• About Amuta 2.0

  Take your non-profit to the next level by making the internet work for you! Using blogs and social media tools, you can help your message reach farther than ever before. Learn more.

• Stay updated!

  RSS Updates

  Email updates
  Enter your email address:
  

• See us on twitter!

  We're now on twitter. Check us out at www.twitter.com/amuta2point0, where we'll be publishing links to useful resources related to non-profits and social media.

• Recent Posts

  • Your Non-Profit: Remember The Romance
  • Microblogging with twitter for your non-profit
  • Wandering Jews
  • Socially Responsible Investments: Creative Capitalism and the Jewish World
  • CharityHappenings.org: the meetup site for the non-profit community

• Resources

  • Blogs to read
  • Fundraising
  • Israeli non-profit sites and blogs
  • Non-profit widgets
  • Social Media 101

The world of social change is in transition. Globally, national governments are no longer fulfilling the role of social change facilitator. In its stead, local and municipal governments are becoming increasingly powerful and effective. We see that in the response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as well as with the forest fires in California in the last few years. In short, this transition is the definition of glocalization’ - the more globalized we become, the more localized we become.

Within this new reality, the increasing force of local businesses and the third sector is front and center. Foreign Affairs recently published an article on “Global Corporate Citizenship,” which argues that “companies must not only be engaged with stakeholders but be stakeholders themselves alongside governments and civil society.” Bill Gates, in his “Creative Capitalism” article in Time Magazine August 11, 2008, calls for businesses to re-examine ways they can profit while simultaneously assisting the underprivileged and developing nations. “Government and non-profit groups have an irreplaceable role in helping [the underprivileged and 3^rd world countries], but it will take too long if they try and do it alone. It is mainly corporations that have the skills to make the technological innovations work for the poor.”

This is what we call at Yesod Masad the “triangle of influence” - today governments, businesses, and the 3^rd sector are working together to affect social change. The synergy between these forces is powerful enough to tackle some of the most looming problems in education, hunger, poverty, disease, and the environment, domestically and globally.

Jewish communities worldwide are all facing common Jewish issues: Jewish identity, Jewish education, demographics, lack of leadership, and anti-Semitism/anti-Israelism/fundamentalist Islam.

Examining and addressing these issues through the prism of the triangle of influence can not only increase resources, but our effectiveness as well.

The influence of each player within the triangle of influence is increasing in Israel.

Municipalities: With a void from the national government’s involvement in social issues, municipalities are becoming increasingly involved, empowered and effective. The role of municipalities’ social change was evident in the Second Lebanon War. Philanthropists and Federations need to partner with strong/solid municipalities and cultivate these relationships personally. Partnership 2000, which looks to bring Federations together with a sister city in Israel for social change, is a good outlet. Yet most philanthropic investments in Israel, whether geographical, sectoral, or issue based, should involve municipalities.

Individual Israeli Wealth and Israeli Businesses: Individual wealth is increasing, as is the success, wealth and influence of businesses. Businesses in Israel are becoming increasingly involved in social change, as are businessmen and women as they become increasingly successful. Take for example the transformation of Bat Yam, now considered the city of excellence. Ten years ago Bat Yam was one of the poorest, most neglected cities in Israel, with its population base deemed very low socio-economically. Aaron Castro, founder and creator of the Castro clothing store, who made aliyah from Saloniki in 1933 and opened his first tailor shop in Tel Aviv in the early 1950s (with the Bat Yam store opening in the early 1990’s), has been loyal to Bat Yam throughout the growth of Castro, with its headquarters in the city throughout its development. Less than a decade ago, Aaron Castro went to the mayor and demanded the city be transformed through massive investment in education. He put his own and his business’s money where his mouth was, in the form of philanthropic investment in education in Bat Yam. And he demanded that the municipality leverage with him. Today Bat Yam has been transformed into Israel’s “City of Excellence” and is growing in its impact.

Business models: Business’ involvement in social change in Israel also means the introduction of new philanthropic models of investment, such as the growth of community development venture capital funds (VC). VCs are investing in underprivileged areas, whether through small business development encouraging gentrification, or through technologies generated by the areas (such as green tech in the Negev). The lesson: Socially responsible investing (SRI) can bring a return on the dollar in terms of profit - strategic philanthropic investments means business concepts and often models are pulled in to the investment.

3^rd sector: Non-profits organized to tackle social issues are a major force. So too are individual philanthropists. Due to these changes, new organizations and forums have been created such as:

• Sheatufim: Established in 2006, it brings together Israeli businesses and the 3^rd sector for social change. Its first conference was held in June 2008, and it received much attention including a closing speech by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
• The Jewish Funders Network: The first conference was held in 2008, and dealt with Jewish issues, bringing together Israeli philanthropists with international Jewish philanthropists. The network’s Israel office is slated to open in 2008/9.
• Center for Philanthropy - Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Opened in 2007, with a PhD student examining the role of philanthropists influencing policy, such as the Gaydamak phenomenon and the Knesset’s Gaydamak law.

