JAFI Provides Assistance in the South
Since the start of Israel’s operation in Gaza tens days ago, the Jewish Agency has been providing ongoing aid to residents of the area under attack. The main areas of focus are:
Fund for Victims of Terror
As of today, the Jewish Agency has issued checks to 41 families, and the number of requests, and the providing of assistance, continues on a daily basis. Those eligible for the assistance are people who have been physically injured or whose homes were badly damaged in a rocket attacks, and is sponsored by the UJC and Keren Hayesod. The grant is used for immediate needs including temporary housing, clothes and other incidentals.
Respite for youth living in the areas under attack
Continuing earlier work in the Sderot area the Jewish Agency is working to provide daily respite to the tens of thousands of children living in the area under attack. Already, 1,000 youth have been taken on a trip to Jerusalem where they toured the city. The Jewish Agency hopes to significantly expand the program in the coming days.
Hosting families
Since the beginning of the Gaza operation, 370 families have offered to host families from the South, with additional offers pouring in every day. Additionally some 150 children participating in Net@, a Jewish Agency computer training program for high school students living in Sderot, Ashkelon and Beersheva, are being hosted at the homes of other Net@ families who reside in the Center and North of Israel.
Computers for kids
With school cancelled in the entire area under attack and children stuck at home, the Jewish Agency has partnered with several Israeli companies, including Amdocs Israel and Electra, to purchase computers and deliver them to families in need.
Change Is In the Air at JAFI
With Jewish Agency Chairman Ze’ev Bielski’s expected election to the Knesset in February, JAFI will be looking for a new head - and apparently the search has begun.
Haviv Retting reports in today’s Jerusalem Post that former UN ambassador Danny Gillerman has turned down a request to run for the position and that the list of those being considered are not the politico names you may have expected.
Gillerman turns down offer of Jewish Agency chairmanship.
A Call to Action
Yesterday in New York, under the auspices of the Jewish Funders Network, thirty five of the largest Jewish foundations gathered for an emergency meeting to develop a plan that would anonymously help Jewish nonprofits affected by the year’s ever-growing financial mess and help restore the community’s faith in its values. With losses in the Jewish world estimated at $2.5 billion Mark Charendoff, JFN’s president, indicated those in attendance were determined to “try to reverse some of the harm and try to repair some of the damage.”
In announcing the meeting the JFN had this to say:
“We are all shaken in the wake of the economic crisis and the recent Madoff scandal which has disproportionately affected the Jewish funding community and in turn dozens of Jewish non-profit organizations in the United States, Israel and the Former Soviet Union. Some foundations and funders have seen their investments evaporate over night and grantees are struggling to determine where the funds will come from to support their essential programming. Some of you were counting on funding partners who are no longer there.”
During the three-hour meeting the foundations decided to set up a clearinghouse to allow nonprofits to share resources, publicize their needs and “sound the alarm” if they are in danger. The foundations will also establish a pro-bono group of accountants, lawyers, development professionals and strategic planners to provide expert help to those organizations who are currently resource challenged. Additionally, they will begin a process to raise money that will help create bridge financing to assist those organizations (nonprofits and foundations) more immediately affected.
“It’s like putting out the fire in the kitchen of the Titanic while the ship is going down,” said Felicia Herman, the executive director of Natan, speaking about the fallout from the Madoff related losses in the midst of a larger global financial crisis.
Here’s what The Washington Post had to say, Jewish Charities Scramble to Cover Losses to Trade.
Is This The Time to Solicit Donations for Non-Profit Organizations?
This week several clients have asked me if they should stop raising funds for their non-profit organizations given the present situation. Tens of foundations and philanthropists whose funds have just disappeared wonder if is this an opportune time to ask people to contribute funds even for health, education and social welfare programs? Or is this the time to engage these people in understanding how donations can be responsibly employed, and how the organization can be accountable for its use of these valued funds?
It is true, philanthropists who were victims of the largest financial scam in history may be “gun shy” and concerned with their ability to continue making contributions. However, true philanthropists will want to keep working to make the world a better place to live.
The challenge is now in the hands of non-profit organizations, their professional staff members, and their lay leaders and donors, to demonstrate they are using the funds correctly, prudently and are completely transparent. The focus must now shift to engaging people who care about the purposes and goals of the non-profit organizations. It is all about relationship.
4,000 Israeli Nonprofits in Danger of Closing
According to a survey published yesterday by Ben-Gurion University’s Israeli Center for Third Sector Research, 4,000 local charities and nonprofit organizations are in danger of closing in the next several months due to the growing global economic crisis.
The Center estimates a third of Israel’s approximately 30,000 registered amutot (non-profits) have already been forced to significantly reduce or cancel programs; staff has been reduced at 15% and an additional 20% expect to do so in the near term.
