Newest additions to our Resources library: 5 Mistakes Nonprofit Websites Make The first website went up 18 years ago this month. Websites have done a lot of growing up since those early days, but there are still a lot of common mistakes that nonprofits make online. Back Away From That Spreadsheet: Why Excel Isn't a Donor Database It’s quick, easy, and you already have it. Excel seems like it might be a great fit to manage your donor data. But just back away from that spreadsheet – there’s a lot of reasons why it’s not a good idea. Key Steps to Starting a Social-Enterprise Venture In the webinar "Charity? Or Mission-Driven Business?", Jean Block and Randy Gleason, principals of Social Enterprise Ventures, explained the basics of social enterprise and shared tips … Continue Reading
Is Innovation a Driver in Jewish Engagement?
Filed under Innovation Roundtable, Innovation: The New Jewish Landscape, Social Philanthropy
Innovation is the hot topic in the Jewish world these days and so there is no better time to point you to two articles from the current issue of the Journal of Jewish Communal Service. On the Value and Values of Social Entrepreneurship by Yoni Gordis Philanthropists play a key role in encouraging and supporting new developments that keep the Jewish community vibrant and relevant. Where they choose to focus their resources can make the difference between stasis and progress. Jewish communal debate in the past years has focused significantly on the role of Jewish philanthropists in funding new ideas and new organizations. To best understand the context in which the discussion is occurring, it is necessary to understand the unusual relationship of the Jewish community to the phenomena of … Continue Reading
Small Change Adds Up to Big Change
Focused around the idea that every time you use your credit or debit card the transaction amount is rounded up for charity, a new international initiative has launched and Israel was the first country to go live. Round-up Israel, focused on the idea "Everyone's small change, pooled together, will go towards providing real help for worthy causes in Israel and elsewhere around the world", is the local franchise of Round-up International. Created by a UK social entrepreneur and piloted by an Israeli one, Round-up provides 100% of the monies received to charities with administrative expenses being met through independent channels. In Israel, the list of benefiting Amutot has been selected and chosen by a public committee headed by former President of the Supreme Court, Justice Meir … Continue Reading
How Does Innovation Grow
Where is the center of Jewish life? The debate continues. Some say the Upper West Side and others Jerusalem. But, make no mistake, beginning on Monday, that center of Jewish life is clearly located on 'coffee house row' - otherwise known as Emek Refaim - in Jerusalem's historic German Colony. For here, in an unassuming multi-story building, a community centered around sixteen fellows is gathering. With a stated goal to foster innovation and creativity in order to drive the Jewish People's mission forward, the PresenTense Summer Institute, cohort 3, is about to launch. When one looks at the progress made over the past twenty-four months, particularly in the current economic climate, one cannot help but be impressed with what co-founders Ariel Beery and Aharon Horwitz have created. They, along … Continue Reading
Israel Venture Network Announces New Social Entrepreneurship Fellows
The IVN has recently announced the recipients of their 2009-2011 Fellowships. Dedicated to developing and implementing innovative and sustainable social/economic solutions, the program supports and incubates highly entrepreneurial individuals who stand at the cutting edge of social change, developing and pursuing their vision in Israel and beyond, and empowering people and communities to create positive, sustained change. The selection of the Social Entrepreneurs is a critical part of the process with the chances of the initiative evolving, having an impact and reaching a level of sustainability directly dependent upon selecting the right people. Over 200 applications were received for the current round. The success of the program translates into a platform for social entrepreneurs to … Continue Reading
Welcome to the Present and Future Tense
Tamar Snyder writing in The New York Jewish Week PresenTense Keeps Foot On The Gas Pedal While Jewish nonprofits are largely scaling back their budgets and slashing programming, PresenTense, which was launched four years ago, is a rarity in the sense that it’s still plugging forth, full speed ahead. The group, which prides itself on “growing pioneers who are solving Jewish problems with sustainable solutions,” has seen its annual operating budget rise nearly 200 percent, to $580,000 for the current fiscal year (PresenTense runs on a Hebrew calendar). “The key thing is to keep our foot on the gas pedal,” says Aharon Horwitz, co-director of the PresenTense Group. In just three years, PresenTense has emerged from an all-volunteer-run organization to a known entity employing eight … Continue Reading
Friday Lite
Two stories you may find of interest this Friday morning: from Jewcy My Trip to the White House JDub Records, Jumpstart and other Jewish social entrepreneurs consult at the White House: "Roughly speaking, the entire sampling represented Jewish initiatives that reach over 500,000 participants via about $500 million dollars worth of non-profit investment. Cooler stat: almost none of our organizations existed 10 years ago. We met with Obama's newly created/rebranded/reshaped Office of Public Engagement and Office of Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships all within the Executive Office of the President. (P.S. They have a new first cousin too - the Office of Social Innovation. Read that again.)" from The Boston Globe Jewish agencies forced to downside Combined Jewish … Continue Reading
Resetting – An Unprecedented Meeting of Philanthropists
Filed under Innovation: The New Jewish Landscape, Jewish Philanthropy, Social Philanthropy
by Maya Bernstein cross-posted at Huffington Post (Jumpstart) In a recent blog post, Marty Linsky, a leadership expert at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, asked, "Will you reset or hunker down?" Will we will treat today's economic crisis as a "one-time thing," and wait for it to blow over, or as a manifestation of a larger pattern, that should encourage us to re-think the way in which we interact and function? In the months since his first musings, he has applied the "reset" metaphor to partisan politics, culture, and the nonprofit sector. Here in San Francisco, we have been thinking about what it might mean to reset the Jewish community. On April 29th, UpStart Bay Area, a new nonprofit dedicated to supporting innovative Jewish social entrepreneurs, organized a conversation on … Continue Reading
PresenTense 2009: The Newest Cohort of Fellows
Meet PresenTense's 2009 Fellows View more presentations from presentense. You can read more about the 2009 Fellows on the PresenTense Fellowship Website. … Continue Reading
Out of Egypt: What Do Moses & Obama Teach us about Passover?
by Maya Bernstein Last Sunday, on a warm, sunny day in San Francisco, UpStart joined 30 educators, artists, and thinkers, and 350 Jews in their 20s and 30s at BJE’s 4th annual Young Adult Feast of Jewish Learning. The event continues to attract the Bay Area’s Jewish young adult community, even when the competition is 75 degree weather and some of the most beautiful hiking in the world. Participants chose from a menu of classes on Jewish perspectives on issues ranging from dating to Maimonides, cooking to klezmer, and Israeli poetry to yoga, taught by many of the Bay Area’s most exciting Jewish thinkers. UpStart’s session, “How to Change the World: What Do Moses and Obama Have in Common?” focused on change-processes. We explored questions such as: what are the characteristics of … Continue Reading
English