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Oct
30
Wandering Jews
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(The following article was originally published in Haaretz, and is republished here with permission of the author)
The weekend after Rosh Hashanah, a TV show called “Shavuah Sof” (”Endweek”) ran a skit in which one of the show’s hosts complained that he had been overloaded with so many “Happy New Year” text messages that his phone continued buzzing for days. “If you really want to wish me a happy new year,” he concluded, “call. Let me hear your voice.”
Only a few years ago, one may still have received a few cards in the mail. But as our electronic address has taken the place of our physical one, expecting cards is expecting too much. Rootlessness - the high-frequency relocating of the present day - has become the norm for many of us, especially those who have been empowered by technology to travel in pursuit of opportunities without the fear of losing touch with those we love.
Few holidays are as reflective of our times, therefore, as the seven days in which we are commanded to sit in booths: Sukkot, the holiday of the ingathering of the autumn harvest, takes on new meaning today, with much of the world open to our temporary residencies, thanks to near-universal acceptance of Jews, and the power of information technologies.
Borders are open to us, and with debit cards, search engines and GPS-enabled maps at our disposal, we can find our way around most anywhere with ease, and pay our way in local currency. All this has increased the mobility of the average member of the first digital generation - especially the highly educated and opportunity-minded we have by the dozen.
What is remarkable is that Jewish culture, too, has been liberated from the restrictions of time and space. “In the past year I’ve traveled to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the U.K.,” recalls David Abitbol, the Jerusalem-based founder of Jewlicious.com, an engine of young Jewish culture around the world. “I’ve been to Canada, and on both coasts of the United States. In all cases, I based my itineraries on availability of Internet access. I was able to continue working wherever I was.”
From a day-to-day communal point of view, however, the fruits of this change have been varied. “Increased travel has, at least for those Jewishly identified, resulted in more Jews becoming familiar with Jews and Jewish communities abroad,” says Prof. Chaim I. Waxman, a sociologist with the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute. “It has also resulted in some Jews being less personally involved in their home community, because they are increasingly away from it.”
This is a paradoxical effect of the digital age - a nearness when far, but a distance even when close. Yes, the Jews were historically known for wandering. Some traveled in search of opportunity, but the majority did so under threat of persecution. Either way, the wanderings of yesteryear were for a much longer term. Up until a half century ago, when one waved farewell from a ship, it was often with little expectation of seeing those left behind again. Once one arrived in a safe community, one’s life was built around its institutions: A Jew who arrived in Pittsburgh or Petah Tivka could see her grandkids grow up a short ride away, and would dedicate her time and money to building communal institutions.
This is certainly not the case today. Thanks to near-ubiquitous digital access, even when we fly off to Thailand, we’re no more than a Skype call away. And if we find ourselves in Pittsburgh, online social networks enable us to connect more quickly with people we share interests with for a short period of time.
And yet these flash connections rarely are as close as those of yesteryear - leaving us with the challenge, as our society becomes defined by the “first digitals’” frequent choice of “sukkot” over permanent dwellings, of adapting our community institutions for highly mobile members.
Our communal institutions - from the State of Israel to our local federations and synagogues - were built for the static life, distinguishing between “locals,” who are dues-paying members, and “visitors,” a smaller group that temporarily accesses services.
But the relative numbers have flipped, leaving us wondering, as the digital age increases our wandering and the relative numbers of “locals” lessens and “visitors” increases, whom are our physically bound institutions meant to serve? What communal institutions are necessary in a world defined by nomadic wandering?
Some organizations have found innovative ways to meet the new demand. Chabad has created a global network of way-stations where wandering Jews can stop for a bite - a gas station for the Jewish body and soul. These nodes are, ideally, financially supported by locals who are inspired by their impact, with strong international backing. But Chabad’s model does not depend on the obligation of those it serves most directly.
As such, with our world moving toward greater mobility, we might reflect in our temporary dwellings as to how we may better build institutions to address the needs of the near-strangers among us. That is, how do we adapt local institutions to the steady flow of visitors who have no intention of staying put? And can we create global institutions that provide services that aren’t bound by physical limitations?
