According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, "Contributions continue to pour in for relief efforts in Haiti. Eight days after the massive earthquake struck, donors have contributed more than $305-million to 32 U.S. nonprofit groups. The pace of giving for Haiti is running ahead of the amount donated in the same period after the Asian tsunamis in 2004, but slower than the outpouring of gifts after the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005." The corporate world has also stepped up to the plate, donating cash as well as medicines and other basic products. Clearly their is much need in Haiti: for food, water, medicine and yes, even mattresses. But are we giving effectively and efficiently, or only on impulse? The New York Times is asking this morning if we are really thinking through … [Read more...]
Jewish Organizations: Too Many, or Not Different Enough?
by James Besser Two weeks ago, Jewish Week editor and publisher Gary Rosenblatt wrote a fascinating column about a 1950s report on redundancy and wastage in the American Jewish world, and how so many of the problems highlighted in the report continue. Do we really need an American Jewish Congress, an American Jewish Committee, a JCPA, an ADL and all the other alphabet soup agencies, with all their overlapping functions and turf battles? The issue of redundancy is important, but there’s an other side to the question that I think doesn’t get enough attention: the diminishing differences between organizations as they all chase the same pool of donors. Maybe what we need is more different organizations When I started reporting from Washington in the mid-1980s, there were some real … [Read more...]
Marketing Predictions 2010
With 2009 happily over, we can now focus on a new decade - hopefully one that brings us healthily back from the brink of economic implosion fueled by greed, avarice and very poor judgment. So with a modestly optimistic eye gazing out at the year ahead, here are my marketing predictions for 2010. We will see more nonprofits leveraging social media to capture more donors and their (at least initial) smaller gifts. Smart nonprofits will recognize that social media is not a solution for the stagnant or slipping major gifts category but that it should grow alongside and with traditional fundraising aimed at donors with greater capacity. The old adage to plant a lot of seeds makes good sense in this still-difficult fundraising climate. You never know which little shoot will grow into a big, sturdy … [Read more...]
A Plea for Less Guilt Inducing Philanthropy
You may think that this posting, my first in the year 2010, written just after the onslaught of end-of-year fundraising requests, is about the tone, content, and timing of those requests for our money. Indeed, one could have an interesting post about that, especially now that much of that previously wasted paper has been replaced by on-line requests which all come from the same script. “A week left”, “only 48 hours left” “last day to….” But I will let others with more expertise on the fundraising and development side tackle that. No, this posting is addressed to those of us who give money, and those of us who advise people how to do so. What concerns me is that those of us who write about philanthropy are increasingly doing so in a judgmental and guilt inducing manner. The guilt that I speak of … [Read more...]
The Need For a Funding Roadmap
Adene Sacks, program director at the Jim Joseph Foundation, writing in the JTA: What social entrepreneurs really need ... As a foundation program director, I learn a great deal from observing the fate of entrepreneurs in the private sector. In that world, it is standard practice that a venture investor commits to the development of the entire enterprise and its entrepreneur rather than a distinct product line. Before investment, a venture investor, in addition to determining the potential in a given market, looks carefully at the growth stage of the venture and abilities of the lead entrepreneur. ... The Jewish philanthropic world needs the kind of role articulation and active management that characterizes the world of private investment. The lack of these guideposts has serious … [Read more...]
Notes From the Underground
Google recently took the unusual step of explaining its search results on the word “Jew.” It seems that Google’s algorithms bring up a lot of anti-Semitic sites when searching for this particular word, as distinct from “Judaism” or “Jewish.” One of the factors in those algorithms is the number of visits to a particular site, which raises the issue of just how influential the anti-Semitic sites actually are. This touches on a perennial question in the Jewish community: is anti-Semitism a serious threat that needs to be combated forcefully, or is it a few hotheads making a lot of noise? One source of hard data about the popularity of anti-Semitic sites is Alexa, which supplies rankings and other metrics for any website. It doesn’t report numbers of hits or unique visitors, but its rankings make … [Read more...]
Coming Up Short on the Tzedakah Yardstick
by Jill Jacobs This month, Americans will sift through the countless solicitations in our mail and e-mail in order to decide where to give donations before the end-of-year tax-deduction deadline. Americans are often said to be the most generous people in the world, based on the percentage of the national gross domestic product that goes toward charitable causes. That said, the average American only gives away between 2% and 4% of his or her income. And how do American Jews measure up? In virtually every Jewish school, camp and youth movement, students make their own tzedakah boxes and collect change to support various organizations and causes. Jewish organizations encourage the celebration of births, bar and bat mitzvahs and weddings by making tribute gifts. The Talmud even identifies the laws … [Read more...]
The New Philanthropy (Giving Effectively in Challenging Times)
by Lisa Eisen The two decades leading up to the near-collapse of the world financial markets in late 2008 was a period of enormous growth in private philanthropy. This was especially true in the Jewish community, which saw the establishment of some nine thousand Jewish family foundations with assets totaling $30 billion. Then everything changed. The recession and the Madoff scandal created a perfect storm that severely damaged the philanthropic community; on average, private foundations are reported to have lost about 30 percent of their assets, and some smaller foundations reduced giving by as much as 60 percent. Times are tough, and surviving is not a question of simply downsizing and taking cover until the storm abates. Few believe 2010 will be a better year for philanthropy than 2009, … [Read more...]
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