Reverse philanthropy is now flowing from Israel to the Diaspora to address global Jewish issues occurring abroad. In the end, the wellbeing of the Diaspora has an impact on the strength of the State of Israel.

Yesod Masad’s raison d’etre is to enable social change in the Jewish world via the triangle of influence. As strategic advisors to all three elements, we see first- hand that the most effective change occurs when all three elements work together.

For the readership of this blog, whether you are the head of a non-profit, a grass roots activist, or come from the philanthropic side of the 3^rd sector, Federations, or foundations - know that your power can be reinforced and increased many times over. Nonprofits should look for partnering with the business sector and even consider working THROUGH the business sector. Projects can be sculpted to involve business departments/concepts/and players.

Philanthropists should understand that there is a difference between tzedaka and philanthropic investment. The former does not consider strategic value, return on the dollar, and impact. The latter does. Consider the new kinds of models which will allow you to invest, to see your money returned both socially and financially, and to make your philanthropic dollar go further. SRIs - concepts and players - can allow us to tackle the biggest of problems and to multiply our reach and effeciveness.

Ahava Zarembski is Founder and President of The Yesod Masad Initiative, a strategic consulting group on Jewish communities in Israel and around the world.

So we’re getting closer to the launch breakfast, and we’re excited. We’re especially excited that Jeff Pulver will be there leading us in his world-famous social networking. With the creation of his social networking system, Jeff has managed to bring the world of online social media and networking to the offline, three dimensional world where people actually meet and talk to each other.

The great thing about Jeff’s system is that it gives people the opportunity to benefit from the advantages that each type of networking offers. When networking online, we can quickly get an overview of a person’s interests and personality by looking at their profile, blog posts, tag cloud on their blog, friends, etc. However, no matter how much we communicate online, we can never entirely recreate the experience of talking to a person in real life and verbally communicating.

How does this social networking work?

Below is a video in which Jeff explains how his social networking works, but here’s a quick overview:

You get a little plastic bag.

The bag has stuff in it.

It has a pen, two labels, a label sheet, and mini post-it notes.

Now, here’s what you do:

1. You write your name and personal tagline on one label.
2. You write your personal tag cloud on the second label. A tag cloud is “a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and are typically listed alphabetically, and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color.” (Wikipedia on Tag Clouds). What this means for you is that if you love fishing and do it a lot, you write “fishing” in large text. If you don’t love the color red, you write that in smaller text (or whatever). Etc.
3. You use the label sheet for real-time tagging of other people. This means that while you’re talking to someone, write something down about that person on a label and stick it on ‘em. For example, you may find out that they are a blogger, photographer, Dad, or just plain amazing. Write it on a label, and stick it.
4. All that’s left are the post-it notes. These are for placing on everyone’s “walls.” I actually don’t quite get this part, since things that are written on people’s walls are things that make sense to actually say with your mouth. But anyways, that’s what it’s for.

The goal? As Jeff says, it’s to break down all the other walls around you. Nice.

Here’s the video. We’ll be testing you:

The most recent edition of The Marker Magazine (a fantastic magazine, worth reading if you can handle the Hebrew) had an interesting article about what is called “The Third Sector” in Israel, i.e. the non-profit sector (you can see part of the article online here). The article’s focus is on how Israel’s business sector is establishing and contributing to non-profits, and how it approaches charitable work from a business perspective of sustainability, viability, revenues, etc.

Here are some interesting statistics about Israel’s non-profit sector that were quoted in the article:

• 30,000 non-profits are active in Israel.
• 365,000 people were employed by non-profits in 2004 - representing 17.5% of the market.
• 1,700 new non-profits are registered every year.
• Israel’s “Third Sector” is fourth largest in the world relative to the country’s size etc. It contributes 13% to Israel’s GDP.

Israel’s top three contributors (the article lists 10):

• Teva Pharmaceuticals - 104,114,000
• Bank Hapoalim - 44,822,000
• Bank Leumi - 20,600,000

Israel’s top three charitable funds (the article lists 10):

• Keren Yedidut of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein (International Fellowship of Christians and Jews) - $70m (you may have heard Rabbi Eckstein lately on the radio)
• Sacta Rashi Foundation - $50m
• Yad Hanadiv Foundation (Rothschild) - $30-50m (There doesn’t seem to be a site for this fund. Not only that, this article in Haaretz describes it as one of the most secretive foundations, and their recipients are not allowed to tell anyone that they were helped by Yad Hanadiv! Talk about upholding one of the highest levels of charitable donations according to Judaism - anonymity)

Learn more about the growing cooperation between Israel’s business and non-profit communities in the article: Oren Major, “The Social Tycoons,” The Marker Magazine, 91st edition August 2008, p. 40.

I’m sure that many of you have seen the Dry Bones cartoons in their distinctive, 4 box style. Yaakov Kirschen, the guy behind Dry Bones, offered to create a special Dry Bones cartoon in honor of the launch of amuta 2.0…and here it is!