In early May, Jewish Communal Fund (JCF) brought together a group of NextGen donors for a 90-Minute Grant Making Experience, in partnership with Slingshot. In just an hour-and-a-half, the group examined the values that drive their charitable giving and, as a collective, learned more about 30 innovative Jewish organizations listed in the most recent Slingshot Guide. After a series of frank discussions about priorities in grant making, values, and how best to help the Jewish community and beyond, JCF’s NextGen donors decided to divvy up the $4,000 grant making pool and award two amazing $2,000 grants! One of the grants was to Sharsheret, a nonprofit that helps Jewish women facing breast cancer, and the other was to Matan, which trains teachers in Jewish education to be inclusive to those with special needs.
“It was so lovely to have a venue to discuss our values and how they affect (or don’t) our decisions of organizations and causes to support,” reflected Ilana, one of the participants. “These conversations are important, and it was refreshing to see a roomful of young people engaging in meaningful discussion and expressing a strong desire to support these organizations in making a difference.”
Eddie K., a financial services professional, pitched Matan to the group, as a worthy organization for participants to support with their “collective wallet.”
“I happen to have two boys in their critical formative years in Jewish day school with special needs, so I am quite aware of the extra resources and financial commitment required to help foster my sons’ growth and learning potential,” he said. “Matan is serving a real need to meet the challenges for those in our community without access to these extra resources.”
Alexander Rappaport, the director of the Masbia Kosher Soup Kitchen Network, was impressed that given the diversity of the group, there was a large degree of consensus on how to approach charity giving.
“It seems to me that there are two kinds of charities, ones that benefit those less fortunate than ourselves, whether economic hardship, hunger, sickness or educational disabilities, and others that are directed to benefiting the community as a whole, even the well-off, like arts organizations, and Jewish identity organizations,” he said. “I came in believing that most of the group would sponsor the latter group of charities, and was very surprised to see that the two charities chosen both belonged to the former group…I was very pleased by this and it was a real eye opener to me.”
The decision-making process, which involved various rounds of cuts, “helped me better appreciate what guided my own giving and articulate and link to core values the causes which I am most passionate about – including microfinance, Jewish literacy/education and Israel,” reflected Eddie.
Many participants came away from the exercise with a newfound realization that the values they thought would drive their philanthropic giving weren’t, in fact, the values that mattered most. “A value that I didn’t realize to be of such great importance to me before was ‘effectiveness,’ Ilana said, echoing the thoughts of many others like her. “In the past, I would say that my focus was much more on the mission and drive of the organization, but after the group discussion it became something that I will now consider more.”