Two directions may serve as a good springboard for further thought. Our tradition maintains the practice of ushpizin, a hosting of strangers parallel to the ethos of hospitality practiced by Bedouin and other nomadic societies. Second, we may learn from the wisdom of the regalim, the thrice-annual pilgrimages that defined the holidays of ancient Israel, and which inspired a sense of unity in a dispersed population through face-to-face contact. Because, no matter the power of social networking and mobile communication technologies, sometimes a text message isn’t enough to prove how much you care.
Ariel Beery is the founder and co-director of the PresenTense Group, which equips social ventures and communities for the information age.
Oct
28
Socially Responsible Investments: Creative Capitalism and the Jewish World
Filed Under Social entrepreneurship | 1 Comment
From secretlondon123's photostream on flickr
Socially responsible investments (SRI) have gained much prominence in the last decade. Businesses and corporations are recognizing their capacity and responsibility to social wellbeing and have chosen to invest where they see a social return. Recently, a more equalized investment scenario has emerged: “creative capitalism” (as coined by Bill Gates), which merges profit generation and maximization with social issue improvement. Creative capitalism is being recognized as THE way to tackle global problems such as climate change, water, disease, terrorism, and hunger.
Yet the Jewish world is still severely under-utilizing SRIs and businesses’ involvement to address our internal needs. Nor does it utilize creative capitalism. Particularly in the current financial climate, the concepts of SRI and creative capitalism should be increasingly examined as new methods for addressing the Jewish world’s growing needs.
Global Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate socially responsible investments on the ACTIVE level point to the fact that companies have responsibility not only to shareholders but also to stakeholders, as well as the wide array of parties interested in the companies’ actions. These include owners, investors, employees, suppliers, clients, consumers, and the general public. A company has three levels of accountability - financial, social, and environmental.
SRIs are the method by which many businesses look to improve social and environment problems that impact all stakeholders, while also being fiscally responsible. It can range from responsible production, like Nike’s commitment to achieving or exceeding baseline sustainability from the design stage through to the manufacturing stage for all its footwear, to Community Development Venture Capitalist Funds which look to invest in underprivileged areas, generating profit while raising the quality of the neighborhoods (and presumably the standard of living).
Not only has interest in SRIs increased, but so have actual investments due to a growing number of institutional investors now supporting shareholder resolutions on social, environmental, and corporate governance issues, new products, fund styles etc. In the US, for example, SRI assets have risen more than 324% from $639 billion in 1995 to $2.71 trillion in 2007. There, one out of every nine dollars invested is invested in SRIs.
In this era of SRIs playing a key role in a company’s competitive strategy, two new models have emerged which combine corporate financial goals with social ones. The first model, Corporate Social Entrepreneurship, is the transformation of socially and environmentally responsible ideas into products and services (Bill Gates’s “creative capitalism“). It was under this model that Muhammad Yunus created the concept of microcredit, which won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. The second model, Global Corporate Citizenship, has a much wider global perspective. It declares that corporations have a civic duty to cooperate with governments and civil society to contribute to sustaining the world’s well being and addressing its largest issues.
SRIs and the Jewish World:
In the Jewish world, we have traditionally looked to engage philanthropy and government to address our needs. With the decline in the traditional type of philanthropy, particularly amongst younger givers, and combined with the current and foreseeable financial climate, we must engage businesses as a third partner, use new models of philanthropy, and demonstrate that businesses’ financial interests can be addressed at the same time as internal needs.
The question remains: Can the global business concept of SRIs be integrated into the Jewish world, and if so, how? This is our challenge.
Bringing a sense of corporate social responsibility into this traditionally philanthropic realm is new for the Jewish world. Government intervention has been strongly rejected (except for amongst the Orthodox) due to the strong desire to maintain separation of religion and state in the US. Involvement by the Israeli government in broader Jewish issues is obviously in play in Israel and is just starting to emerge in terms of reverse philanthropy to the US. Now, we must engage the critical inclusion of businesses -not solely Jewish businesses and/or Jewish businessmen/women - that have their own strategic interests for addressing needs facing the Jewish community (ies) and engaging them.
