil society organisations have become so much more mobile in how they give and how they operate. The amount of cross-border donations has increased. Correspondingly, so too have the frustrations of donors who naturally expect a tax benefit for their gifts.  For obvious reasons, governments have always been very reluctant, to say the least, to grant tax relief to a donor making a gift to... Continue Reading

The Challenge of Connecting With Younger Jews

from The Fundermentalist: What do the chairs of Hillel and the Jewish Federations of North America have in common? … According to Kathy Manning, who took over as the JFNA’s chairperson back in the fall, the federations are looking at four components of the challenge of connecting with younger Jews: Jews now are on the move. While it might have been a given in the past that Jews would either stay where they were or move to one of the major U.S. cities that have major Jewish populations like New York, now it seems more and more of them are moving west and south, to communities that do not have great Jewish infrastructure. Young people these days also have far more choices than they ever did, and they are “less frightened” about their survival than their grandparents might... Continue Reading

1st Ethiopian Storied Haggada Released

from The Jerusalem Post: Ethiopian Jewry gets its first Haggada The historic saga of Ethiopian Jewry, with its unique traditions and customs, will be incorporated into the mainstream Pessah story for the first time in a new Haggada written by Ethiopian-Jewish history expert Rabbi Menachem Waldman. Set to reach bookstores this weekend, the 195-page Haggada features prayers and commentaries on the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt translated from Amharic into Hebrew, as well as an account of how Ethiopia’s Beta Israel community escaped to Israel first via Sudan in Operation Moses in 1984-85 and later during Operation Solomon in 1991. The book also includes extensive photographs and detailed explanations of Ethiopian Jewish traditions and customs connected with Pessah. [Translate] Bookmark:  Read More →

Interview With Alan Hoffmann

from Haaretz: Alan Hoffman: Immigration in the future will be out of ‘choice’ The Jewish Agency’s recently publicized shift in priorities – putting Jewish identity building ahead of immigration to Israel – does not mean the agency is abandoning its traditional role, according to incoming director-general Alan Hoffmann. While slowly revising its agenda toward a stronger focus on educational programs and initiatives connecting world Jewry with Israel, the organization’s final goal ultimately remains to promote aliyah, he asserted. “Even with the new paradigm, the Jewish Agency is creating aliyah,” Hoffmann, 64, said Monday in his first newspaper interview since taking over the position last week. “The aliyah of the future is aliyah of choice from the... Continue Reading

St. Louis Federation Hosts Collaboration Forum

1st Community Collaboration Forum Draws 140 Rabbis, Staff, Leaders, Community Members A crowd of more than 140 professional and lay leaders representing St. Louis Jewish agencies, congregations, schools and organizations recently attended “Community Forum on Collaboration”, hosted by Jewish Federation of St. Louis. The purpose was to generate discussions about new opportunities for Jewish entities to work together and create partnerships that build trust and add value for everyone in order to insure a thriving Jewish community. The keynote speaker was Rabbi Hayim Herring, a Ph. D. in organization and management. He began his address with a video depicting the way in which the world is changing exponentially – with technology as the driver. He said we are living in “the age of the Four A’s:... Continue Reading

Putting Jewish Women on the Map

From Emma Lazarus’ poem engraved on the Statue of Liberty, to the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, to Barbra Streisand’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – Jewish women’s history is written on the streets of North America. Just in time for Women’s History Month, the Jewish Women’s Archive (JWA) has created On the Map, a new way to collect and explore Jewish women’s history using the powerful combination of crowdsourcing and Google Maps. There is a human impulse to connect with history in a physical way, one that compels us to build monuments that mark the place of historically significant stories. Traditionally, these have been the stories of “great men.” Many important stories – women’s stories – go unheralded. The Jewish Women’s Archive... Continue Reading

Charities: Give up Madoff-Tainted Donations

an editorial from Boston.com (Boston Globe): Charities: Give up Madoff-tainted donations With a court ruling that makes it unlikely that investors in the $65 billion scheme can keep more than what they handed over to Madoff in the first place, Boston charities stand to lose substantial support from philanthropies including Carl Shapiro’s family foundation. Although devastating, the ruling is necessary to bring restitution to Madoff’s other victims. … Shapiro made $1 billion from Madoff over four decades.. Like a few other investors, Shapiro withdrew more money from his Madoff account than he deposited over the years. Last week, a federal judge ruled that investors could only claim what they put in, meaning that Shapiro and his foundation may have to pay back their profits, jeopardizing... Continue Reading

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