Israel’s impact ecosystem — a network of enterprises that use a financially sustainable business model to address unmet social and environmental needs — is now $2 million stronger, as a result of our second Matching Grant collaboration with the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation. The Edmond de Rothschild Foundation is a visionary leader in this field, working to create a local language of impact and build the infrastructure required for the Israeli ecosystem.

Congratulations to the 15 NGOs, from a variety of areas, including the Arab society, regional entrepreneurship development, impact real estate, and agricultural and food technology, that benefited from the matching grants. Among the winning projects are:

• ALYNovation, a project bringing together entrepreneurs, inventors, and rehabilitation specialists to develop — and then globally market — technology enabling children with special needs to be more independent and participate fully in society.

• A joint project of the Pears Program for Global Innovation and IsraAID, the Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid encouraging Israeli companies to develop affordable, durable, and sustainable innovations in the fields of water, sanitation, hygiene technology, and education technology and field test them in IsraAID’s humanitarian and long-term development operations around the globe.

We want to thank the 22 generous funders who participated in this initiative, including 18 who, as a result of this initiative, made their first-ever gift to an NGO in this sector, and another four who significantly increased their gifts. Of the donors, 12 are Israeli, and 11 are new JFN members!

The Israel impact ecosystem matching grants initiative is JFN’s 19th matching grant initiative since 2004; altogether, these initiatives, in fields ranging from Jewish day schools to women’s empowerment, have generated over $100 million in new philanthropic dollars.