The Natan Fund, a giving circle based in New York City, celebrates a milestone anniversary tonight with an event marking 15 years of engaging young Jewish philanthropists in collaborative giving to support Jewish and Israeli social innovation.

Natan began in the fall of 2002 as a group of about 20 people who wanted to have a more hands-on, collaborative, inspiring experience of giving. Incubated for its first three years at the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and supported by a small group of foundations that believed in the importance of empowering young people to give thoughtfully and collaboratively, Natan became independent in 2005. Many of its original members are still involved – in fact, more than a quarter of current Natan members have been involved for over a decade. Over the years, more than 200 members in their mid-20s to mid-50s have come together to allocate over $12.5 million to 244 innovative, grassroots initiatives in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world.

Natan’s core strategy has been to provide early-stage funding to nascent initiatives and visionary social entrepreneurs, usually through open calls for proposals that elicit responses from hundreds of applicants each year. Natan has thus occupied a unique space in the Jewish philanthropic landscape, in many cases providing grantees with their first institutional support.

In North America, Natan’s grantees over the past 15 years have represented the cream of the crop of the Jewish innovation ecosystem, fundamentally transforming the ways that people connect to Jewish life in the 21st century. Organizations like Sefaria, Hazon, BimBam (formerly G-dcast), Moishe House, Keshet, most of the members of the Jewish Emergent Network (and the JEN itself), InterfaithFamily, Footsteps, JDub Records, and many, many more have blazed new trails and upended traditional notions of who can be part of Jewish communities and what Jewish expression can look like in a new era.

In Israel, Natan’s grantees have focused on creating new models of economic development for all of Israel’s citizens, revitalizing Jerusalem, and developing innovative approaches to telling Israel’s story and combating its delegitimization. About a third of Natan’s funding over the years has gone to Israeli organizations like Olim BeYachad, Tsofen, Israel Story, Unistream, Leket Israel, Gvahim, Innovation: Africa, Toldot Yisrael, Jewgether, Jindas, Noa Tanua, c.a.t.a.m.on., and The Jerusalem Parliament.

And in Jewish communities around the world, especially in Europe, grantees such as Paideia, Limmud International, Centropa, Gefiltefest, The Jewish Salons, Muslim Jewish Conference, Fuente Latina, and many grassroots initiatives created by members of the ROI Community have helped to build resilient Jewish communities, connect Jews to each other and to their neighbors, and empower young Jews to create new access points to Jewish life.

While funding innovation has been at the core of Natan throughout its history, its focus areas, events, and programs have always evolved to reflect its members’ developing interests, to meet the changing needs of the fields in which it invests, and to identify emerging trends that have the potential to make systemic change.

Natan has benefited tremendously from the expertise of many partners over the years, working closely with funders and networks like the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, the Shahaf Foundation, the ROI Community, the Leichtag Foundation, the Samuel Bronfman Foundation, the AVI CHAI Foundation, the Genesis Philanthropy Group, and Birthright Israel NEXT. Additional partners have provided core support to Natan and its activities, including the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, the Pershing Square Foundation, the Joyce and Irving Goldman Foundation, the Samberg Family Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Foundation partnerships have helped to build Natan’s capacity to expand the breadth and depth of its offerings for members, connect with exceptional speakers and grant applicants, and become a thought leader in the Jewish innovation ecosystem.

Most notably, in 2014, Natan partnered with the Schusterman Foundation to create Amplifier, a network of giving circles inspired by Jewish values, which became independent of Natan in 2017. The first network of its kind in the Jewish community, Amplifier now boasts106 giving circles in its network, engaging over 3,700 members who collectively gave away almost $6.5 million in 2016. Amplifier recently received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to convene all of the American giving circle networks, to scale the giving circle model nationally as a powerful form of civic engagement.

2017–8 Grant Portfolio

For the 2017-8 grant year, Natan has catalyzed $988,000 in funding 64 cutting-edge initiatives across Israel and in Jewish communities around the world. Through a multi-stage vetting process, 69 members sitting on 8 different grant committees reviewed 315 applications and ultimately made grants to initiatives across North America and in Israel, Austria, Serbia, Sweden, and the UK. Grantees include the earliest-stage social entrepreneurs, startup nonprofits, post-startups, and social enterprises. In addition to the formal grant committee allocations, many members gave additional, individual funds to the grant recipients and and to peer organizations.

New to the 2017-8 portfolio are Natan’s first Confronting Antisemitism grants, which support innovative approaches to understanding and confronting contemporary manifestations of antisemitism around the world. Natan awarded grants to 10 organizations in this field, many of which deal with understanding and addressing the ways in which delegitimization of Israel intersects with antisemitism – either by explicitly addressing that issue or by creating new opportunities for people to learn about and engage with Israel in all of its complexity. The Confronting Antisemitism grants also focus on building bridges between Jews and their neighbors, both in the United States and across Europe.

Across the entire 2017-18 grant portfolio,

• 65% of the grants are renewals to previously-funded organizations;
• 57% of the grants are for general operating support;
• 59% of the grants are for North American organizations and 33% for Israeli organizations.

Natan is proud to support the following organizations with 2017-18 grants:

Board Discretionary Grants

Amplifier
Footsteps
Jerusalem Intercultural Center
Jewish Community Farming Field Building Initiative
Jewish Emergent Network
Katahdin Foundation (Who Will Write Our Story)
Keren Baktana
Misdar Dorshei Tov
Ohel Ayalah
Sacred Spaces
Sefaria
Upstart

Confronting Antisemitism

Academic Engagement Network
Academic Exchange
Artists 4 Israel
Fuente Latina
Innovation: Africa
Israel Story
JCRC St. Louis
Muslim Jewish Conference
Resetting the Table

Core Grants

A Wider Bridge
BimBam
Jindas
Keshet
Limmud
Mayyim Hayyim
Olim Beyachad
Paideia
Tsofen

Economic Development in Israel

Kaima Organic Farm
Noa Tanua
Shahaf Foundation
She Codes

Jewish Connections in North America

Eshel
Jewish Farm School
Jewish Kids Group
Jewish Studio Project
KlezCalifornia
Museum of Jewish Montreal
Svara

Natan Grants for Initiatives for Russian Speaking Jews

Bukharian Jewish Union
Hillel at Baruch College
iMishpacha
Jewish and Modern
Jewish Parent Academy
Speak Memory Project
Tanger Hillel at Brooklyn College

Natan Grants for ROI Entrepreneurs

Haver Srjbia
Igniting Inclusion Initiative
JQY
LivLuv
YidLife Crisis

Urban Renewal in Jerusalem

c.a.t.a.m.o.n.
Jerusalem Parliament
Jerusalem Street Orchestra
Runners Without Borders
Studio of Her Own