Two hundred people -- a mix of foundation professionals and individual funders -- attended the third Israeli Philanthropy Conference in Tel Aviv this week. 

Organized jointly by JFN Israel, The Forum of Foundations in Israel, Committed to Give, Keshet-DAF, and the Center for Law and Philanthropy at Tel Aviv University, the conference was made possible with support from the Ted Arison Family Foundation, Azrieli Foundation, the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation (Israel), Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and Yad Hanadiv.

In a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Tali Yariv Mashal of the Beracha Foundation and Chair of the Forum of Foundations in Israel, Kathy Reich of the Ford Foundation and William Foster of Bridgespan spoke about global trends and challenges in philanthropy. The conference also featured presentations about philanthropic journeys, a question-and-answer session with Israeli philanthropists who are new to wealth, and several facilitated networking sessions.

"Walking into the conference was like coming home," said JFN member Abbie Adest. "It was so amazing to see all my friends and peers and feel the energy of togetherness after the long break of Corona."

"When presented with the results of a ‘word cloud’ surveying participants at the conference on which word describes the Israeli philanthropic community to them, the words that stood out were 'a professional home, a community, and a family.' This is exactly what I felt at the conference," said Galia Granot, Deputy Director for Israel of the Ruderman Family Foundation, a JFN member. "The professionalism, the attention to detail, the interest, excellent content, and the sense of community. All that exists thanks to the amazing cooperation of the infrastructure organizations and especially to the leading team that produced an outstanding conference that gave us all a lot of tools, knowledge, and motivation to continue our joint and individual meaningful, high-quality work."

"The Israeli Philanthropy Conference was both inspiring and practical. The caliber and variety of speakers were world-class and the opportunity to meet to discuss solutions from different viewpoints was very productive," said JFN member Danny Hakim.

JFN Israel and the other groups organizing the conference have been working closely for years to expand and professionalize Israel's philanthropic sector.  JFN Israel, Committed to Give, and the Institute for Law and Philanthropy helped establish Keshet-DAF, an independent public benefit corporation that manages Israel's first-ever donor-advised funds, in 2020. View photos from the conference in the slideshow below (double-click to view on Flickr):