What makes an artwork Jewish? Must it have a Jewish theme? A Jewish creator? Is Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” filled with Old Testament references, a Jewish song? What about Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas?”
These are the types of questions that preoccupy people who care about these kinds of things. I posed the philanthropy version of this query to Rabbi Rebecca Sirbu, executive vice president of Jewish Funders Network (JFN), the top funder affinity group in the world of Jewish giving, an important and influential space.
“Our members are anyone who gives within the Jewish world or wants to be giving through a Jewish lens,” said Sirbu, noting that JFN is not a religious organization and that members have a range of both political viewpoints and religious practice. “The majority of members are liberal American Jews. They may or may not go to synagogue. I think they connect with us because they understand that giving back is a Jewish value. For some of our members, this may be their only official Jewish connection. And then we do have Orthodox members.”
The New York City- and (now) Israel-based network includes more than 2,500 private foundations and individual philanthropists from 11 countries. It has a stated mission to “promote meaningful giving and take an active part in the processes that change the thinking and action patterns of philanthropy in the Jewish world.”
While not a funding collaborative, JFN has helped incubate some major philanthropic initiatives in the Jewish world through its main roles as a connector and educator. Birthright Israel, for example, founded in 1999 to send Jewish young adults to visit Israel, grew out of discussions at JFN, as did Leading Edge, a newer project that helps improve the workplace culture and leadership at Jewish organizations.
A diversity of opinions
You know that old Jewish joke about a religious man shipwrecked on a desert island? When rescuers finally arrive, he gives them a tour of his home — and of two other huts he has built. One is his synagogue. The other? “That’s the synagogue I’ll never step foot in again!” he says.
This is a long way of saying that being Jewish does not mean agreeing on priorities, or feeling obligated to maintain your own position if more information surfaces. Everyone has different passions. And let’s not even talk about Israel.
JFN deals with the diversity within its membership by refraining from promoting any specific causes or political positions. Rather, it seeks to better educate funders about their own concerns and connect them to others with similar interests. JFN uses a successful “peer network” strategy to steer donors into a half-dozen interest-based networks. These include a green funders group, a poverty affinity group looking to address poverty in the Jewish world and beyond, and a group called Canvas, which, as we’ve written before, focuses on arts and culture.
JFN brings in topic-area experts, with the caveat that they do not pitch members on any specific grants. This “education without solicitation” is a key service of JFN.
“It’s unique to have an environment where you can learn about an issue without getting a pitch. We are creating that safe space,” said Sirbu. Funders often find potential grantees through conversations with those in their peer network, but JFN does not recommend specific nonprofits itself.
While older Jewish philanthropists have traditionally supported Jewish organizations, particularly in the arts, many younger JFN members are more animated by social justice. Sirbu said this shift doesn’t imply a troubling generational divide or loss of funding to legacy institutions, a question I posed. “Younger donors won’t support something just because it’s Jewish, but if they see it is having an impact, we do see continued support.” Some issues, such as poverty, garner cross-generational support, she said.
What the Israeli tech boom means for philanthropy
OK, let’s talk about Israel.
In 2008, the network established JFN Israel for funders based in the country. Private wealth in Israel is growing, with most fortunes having been made relatively recently in a thriving tech sector. Last year, JFN Israel created a pop-up subgroup called “Immigrants to Wealth” to help members deal with the complexities of newly arriving on the shores of extreme abundance.
Marla Stein, who spoke to me by Zoom from her home in Jerusalem, was a member of this subgroup. Originally from Kansas, Stein traveled to Israel in 1995 with the intention to study there for one year. The assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin compelled her to stay and help heal rifts. A former grassroots organizer, Stein married, started a family and worked within the nonprofit sector and as a licensed tour guide (an important role in Israel, a job she still does). Her husband became the chief research scientist for Mobileye, an Israel-based tech company focused on autonomous driving technology. In 2014, Mobileye went public in Israel’s biggest IPO. In 2017, it sold to Intel. Suddenly, the Steins were rich. They immediately wanted to know how best to share the wealth.
“When this happens to you, people automatically start asking for money. A million things sound good, but if you want to create impact, you need to be strategic. You want to pick an issue area or two and a strategy within that. This was a message JFN really emphasized,” said Stein.