In response to the survey release Dr. Yaron Sokolov, director of the Israel Civic Leadership Association, said “We have been hit by three factors: the weak value of the dollar, the global economic crisis and reduced assistance from government.”
Israeli Foundation Closes
The Yeshaya Horowitz Association, which predominately funds applied research projects in universities and hospitals in Israel, and had all their assets invested with Madoff has closed.
Bar-Ilan University appears to be one of their largest recipients with a $3 million gift in 2007 and an additional $3 million promised for this year. Hebrew University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer are also recipents of the Association’s funding.
A Fundraiser Extraordinaire
An inspiring and thought provoking piece on her philanthropic journey by Dame Vivien Duffield, DBE, who chairs the London based Clore Duffield Foundation - a significant funder of programs (including) supporting children, society’s more vulnerable individuals, leadership and arts programs in the UK; a benefactor of numerous initiatives here in Israel (Clore Israel Foundation) and a major supporter of the Jewish Community Centre for London.
Giving and getting: a view from both sides of the fence
My Foundation director tells me that she’s having a lot of meetings with elephants at the moment. Not real ones I hasten to add. But she describes meetings in which capital plans are talked up with great confidence and no mention is made of the difficult fundraising climate in which these buildings are to be constructed: the ‘elephant in the room’ is the global economic downturn which is affecting us all and which will clearly affect many major capital projects in the coming months. She could as easily tell me that she is taking meetings with ostriches who are placing their heads resolutely in the sand. Fundraising is not an easy task right now, but honesty and objectivity are clearly the best approaches when talking to funders.
My Trustees and I are probably at the other end of the spectrum: highly sensitive to the economic climate and constantly talking of it. No-one is immune to the real and predicted losses – but will our giving be affected? I prefer to think of things rather differently: I think what will be affected is our focus. We will be loyal to our existing beneficiaries but we may have a new focus on programme rather than capital funding and we may actually be making more donations but for smaller amounts.
Click the link to read Dame Duffield’s complete thoughts and learn about the Foundation’s exciting new Social Leadership Programme.
Hadassah Is Really Hurting
You know things must be really tough for Hadassah if Nancy Falchuk, Hadassah’s National President, releases an urgent solicitation request on a Friday evening - one of the worst times in the U.S. news cycle for exposure.
Here are some excerpts (emphasis eJP):
Protecting our mission and our values takes more than planning. That’s why we need every member of Hadassah, and generous non-members as well, to be involved. This a critical moment in which your financial support is so urgent.
I’m asking every one of you to give as much as you can. And while all gifts are welcome, to protect the Hadassah body as a whole, we especially need unrestricted funds, not dedicated to any our wonderful specific projects.
I appeal to you directly, simply, humbly. We need your IMMEDIATE support to continue our projects in Israel. To save lives every day. To educate the next generation that will lead Israel in the years and decades to come.
The Friday Morning List
Officially acknowledging exposure:
- The Jewish Community Centers Association of North America (endowment and pension fund) - amount not yet public
correction: Yesterday we indicated a $39 million exposure for The Jewish Funds for Justice. Following publication of our newsletter, it was brought to our attention the correct figure is $3.9 million. It was nothing more than a typo - we corrected our Website immediately and will indicate such when today’s newsletter is published. We apologize for any panic.
Federations weighing in with no known liability:
- Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore
- Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta
- United Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh
This from JAFI:
The Jewish Agency is closely following the Madoff affair. It is still too early to reach any conclusions as to its effect on the Jewish Agency.
Finally, even Uncle Sam is taking a meaningful hit - this from the Associated Press:
Even Uncle Sam may get burned by Bernard Madoff. Investors who lost their fortunes in Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme will end up paying far less in taxes and may even be eligible for refunds, according to accounting experts. By some estimates, the Internal Revenue Service could be out as much as $17 billion in lost tax revenue.
A Watershed Moment
We, along with most other publications in the Jewish (and broader) worlds, have been more focused this past week on organizations, foundations and individuals with losses seven figures and up. Certainly many small donors and nonprofits have also been affected. Several have either already closed, or announced plans to close over the next 30 days or so. In Israel, I’ve heard that 60 amutot (nonprofit organizations) are at risk and may not be able to continue to operate. There is legitimate concern and pain being felt.
One foundation in particular, The Chais Family Foundation, has a huge footprint in the international Jewish world and their absence will be keenly felt by all. In some cases, Chais was a program’s prime funder.
Just to provide some depth to the ripple already being felt, here is a list provided to us of groups that have received funding from the Chasis Family Foundation. As you can see, the grantees are pretty diverse - in size, mission and geography - and is probably not complete. We personally know of two additional groups slated to receive funding for the first time in 2009. If you are familiar with others, feel free to post as a comment. And if you are one of the fortunate for whom 2008 was reasonably staple, perhaps you can help pick up the pieces.
Just like a tsunami, we will be assessing the damage and dealing with the fallout for quite a while.