Jewish education has been identified as THE key to addressing the biggest issues in the Jewish world such as decreased identity, knowledge, and sense of connectedness. Yet providing universal Jewish education and day school education for those outside of Israel is expensive, sometimes prohibitively so. Providing affordable Jewish education to every Jewish youngster can only happen with the involvement of businesses, particularly those businesses that have a strategic interest in building day schools and their enrollment. Major publishers of Jewish and Hebrew textbooks and educational software, such as Milon, have a strategic financial incentive to work with the Jewish community to increase the number of pupils in day schools. Despite huge incentives, what is still missing throughout this equation is business involvement. Globally, businesses represent the newest, most innovative powers in the quest to tackle major issues, yet the Jewish world has not yet harnessed their power effectively.
In these philanthropically transformative, financially uncertain times, how do we best integrate the business element into the social equation and make them real partners in our effort to tackle the largest needs in the Jewish world?
Ahava Zarembski is Founder and President of Yesod: Strategic Consulting Group and the Yesod-Masad Initiative, providing strategic on Jewish communities in Israel and around the world. For more information contact yesodcenter@gmail.com
Oct
12
CharityHappenings.org: the meetup site for the non-profit community
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CharityHappenings.org is an events directory that calls itself “The Official Master Calendar of Non-Profit Events, Galas, and Benefits.” A hefty title to bestow upon oneself, it does seem to live up to the name, if displaying lots of pictures of women in evening gowns is any indication.
[Personal rant: why do people have this need to be part of lush, ridiculously expensive, fashionable parties in order to feel good about donating to causes they supposedly care about? If they really cared, they'd forego the parties and donate all the money from the fashionable food, venue and attire as well. These galas should really be called "Let's party for the poor." End of rant.]
The site says that it offers the non-profit professional community, the philanthropic public and the media with a free, comprehensive and up-to-date calendar of charitable events. On the other end, the site offers event organizers and users a portal to display party pictures enabling charities to publicize the success of past events. And finally, the site offers an extensive directory of venues and suppliers.
You can post your event’s details and photos for free. A listing on the Supplier/Venue directory costs between $100-$225 per year, and ads run from $7500-$20,000 per year.
So break out your party dress, shell out a few thousand bucks on your favorite “look at my generosity” gala event, and maybe your pic will end up on CharityHappenings.org.
Oct
6
10 Ways to Make Your Online Press Room Perform for Your Nonprofit
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To capture a journalist’s attention and answer her questions, a repository of press releases plus some bios and head shots (which comprises the entirety of most nonprofit press rooms), just isn’t enough.
How to ensure you’re providing the timely, meaty information and insight journalists crave, enough to engage and motivate a call or email for a conversation? Every media pro worth her paycheck knows a great online media room means the difference between multiple column inches and a mere mention, if that.
Here’s how to do it:
Online Press Room vs. Media Kit
Online media rooms, and journalists’ expectations of them, have evolved. Many nonprofit organizations now feature “virtual press kits,” but an effective online press room is more than just a media kit.
The last thing you want is for a journalist to hit a wall, and become frustrated or annoyed, when trying to dig into your nonprofit or program online. Here’s the construct to follow to avoid that ugly scenario:
- A press room is the area on your site expressly for the media, although other audiences may be interested in the content. Most of the content here is on the organizational level, rather than specific to a single program, service, location or event.
- A media kit is a set of essential, easy-to-use and downloadable information focused on your organization, or a program, product, leader, service or event.
What to Include in Your Online Press Room
Your online press room should provide what you used to include in your hard-copy press kit, and then some:
- The absolute latest news. Journalists who’ve come to expect the most up-to-the-minute information from your site will seek out your virtual press kit; it’s a matter of consistently fulfilling expectations.Planned Parenthood makes its latest news accessible by topic and by date:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/media/ - Downloadable photos and graphics to accompany stories.Think leaders and staff, programs in action, product shots and more. Include several versions of your logo, and provide all downloads in high, medium and low resolution.
