What About a Charity’s Impact?

from The Chronicle of Philanthropy: Charities and Watchdog Groups Clash Over Monitoring Systems Battles between charities and the watchdog groups that help donors decide where to give escalated last week when a major trade association released drafts of two reports by scholars who say the watchdogs may do more harm than good. The studies, paid for and released by the Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation at a meeting here, charge that the watchdog groups use evaluation systems that are confusing and simplistic. What’s more, they said, because the watchdog groups are influential, charities often take steps that are not smart in the long-term simply to garner high ratings. The watchdog organizations they studied are the American Institute of Philanthropy, Better Business Bureau’s Wise... Continue Reading

New Programs Assist Doctors With Aliyah

Israel has a doctor shortage and as a result a new series of initiatives has been launched – spearheaded by the Jewish Agency (JAFI) – to facilitate the aliyah and absorption of doctors into the country’s health system. Within the framework of one of the programs, 30 doctors made aliyah this week and headed to JAFI’s Beit Canada absorption center in Ashdod. During their first year in Israel they will learn Hebrew and take a preparatory course for the Israeli medical licensing exam. Those who pass the exam will begin working in hospitals connected to the Clalit health fund and the Ministry of Health. A second group of 16 doctors will be arriving at Kibbutz Merhaviya in October as part of the “First Home in the Homeland” project. This program is aimed at doctors with more... Continue Reading

In Boca, There Goes the Neighborhood

from The Jewish Week: JCC, Synagogues In Holy War In Boca … the JCC’s decision has ignited a war in this heavily Jewish Broward County community. As synagogues around the country struggle with membership numbers and count on the High Holy Days to sign up congregants, thereby padding their coffers, rabbis here are seeing the JCC’s action as “usurpation” and an “invasion.” There are even fears that Boca synagogues might ban a representative of the Jewish federation, which funds the JCC, from making his annual High Holy Day pitch. And as JCCs around the country shed their old image of being merely a gym and a pool and instead search for a new mission – including offering services and religious programming, particularly aimed at the large numbers of unaffiliated Jews – the... Continue Reading

Happy Birthday Ralph!

Today, Ralph Goldman turns 96. And he can still be seen, as active as ever, bustling around Jerusalem, Blackberry in hand. Here in Israel, Ralph’s achievements are part of legend. He is the father of its JCC movement and founder of the Brookdale Institute and The Israel Center for Social Policy Studies, (now named the JDC Myers Institute and the Marilyn and Henry Taub Center for Social Policy Studies, respectively) and ESHEL. Before that he was a guiding spirit behind Malben, the program that gave Israel its first, rudimentary social services infrastructure in the early days of statehood. And before even that, he was the advisor to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion on relations with the U.S. Jewish community and the founder of the Israel Education Fund. Prior to statehood he was a member of Teddy Kollek’s... Continue Reading

PresenTense: Managing a Worldwide Staff

from NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network): “Google Was Our First Office”: Managing a Worldwide Staff [PresenTense] PT used technology from day one, says Simi Hinden, the director of the online community. A print magazine is one of PT’s main activities, providing an additional channel for the global community of young Jews to exchange ideas. “Google was our first office”, Simi explains. They used Google docs to help share documents with the volunteers worldwide as they worked on the magazine. They also used wufoo.com, which helps create online forms, process applications for programs, manage magazine applications, subscriptions and more. CRM PT started using Salesforce.com in 2008, taking advantage of its free licenses for nonprofits. Salesforce helps manage PT’s contacts,... Continue Reading

Social Media Usage Surges for Those 50+

According to the latest findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled – from 22% to 42% over the past year. And while social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, these older users have been especially enthusiastic about embracing new networking tools. Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88% – from 25% to 47%. During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100% – from 13% to 26%. By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13% – from 76% to 86%. “Young adults continue to be the heaviest users of social media, but their growth pales in comparison with recent gains... Continue Reading

Fundraising Continues Strong at Brandeis

Brandeis University enjoyed another strong fundraising year in fiscal year 2010, securing $72 million in donations. It was the fifth consecutive year in which the total exceeded $70 million. The target for the all-important Annual Fund, which supports student financial aid and other urgent needs, also was exceeded, by 30 percent. The positive results for the fiscal year that ended June 30 came despite continued economic turbulence around the world and a presidential transition at Brandeis. Jehuda Reinharz, PhD ’72, who has served as president since 1994, will step down on January 1, 2011, and be succeeded by Frederick Lawrence, who is currently dean of the George Washington University Law School. During fiscal year 2010, Brandeis received seven new commitments of $1 million to $4.25 million, including... Continue Reading

Poverty: A Key to Israel’s Economic Future

Making Israel Work an editorial from The Forward Ephraim Guttman illustrates both the face of poverty in Israel and a solution. Dressed in the uniform of the ultra-Orthodox – the requisite black suit and white shirt, which makes no concession to the scorching summer heat – he does not appear destitute in the classic sense. But like most men in his community, he was utterly unprepared for the modern workplace when he married two years ago at 18, with only a rudimentary education beyond the religious curriculum of a Jerusalem yeshiva. While Israel is eagerly joining the elite club of developed nations, and luxury buildings rise above the modest Bauhaus landscape that once defined Tel Aviv, and while stock offerings and real estate prices and the number of start-ups continue to soar, economic... Continue Reading

In Philly: The Debate on Funding Overseas Needs

from Jewish Exponent: Making Sense of the Donated Dollars When it comes to dollars designated for the Jewish state, is it more important to fund a soup kitchen or send more college students on a Birthright Israel experience? While it might not be an either/or proposition, these issues lie at the heart of an ongoing debate, especially as funds for Israel continue to decline. Now that Israel is considered a first-world economy with a growing philanthropic sensibility, should the focus still be on using communal dollars to assist Israel’s poor and disadvantaged? Or should those monies be utilized to bolster the Israel-Diaspora connection at a time when American Jews are increasingly becoming disconnected from Jewish life and the Jewish state? Locally, the tide seems to be shifting toward prioritizing... Continue Reading

Who Gives, Why and How

A new research study was released Tuesday that may change the way many nonprofits approach their fundraising budgets. The report, Heart of the Donor, Insights into Donor Motivation and Behavior for the 21st Century, uncovers valuable insights on donor behavior and preferences as well as insight into age, demographic and other factors. The research was commissioned and created by Russ Reid. As many would expect, the study finds that today’s most valuable donors – boomers and older donors – primarily give through the mail. But those in the 25-54 age range tended to give both online and through the mail. But according to the study, older donors are more generous. “The point is this: if the goal of a nonprofit is to effectively target today’s best donors, then they should... Continue Reading

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