Business Under Fire; Israel at 60

War has been a central part of life in Israel since the country became a nation 60 years ago. So it would seem counter-intuitive, then, that the country's economic growth has been just as steady, just as constant. check out this extensive feature from the Home of the Peacock.

Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem.

The AVI CHAI Foundation has announced that it is allocating up to $1.15 million over the course of the next three years to four individuals and one team of two whom it has selected as the first recipients of The AVI CHAI Fellowship. The program is unique and constitutes the largest cash award to emerging communal and educational leaders within the North American Jewish community. It has been approved for three award cycles with a financial commitment of approximately $3 million. More than 40 nominations were submitted by twenty nominators (18 from the U.S. and 2 from Israel). The AVI CHAI Fellowship was kept under wraps and the nominators and selections committee remained anonymous so the integrity of the nomination and selection ...

Google Israel - has a new initiative in honor of Israel's 60th birthday! They have decided to dedicate this year to "Our Children and Our Future Generations. " For more information and to join the campaign: Official Website: http://www.google. co.il/israelshel i Google Israel campaign Facebook group: http://www.facebook .com/group. php?gid=12838688 050

The Center for Leadership Initiatives announced that 35 young Jewish innovators would receive seed funding for their projects to support the realization of innovative Jewish ideas worldwide. The funds, alongside general support of the overall ROI program, were provided by philanthropist Lynn Shusterman. Selected projects range from web initiatives to music, art and film, and from community activism and education to environmental projects. Grant recipients are in their twenties or early thirties, and hail from Europe, South America, North America, the FSU, South Africa, and Israel. According to Yonaton Gordis, Executive Director of the Center for Leadership Initiatives, "The ROI Grants were created to serve as seed funds that will enable ROI ...

A selection of recent articles and posts you may find interesting. Philanthropy Can Be made To Measure Gara LaMarche, president of the Atlantic Philanthropies, is offering advice to donors about how to evaluate their philanthropy. In an opinion article in The Financial Times, Mr. LaMarche sets out guidelines for measuring charitable work. One piece of advice, "Measurement efforts should be a learning tool for both the beneficiary and donor. Salesforce.com + Google = Improved Productivity The above two organizations announced a new level of integration; both freely available to non-profits. Testing the Waters With Internships INTERNSHIPS, a rite of passage for job-hunting students, are attracting the attention of older adults who are eager to dip into new ventures, paid or not, ...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh7Qpr8GtCY&feature=related[/youtube]

Shabbat Shalom

This year, Israel has kicked off a major re-branding campaign to encourage the world to look beyond Middle Eastern conflict and recognize Israel’s global contributions as a nation. Here's one example: The American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science (ACWIS), a world-renowned scientific institute based in Israel, aims to help celebrate Israel’s important milestone. At the same time, ACWIS is preparing for the 60th Anniversary of the naming of the Weizmann Institute by enhancing its own branding efforts on behalf of Weizmann. Weizmann is recognized in the scientific research community as one of the world’s leading basic research institutes, regarded as highly as Rockefeller, MIT, Caltech are in the U.S. ...

Regular visitors to eJewish Philanthropy know we believe strongly in the use of social media / social networking within our non-profit world. There are many variations for an organization to choose from; no "one size fits all" approach. Hopefully, we are encouraging you to consider the various possibilities available and pointing you in some useful directions.

Perhaps just writing a blog on your organization's web site and monitoring comments is what will best for your non-profit. Certainly the "big" tool (and I can't stress this enough) is the use of video. The important thing, though, we hope you will keep in mind,

any ...

Facebook messaged the 4,600 fans of the FacebookPages Page with helpful hints on how to make your presence on Facebook go viral (by messaging all of your fans, for example). Check out some key strategies from the most successful businesses on Pages, including:

• Regularly adding engaging and useful content
• Letting fans participate in the conversation

To read about some winning strategies—along with the nuts of bolts of how to create and manage a Page—here's a link: Insider's Guide to Viral ...

It's only the morning of the 3rd day of Peasach, and yet the New York Times is reporting a Matza shortage! "To the lengthening list of comestible problems befalling our nation, add this: a matzo shortage. From coast to coast, a shortfall of the unleavened flat cracker bread eaten by Jews during the eight days of Passover has sent shoppers scurrying from store to store in search of it." Read more here.