Archive for Charities
The idea is not unique as it’s been done by Improv Everywhere to perfection, but it is unique to the Jewish community and was performed brilliantly by NCSY to promote the upcoming NCSY Auction to raise money for Jewish Youth.
It is a breath of fresh air for promoting a non-profit endeavor. As of this posting it was viewed more then 10,000 times on YouTube. I imagine that the cost to do this promotion was close to zero and has and will continue to make a greater impact the expensive advertisements. Kudos to NCSY for thinking out of the box and will be great to see more of these types of marketing campaigns. Enjoy the video below.
Death of a Righteous Entrepreneur; The Untimely passing of Lifsha Feldman
Posted by: | Comments
Please forgive me for taking such a tremendous tragedy and talking about it in such a mundane way, but the untimely passing of such a special young women as Lifsha Feldman has affected my wife and I to the core.
And since this blog is about being an entrepreneur in Israel, I believe there is a lot we can learn from this amazing woman. Being an entrepreneur is not always about running a for-profit company, being an entrepreneur is about making a real change
A lot of times entrepreneurs get started by needing something and after not being able to find it they decide to create the need themselves.
In 1998, Lifsha and her Mother Hadassah founded the school called Meshi for
special needs children in Jerusalem after not being able to find a suitable school for Lifsha’s special needs child Ruchama. Wanting what every parent wants for their child, which is the absolute best, Lifsha opened the school to offer the very best care for special needs children in Israel and she succeeded beyond what anyone could imagine. The school today has 150 students including my own special needs child, Moishy.
Being the Father to a special needs child, I can tell you from first hand that things can become a bit complicated in trying to give your child the very best while still trying to raise your other children. My son has been in Gan Meshi for five years now and there is literally no words to describe the unbelievable comfort Gan Meshi has given us over the last five years and the peace of mind knowing that our son was getting the very best care possible in Israel.
Lifsha always made her self accessible to us and always with a smile and kind words. Lifsha cared about and took interest in everyone of her students and would always go beyond the call of duty for each one.
Driving home from the funeral with my wife we were talking about something that Moishy needed and the words out of my wifes mouth was “I’ll just call Lifsha and ask her…”. The shock has just started to settle in.
Lifsha has 10 beautiful children BA’H. Yet when her daughter was born as special needs instead of just placing her in a substandard program she took action and decided to create the luxury care taking that each child in Meshi receives. It would have been understandable if she just did nothing, if she just put her daughter in the best place available. She had other children to attend to and a home to run, but that wasn’t her. She would not take NO for an answer. She saw a need not just for her child, but for other children as well and she jumped at the opportunity to create a better place for special needs children in the heart of Jerusalem. And the school was run perfectly with the absolute best staff and with all the love and great care that each child deserves.
The school itself made having a special needs child a lot easier then having to do it alone. Sending our son to Meshi meant sending him to the best place we can send him, knowing his days will be filled with all types of therapy, classes and of course love.
Lifsha was passionate about her idea and made it into a thriving success.
Yes Lifsha has 10 children, but she has 150 more that are also in mourning.
Thank you Lifsha for created heaven on earth for our special needs children, you will be sorely missed.
Thinking about Purim
Posted by: | Comments
Growing up Purim was one of the most exciting and happiest days of the year. I will never forget the community Purim Seudah where the highlights were the costume contest and the C.H.I.P.S. cap gun fights we use to play.
Another of the highlights was the dining room table lined with MiShloach Manos (gift baskets) filled with Hamantashen, candy and other assorted junk.
Mishloach Manos changed a bit with the creation of the Shaloch Manos Express created by the Young Israel of Passaic-Clifton that now exists in virtually every frum community in the States and in Israel. Instead of preparing 75 different packages to give out, the Shaloch Manos Express allowed you to pay a couple of bucks per family and the Shul would give out a basket of goodies to each family in the congregation with a list of the names of the other families that contributed to that package.
