The Power Of The Circle: the Next Phase in Jewish Philanthropy

Members of Birthright’s Young Philanthropist Committee talking to hedge fund manager Ari Bergman, who addressed the group.

Members of Birthright’s Young Philanthropist Committee talking to hedge fund manager Ari Bergman, who addressed the group.

by Tamar Snyder
Staff Writer

Rochelle Kleter never pictured herself as a philanthropist. The first-generation American, born to parents who grew up in the Ukraine, had a hard time finding her place in the Jewish community. “I was one of the only Jewish kids in the public school system” in East Hanover, N.J., she said. “I didn’t know what it meant to keep kosher for Passover. And when I took Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur off as personal days, I was made fun of.”

Yet two months after participating in a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip, Kleter, a financial analyst with Citibank, enrolled in a crash course on Judaism. She learned to read Hebrew and recently had a bat mitzvah at the age of 25. After discovering her faith, she

says, she wanted to give back, to practice the mitzvah of tzedakah. But she didn’t have much to give and she didn’t want to go it alone.

So she joined Birthright NEXT’s Young Philanthropist Committee, a group of 20 Birthright alumni who each contributed $250 to a communal giving pot (previous YPC groups gave a minimum donation of $500, but the amount was lowered due to the tough economic climate). Birthright matched the combined $5,000, effectively leveraging the individual $250 contributions into a sizeable $10,000 donation.
Over the course of three months, the group met weekly at a conference room in Manhattan’s Diamond District. They learned how to evaluate grants and met with philanthropists like Charles Bronfman (“He’s a calm, little man who looks like everybody’s grandpa, but he’s unbelievably generous with the amount of money he gives away,” Kleter said). They were each responsible for researching a Jewish charity worthy of the group’s collective funds.

Through a popularity vote, the group funded a music program for disabled kids through Shalva, an Israeli organization that helps kids with autism and other disabilities. Although Kleter’s charity of choice didn’t gain the funding, she says she wasn’t disappointed. “I didn’t realize the amount of Jewish charities that existed,” she said. “I was floored.”

Kleter is one of a growing number of Jews — men and women, both young and old, the über rich and those who do not consider themselves wealthy — who are joining giving circles, where like-minded individuals pool their money and other resources and decide together where these resources should be distributed. In this tough economic climate, giving circles are becoming even more popular as individuals desire more of a say in where their dwindling dollars are going.

And giving circles “offer a way for people to be philanthropic and make a bigger impact even if they don’t have a lot to give,” said Angela Eikenberry, an expert on giving circles who recently wrote a book on the subject entitled “Giving Circles: Philanthropy, Voluntary Association, and Democracy” (Indiana University Press).

Giving circles range from the informal, in which a group of friends make decisions over potluck dinner, to the very formal — like the Natan Fund— in which members are divided into subcommittees and meetings often feature an educational component, said Eikenberry. Although there are no statistics on how many Jewish giving circles exist, Eikenberry estimates that there are currently more than 500 in the United States, most of which formed after 2000. These giving circles are engaging more than 12,000 donors and giving more than $100 million, according to a 2007 study conducted by the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers.

The growth and popularity of giving circles can be attributed to the overall trend of donors demanding a deeper engagement in philanthropic acts. “People want to be more entrepreneurial in their giving, and at the same time, more engaged in the giving process,” Eikenberry said. Then there’s the benefit of leverage. “People really believe they have more of an impact by combining those funds,” she said.
In surveying 341 current and past members of 26 giving circles nationwide, Eikenberry discovered that the longer members participate in a giving circle, the more likely they are to increase their giving, and give more strategically. Donors involved in a circle’s grant-making decision process give the most overall.

At the UJA-Federation of New York, giving circles (or venture philanthropy funds, as they call them) aren’t viewed as competition for a finite amount of dollars. For several years, the federation has provided staff and back-end resources, such as managing funds for a fee, to groups of active federation donors who wish to allocate specific dollars for specific areas, in addition to supporting the charity’s annual campaign.

The Solelim Fund (“pathfinders” in Hebrew), the oldest of the three venture philanthropy funds affiliated with the federation, brings together couples focused on “roll-up-your-sleeves” philanthropy. “This is one of the few things my husband and I do together philanthropically,” said Ruth Suzman, one of the founding members of Solelim and incoming chair of the federation’s Westchester Annual Campaign. “It’s been a really special way to connect with other like-minded donors, to learn from them, and to expand what we know together both within the UJA and in a broader sense, in the Jewish community in New York and worldwide.”

The eight-couple group, which is entering its 10th year, recently approved a grant of $120,000 to Birthright Israel, to sponsor a busload of New York participants on a December trip. “We’ve evolved a lot as a group,” said Suzman. “In the beginning, we were trying to fund things that are new and innovative, the projects that weren’t established enough to make it through a traditional submission network.” After a few years, Solelim shifted its focus to funding “mezzanine projects,” those that are past the startup stage.

Bonim Atid (“builders of the future”), which is entering its fifth year, requires a minimum commitment of $50,000 a year for three years. The venture philanthropy fund focuses on initiatives for children in Israel.
Modeled in part on the successes of Solelim and Bonim Atid, a group of women based in Westchester started a new venture philanthropy fund three years ago, known as Neshamot (souls). Members of the women’s-only venture philanthropy fund meet monthly in federation offices and contribute a minimum of $25,000 to $500,000 each. The 20-odd members divided themselves into three groups, each researching projects and organizations focused on a different funding priority. These include alleviating poverty in their communities, helping children in need in the U.S. and Israel, and funding initiatives aimed at promoting Jewish continuity.

