from The Jewish Week:

Making A Jewish Case For Giving

If our destinies in the coming year can be changed by repentance, prayer and charity, then let’s start out with the easiest of the three: tzedakah.

… If Jewish philanthropies spent more time educating donors about Judaism and worrying less about direct mail and campaign slogans, we’d find Jewish giving on the rise. Sadly, many Jewish leaders and communal professionals, including fundraisers, have virtually no Jewish literacy when it comes to the laws of tzedaka. They lack the elemental Jewish language to make the case from a Jewish framework.