She knew about JFN already; now, she could meet the $25,000/year individual giving minimum for membership. Stein said JFN was the perfect platform for becoming a donor. “I didn’t come from this world. I knew donors, but I wasn’t friendly with them or going to cocktail parties with them. I was maybe serving the cocktails.”
Stein chose the topic of the environment and climate change, with the strategy of policy change and advocacy. She and her husband also support liberal democracy in Israel, which she sees as absolutely related to climate, as dictatorships can wipe out climate science. She currently co-chairs JFN Israel’s Green Funders Forum (GFF) and has helped it grow from a handful of people to a vibrant group that often draws as many as 70 people to its educational forums. When I spoke to her, GFF was running a four-day intensive workshop for major foundations interested in adding climate funding or better understanding how climate intersects with their current giving.
Israel, an agricultural country literally grown out of a desert, is on the front lines of climate change in many ways, including constantly dealing with water scarcity. But philanthropy from outside the country gives only one-half of 1% of its dollars to environmental causes in Israel, said Stein. One of the most helpful steps that GFF has taken — and that she helps fund — was the hiring of a local staff person to have one-on-one consultations with JFN Israel members interested in the environment. This employee, Gil Yacov, also planned the four-day retreat.
“Climate change is so overwhelming for people and there are so many issues and so much despair around it,” said Stein. “When people have a one-on-one consultation with Gil, they can use him as a sounding board, without any obligation. He helps dissect what they’re interested in and how they can integrate climate into what they’re already doing or decide if they want to dedicate a separate portion of their giving to climate. He is a resource to help people move past despair to action.”
It was interesting to me to hear the value of this one-on-one consultant. Stein said she sees funding Yacov’s position as an “ecosystem gift” because it amplifies her impact. Partly through the work of the GFF, the number of people investing in climate is growing. “Everyone has a role in climate,” said Stein.
Networking for good
Despite JFN’s emphasis on heterodoxy, members are united by tikkun olam, the Jewish obligation to heal the world. Zoya Raynes, one of JFN’s youngest board members, co-chaired this year’s annual conference, with 700 participants, the largest JFN has ever had. Born in Kiev, Raynes moved with her family to the U.S. when she was three through the efforts of “Let My People Go,” the global campaign to promote acceptance of religious practice and free Soviet Jews trapped in the USSR. As soon as she started working in 1999, Raynes threw herself into the Jewish nonprofit world.
“I’m just so grateful for the Jewish community, which came together and got me out of Russia. What we can do together as a community is amazing,” she said.
Raynes, who works as a managing director at Bank of America Securities, focuses on helping educate other funders. She said she thinks about philanthropic giving in comparison to corporate assets; while companies can raise prices to boost margins, nonprofits can’t.
“This means philanthropists need to be incredibly careful about how we steward the money. People sometimes don’t do due diligence on their giving the way they do with investments. They should do this with nonprofits.”
Raynes also encourages members to give unrestricted grants rather than fund specific projects, a trend she sees today. “People need to understand that overhead includes staff and that multi-year grants provide stability. Similarly, giving through a donor-advised fund or a foundation rather than individually can be a more stable donation for those nonprofits, rather than having your giving tied to your own volatility. JFN is a forum for explaining that. Once you explain it to people, they get it.”
She sees JFN’s networking role as key to effective giving because it exposes people to best practices, helps create philanthropic mentors, and encourages collaboration. Networking also helps philanthropists think about growth.
“On Wall Street, people are really focused on career trajectory, but people don’t talk about a philanthropic trajectory as much. When someone graduates from college, they give $100 to UJA. You check back in five years, and they’re giving only $150. We’re suffering as a community because we’re not having those growth conversations. Being around philanthropists at conferences such as this, you see the breadth and depth of opportunity.”
The future of Jewish giving
JFN grew by about 35% over the past three years, said Sirbu, mostly from new, small family foundations and individual funders. “I think COVID had a lot to do with that. It woke people up to the fact that there is a global crisis.”
For Raynes, JFN’s growth speaks to the urgency of the world’s problems and members’ desire to join an educational conversation about effective giving. “The mandate JFN has is more important than ever, given how much needs to be done in the world,” said Raynes. “We can do so much when we come together. These are things that bring us together.”
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