by Contributing Author
As of April 8th, 2024, over $1.4 billion had been donated to Israeli nonprofits since the October 7th terror attacks by Hamas. Such an amount raised in six months is unprecedented and shows the commitment of the global Jewish community to the safety and security of the Jewish state and its people.
Half of the $1.4 billion sum was raised by the Jewish Federations of North America and its member organizations alone, illustrating how successfully American Jews, both individuals and institutions, have mobilized to support the homeland of the Jewish people, the state of Israel.
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at office@jewishbusinessnews.com.
Thank you.
October 7th caused a “great awakening” among American Jews, spurring them to connect more deeply with their Jewish identities and roots as well as with the state of Israel, so it’s no wonder Jewish federations and nonprofits have seen such an increase in monetary engagement. With the war with Hamas hitting the 10-month mark and another war with Iran and its terror proxies (such as Hezbollah) becoming more and more of a possibility, engagement is sure to remain high in the coming months. Jewish nonprofits must capitalize on this energy to ensure they are making the most impact, whether in local communities or in Israel.
Historically, small and medium-sized nonprofits have had trouble balancing fundraising with making an impact. In an article for The Jerusalem Post, Adam Milstein, a Jewish “venture philanthropist” based in Los Angeles, explains this is no different for Jewish nonprofits. Many “cannot afford professional fundraising teams yet must stay laser-focused on achieving their missions in an insecure financial environment.”
There’s no one better than Milstein to assess the state of the Jewish nonprofit landscape. An Israeli of American descent, he co-founded the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation with Gila his wife in 2000. It has been successful in supporting a network of nonprofits that strengthen American values, combat hatred and bigotry in all forms, and support the U.S.-Israel alliance.
Milstein breaks down the various challenges facing small and medium-sized nonprofits. One of the biggest is the constant pressure to fundraise, which ultimately distracts from the nonprofit’s mission: “The time and resources needed to fundraise endlessly takes priority and redirects the necessary work required to drive change towards their actual missions.”
These smaller nonprofits may not have the funds to hire fundraising staff, so “talented executives are forced to spend more and more time calling and engaging with donors, when they should be running operations, building their teams and executing their action plan.”
This causes three major problems. First is what Milstein calls “mission creep.” When appealing to different donors, nonprofit leaders “make promises they cannot keep and take stances misaligned with their organization’s core mission.”
Second are fundraising-related operational issues, which carry a high administrative cost. Nonprofit staff must “spend ample time and resources on galas, fancy marketing materials, and travel,” which drives costs and distracts from impact-making.
Third, nonprofits with similar missions compete for the support of the same donors. “This competition strains relationships between groups that should be collaborating,” even sometimes causing conflict. Organizations tend not to collaborate “for fear of losing donors in favor of their partner organizations,” so a “zero-sum framework prevails.”
Far too often, “funding in the Jewish nonprofit world comes down to a popularity contest,” says Milstein. Donors chase PR victories while nonprofits “claim false successes to appeal to donors.”
This devolves into a vicious cycle that ultimately detracts from the real work: making an impact in the Jewish community. The only way to break out of this cycle is to implement a new fundraising model, one that not only encourages nonprofits to “spend more time on their missions and less on fundraising” but also creates financial incentives for them to work together.
A premier example is the Impact Forum, an L.A.-based pro-Israel network of philanthropists who “come together to vet, select and support an ecosystem of nonprofits who align with the mission of fighting antisemitism, supporting the State of Israel, and championing American democracy,” says Milstein.
This paradigm provides smaller and mid-size nonprofits with a platform to fundraise, network with donors, and forge valuable relationships to help them focus more on impact than fundraising. In return for such an essential platform, participating organizations are urged to “work together, collaborate, build synergies, and execute joint campaigns.”
The Impact Forum has proved incredibly successful. A few years ago, it helped one organization create a long-term relationship with a donor who pledged to provide six-figure grants over several years. A group of Impact Forum philanthropists invested in an early-stage nonprofit that “fights antisemitism using cutting-edge technologies,” and they ended up funding its operational budget for the entire first year.
Another creative strategy of the Impact Forum is its Venture Fund program, “through which donors can support a group of 10 vetted and selected organizations with one single donation.” By funding a collective instead of individual organizations, the Venture Fund “enhances the capabilities of each organization individually and creates a multiplier effect” that results in a greater impact on the Jewish community.
Whether or not monetary engagement continues to remain high amongst American Jews, Jewish nonprofits must ensure they are capitalizing on the community’s passion. Making an impact is no easy feat. That’s why Milstein argues in favor of “free[ing] nonprofits and their leaders from the burden of fundraising” so they can maximize their time on causes that are meaningful to them and the community as a whole, such as fighting rising antisemitism and combatting the delegitimization of Israel.
The long-term health and impact of the Jewish nonprofit world depends on creative solutions like the ones Milstein proposes. By “incentivizing nonprofits to work together and using solutions like the Impact Forum network” to relieve the fundraising burden, real work can get done that will benefit Jews in the U.S., Israel, and throughout the diaspora.