As a kid this really stunk since that meant instead of getting 50 baskets of food you only got about 20 packages of food. As an adult and a father of 5 I can really a
ppreciate this system. And this year I signed up for two such programs in the community which covers about 80% of the people I wanted to give to. Everyone wins as this project also acts as a fundraiser for the Shul.
But there are still the other 20% or in my case about 25 families that I want to give to that are not on the lists and usually we try to make a nice gift to go out.
But this year is different. This year the economic situation is hurting everyone. This year giving more money to charity is a better option than making nice gift baskets. So while we will give our smaller gifts this year, we hope to give more to Tzeddaka this year. In fact that would probably be a good suggestion for everyone.
What do you plan on doing?
GotChicken.org? Finally some innovation with online fundraising!
Posted by: | Comments
So I was reading a Jerusalem Focused magazine and I saw an add for GotChicken.org and a contest to enter to win an iPod. What attracted me was the logo and the name GotChicken.org. Obviously it's a play on the "Got Milk" campaign but I am fully for taking something that works and adapting it to your needs w/o breaking the law of course.
So I went to the site and sure enough it was a non-profit collecting money to give chickens (and other foods) to the poor for Shabbos. I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and modern the site looked as well as how simple it was to learn more about the organization, see the haskamos they had, as well as make a donation.
They even have a heart breaking story at the right place which you can read below:
The story behind our organization is sad but unfortunately it is not
a unique one. One Friday night after eating his Shabbos meal, Aaron a
young American man who was studying in Israel went to visit his Israeli
neighbor. As the man opened the door to welcome his visitor Aaron could
tell something was amiss. His host worked as a Rebbe in a local Yeshiva
and as far as anyone knew was doing okay financially. But Aaron was
surprised to hear the Rabbis’ children asking him for food. After all
it was Friday night. And who wasn’t full on Friday night?
With
the children crying ‘Abba Give us something to eat’ Aaron asked whether
it was perhaps better if he should come back another time. The Rabbi
shook his head no and told him to have a seat. ‘Children’, he said, ‘We
now are doing a great Mitzva of having guests and it’s not the right
time to eat. Tomorrow we will eat.’ As the Rabbi put his children to
bed Aaron opened the cabinets and was shocked to see them completely
empty! The fridge and freezer were bare too!
There
would be no food to eat tomorrow. The Rabbi would simply have to make
up another excuse so that his children would not realize their own
unfortunate plight!
This was the first of many
families to follow. Secretly they received 100 shekel week after week
in the discreet manner that has become synonymous with KMYH and has
remained the modus operandi for all future donations. Whereas many
families would have no way of purchasing chicken or other basic
necessities for Shabbos and Yom Tov, it is now a very real option. Can
you imagine a family that must remain Parve through Shabbos because
they lack the necessary funds to buy a proper meal? We can!
All in all I am very impressed and it is a good example at being catchy, memorable, innovative and also a great combination of offline and online marketing.
For Charities, times are even tougher. Here are some ideas.
Posted by: | Comments
When times are good it is still a difficult job for fundraisers to raise money. Let's face it, people are not usually knocking on peoples doors begging to give them money. So what does that do for fundraisers in today's economic times? I have been in touch with a couple of fundraisers and have been inspired by their simple beliefs that they are just soldiers for G-D and will continue on and have the faith they will continue to raise money. Other fundraisers, although also having faith, are having a bit of a harder time.
One seminary I know was promised a very large donation in the summer by a very well know philanthropist and that promise is what enabled them to open up for this year. 4 months later the money has still not come in and now they are seriously thinking about closing down.
Charities and fundraisers need to start thinking out of the box and perhaps look into new ideas.
Mashable has published a list of more then 50 ways for people to give money online. Many of these websites would either be great for Jewish Non-Profits top get involved in and to use their tools and perhaps their is an inspired entrepreneur out there that may take one of the successful models and create a Jewish version of it.
Click Here to see the list
