Rittberg, Director of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation's U.S. Jewish grantmaking portfolio, wins award honoring young foundation professionals.

Latest volume of Jewish Funders Network’s “Greenbook” series provides a snapshot of the emerging field of young adults at risk in Israel.

Greenbook Volume 6 provides a snapshot of the emerging field of young adults at risk in Israel.

Thousands of young adults in Israel lack a family support network. When young Israeli adults from dysfunctional or struggling families, or those who have been in State boarding schools or foster care, reach the age of 18, they become adults by law and are expected to integrate into society on their own. Without further support, they face steep odds against breaking the cycle of poverty and achieving their potential.

The word focus comes from the Latin for “fire”. The “focus” was the fireplace in a Roman home. ¹

Fire draws our attention. It’s impossible to ignore.

Remember the story of the bush that burned but was not consumed? Well, there’s a midrash that says the burning bush had been in that desert since the Creation of the World, but nobody noticed it until Moses. When you look at a fireplace, your eyes go to the flames. You have to look deliberately, long and hard, to see the logs burning. So it’s not that nobody ever saw that burning bush, but that nobody ever looked past the flames.

In the Jewish world today, our attention is focused on the many fires we have to put out: from antisemitism to assimilation; from the breakdown of Israel-Diaspora relations to polarization in the Jewish community.

Jewish Funders Network condemns the horrifying and evil terrorist attack that murdered 49 Muslims at prayer, and injured dozens more, in Christchurch, New Zealand. As a Jewish philanthropic community we are heartbroken by this loss of life, which reminds us painfully of the terrorist attack in Pittsburgh that murdered Jews at prayer in the name of the same hateful ideology that motivated this new massacre.

We send our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and our wishes for a speedy and complete recovery to all those injured. To the Muslim community all over the world we extend our sympathy, our solidarity, and our commitment to working together with you and others to create a world free of hate and bigotry, where all of our communities can thrive in liberty, security, creativity, and peace.

Update: The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh has set up a relief fund to support the Muslim community of New Zealand as they deal with this horrific hate crime. Donate here >>

Across the world, philanthropy is undergoing a rapid transformation that offers both exciting opportunities and complex challenges. As a more unified global culture around giving and social investment emerges, new players, vehicles, strategies and approaches are creating commitment, enthusiasm and optimism. Yet shifting attitudes toward philanthropy, intense debates about power and effectiveness and difficult operating environments require philanthropists and social investors to demonstrate their value to a wide range of stakeholders. And, as many philanthropies broaden their activities from grantmaking to impact investing, knowledge-building, advocacy and coalition-building, they face the need to change how their organizations assess and allocate non-financial resources. With so much in flux, emerging donors and established funders are seeking new models not only for funding strategies and impact measures, but also for organizational design and management systems that will serve them well into the 21st century. Leaders are asking how philanthropies achieve impact as institutions, not just as sources of funding. In response to this surge of interest, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors developed the Philanthropy Framework, a tool to give an emerging or established philanthropy (whether in the form of a foundation, trust, funder collaborative, LLC, donor-advised fund or direct giving) a structure to align resources for maximum impact.

This webinar will empower first-time conference attendees to get as much out of the conference as you can. We discuss everything you need to know to have an enjoyable and productive experience—from the flow of a typical conference day to strategies for networking and side meetings to information about site tours and hosted dinners.

A webinar on the state of Holocaust knowledge and education in North America, with experts from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany (Claims Conference), Yad Vashem, and the Azrieli Foundation.

On this past Yom HaShoah, the Claims Conference released the findings of a Holocaust Awareness and Knowledge Survey, conducted in the United States. The study revealed alarming gaps in knowledge; while most Americans have some level of awareness of the Holocaust, 41% of those surveyed, and two thirds of Millennials, did not know about Auschwitz, and one third of all those surveyed thought fewer than 2 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

The Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund announces the opening of its 2019 grant cycle on February 1. (Submission deadline: March 1.) The Fund seeks to support the Jewish community in North America and Israel by searching out and supporting those unique ideas that are backed by passion and by leadership with a plan to strengthen and positively impact our Jewish community.

Dr. Georgette Bennett, JFN's board chair, was among the inaugural recipients of the Global Impact Awards. The awards were presented on January 16th at a gala event in Tel Aviv, in the presence of the President of the State of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, to humanitarians who have excelled in making a positive impact in the developing world.