“We view the campaign as primary and still believe in federated giving,” said Linda Mirels, one of the founders of Neshamot and general chair of federation’s 2009 campaign. “But we also believe in engagement with specific issues.” While the venture philanthropy funds are independent and capable of approving grants to any organization they choose, a large portion of their giving ends up supporting federation-affiliated agencies and projects.

Still, choosing which causes to prioritize isn’t easy. “I feel like I am playing the role of Hashem [God], judging which cause is more worthy of our grants — a needy Jew, or a Jew in need of spiritual upliftment,” said Martine Fleishman, a Neshamot member who lives in Harrison.

Not all giving circles meet in person. In October, the Women Donors Network’s four-year-old Mideast Peace Action Circle (whose members are primarily Jewish) will take an educational trip together to Israel and the West Bank with the goal of witnessing the cultures, narratives and women’s leadership in the region. The trips often lead to funding decisions, said Donna Hall, president of the Women Donors Network. Members of the Mideast Peace Action Circle live all around the country and communicate via regular conference calls and occasional in-person meetings.

And JGooders (JGooders.com), an online giving portal that enables individuals to give directly to Jewish causes, is piloting an online giving circle. “We’ve identified in the field of philanthropy the growing trend of giving circles,” said Tova Serkin, chief business officer at JGooders. “Giving circles very often feature face-to-face gatherings. We’re trying to figure out how to translate that online.”

The pilot program features 13 people under the age of 40, each of whom has pledged to donate $18 a month for a year. With matching funding, “they’re taking $18 and turning it into $468 with no added effort,” Serkin said. “It’s a much bigger incentive to give.”

In the next version of the site, which is scheduled to launch at the end of the calendar year, all JGooders users will be able to set up their own giving circles online.

The Natan Fund, the giving circle founded in 2002 by hedge fund managers Michael Steinberg, David Steinhardt, Evan Behrens, and Sender Cohen, has grown in recent years to 70 members and six grant committees, each functioning as its own giving circle. Giving collectively is “more fun” and “allows amateurs to give professionally,” said Felicia Herman, Natan’s executive director. Members of Natan contribute between $3,600 and $100,000 annually, and those serving on a grant committee are expected to donate a minimum of $18,000. Since the board pays Natan’s operating expenses, all donations go directly to grantees.

“The value of Natan is participating in the grant application process,” said Herman. “The interaction around the table encourages you to be more thoughtful than if you were giving on your own.”

With monthly talks by prominent philanthropists and family events including an annual Purim party, Natan has transformed from an innovative way to give to budding projects to a community all its own.
“The giving circle is a great model in a tough time,” Herman said. Last summer, there were enough new members to warrant Natan’s organizing of a philanthropy boot camp. “Philanthropists are often maligned as individual egos,” she says. “The fact that [Natan members] are learning how to become philanthropists in a group environment can make them more focused on cooperation and consensus.”

Members of giving circles are more likely than other donors to give to
organizations serving women and girls, ethnic or minority groups, and arts
and culture, according to the study conducted by Eikenberry. This holds true
for The Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York, which launched a one-time
giving circle in 2006 to mark the organization’s 10th anniversary, with the
goal of funding a project focused on adolescent girls. More than 60 women
joined, each contributing a minimum of $25,000. The group announced in May
2008 that it had given a three-year grant of $300,000 to the 14 Street Y of
the Educational Alliance for “The Girls Theater Project,” a multi-media
production that will address issues of empowerment, independence, and
personal identity. “I think women like the idea of being able to have a
hands-on, finite decision-making process,” says Lynn Tobias, former
president of JWFNY.

Even informal giving circles, like the one started a year-and-a-half ago by
a diverse group of Jews under 25 years old living in New York, tend to focus
their dollars on overlooked causes. Members of JPEG (Jewish Philanthropic
Educational Group, http://j-peg.blogspot.com), a peer-led giving circle, met
once a month over the course of a year and donated $225 a person. “We had a
consistent theme: We were looking for organizations that serviced
populations in need that are often not thought about,” says Jonathan
Horowitz, a co-founder of the group.

JPEG is “part book-club,” as it offers members an opportunity to socialize
and network. It also provides hands-on training for those without several
thousand dollars on hand to donate. Last year, the giving circle distributed
a few thousand dollars among three organizations: Footsteps, a non-profit
that provides pre-professional training to Hassidic Jews who have left the
community; the Shalom Task Force, an organization that combats domestic
abuse in the Orthodox world; and Citizen School, a national network of
after-school education programs for middle-school students. The choice to
fund two Jewish organizations and one non-Jewish one “spoke to our values,”
says Horowitz.

The more engaged members of giving circles are, the more likely they are to
increase their volunteer efforts. In this tough economic climate, that’s
exactly what Justin Karp’s giving circle, a spin-off of Birthright’s Young
Philanthropist Committee, is doing. The group, known as YPC 2.0, began
recruiting members just as the recession was getting worse. “With the
financial crisis, it was harder to recruit people,” he says. “Young people
were losing their jobs or were afraid of losing their jobs.”

The group decided to push back recruitment until the fall. In the meantime,
they visited an elderly center on the Lower East Side together and sponsored
a brunch, where they mingled with many Holocaust survivors and other
residents. The challenges of the economic climate “doesn’t mean we should
just rest on our laurels and do nothing,” he says. “We wanted to have an
impact now. Donating your time is as good or better as donating your money.”

E-mail: tamar@jewishweek.org

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