Take a cue from the American Red Cross which provides clear terms of use and specs for its downloadable images:
http://www.redcross.org/general/0,1082,0_129_,00.html - A directory of your organization’s experts.Make it easy for journalists to get to the expert on the particular subject they are covering. The directory should be searchable by name and topic.
The National Resources Defense Council does a great job with its Expert Finder:
http://www.nrdc.org/media/ - Succinct backgrounders and fact sheets.Make sure the information in your backgrounders is relevant to the latest news you’re pitching, or responding too. Frequently, backgrounders are too generic to fill journalists’ needs.
The Non-Profit Housing Corporation of Northern California provides a pithy snapshot on Bay Area affordable housing issues as a download, plus an experts directory and list of hot stories:
http://www.nonprofithousing.org/about/pressroom/default.aspxHere’s a multi-page version from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society:
http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/attachments/National/br_1182779969.pdf - Up-to-the-minute event calendars and timelines, updated daily if necessary. Make it easy for journalists to get the latest.Nothing is less impressive than an outdated listing. Keep your listing up to date like this one from Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE).
http://www.sare.org/events/show_events.asp - Guidelines on writing and reporting on your organization’s key topics or issue areas.The UCP’s (formerly United Cerebral Palsy) online press room offers useful interaction and etiquette tips for writing on people with disabilities:
http://www.ucp.org/ucp_generalsub.cfm/1/9/6573 - Audio and/or video clips.Definitely include multimedia if possible, and transcripts for time-starved reporters.
The Sierra Club’s press room offers audio and video clips of the org’s radio and television ads: http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/media/
- Awards and RecognitionLet your successes speak for your organization, rather than saying it yourself. ACCION does a good job of this:
http://bbnc.accion.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Document.Doc?id=34 - Recent ClipsClips add credibility, and give the media an idea of what’s already been done (and the gaps they can fill).
Make sure your clips are up-to-date, unlike those in this online pressroom (from 2005):
http://www.nonprofithousing.org/about/pressroom/news/default.aspx - News Feed for Automatic Receipt of Press Room UpdatesMake it easy for those who are interested to get press releases and other news hot off the press via an RSS reader.
The American Cancer Society makes this very easy:
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/MED_10_RSS.asp
Of course, the more relevant information, the better. Resist flooding the press room with useless content. Above all, avoid going overboard with hype or flash. Hyperbole gets you nowhere.
What to Include in Your Program-Specific (or Product, Location, or Event) Media Kit
Pretty much the same big 10 outlined above, sans awards.
Consider adding any or all of these elements:
- Milestones
- History
- Relevant statistics (impact or change generated)
Most importantly, make sure content is current. These kits need to be updated weekly if not daily.
More Tips for Your Online Press Room
- Feature a highly-visible link to your press room on your home page, and on every page throughout the site. Include it in your site’s main menu bar.Press kits on current topics or programs should be highlighted on the home page.
- Include clear contact information for your organization’s primary media contact, and the back- up.
- Offer brief bios of your organization’s leaders and experts, to provide a context for quotes or coverage.
Online Press Rooms that Work
Review these nonprofits’ online press rooms for ways to strengthen your own:
ACCION
http://www.accion.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=229&srcid=293
American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/med_0.asp
CivilRights.org
http://www.civilrights.org/press_room/index.html
University of Missouri
http://munews.missouri.edu/
But my best advice for what to include in your nonprofit’s online press room? Ask the journalists you work with most frequently what they want. They’re your customers and it’s all about meeting their needs.
© 2002-2008 Nancy E. Schwartz. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Nancy E. Schwartz helps nonprofits succeed through effective marketing and communications. As President of Nancy Schwartz & Company (www.nancyschwartz.com), Nancy and her team provide marketing planning and implementation services to organizations as varied as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, and Wake County (NC) Health Services.
Subscribe to her free e-newsletter “Getting Attention”, (http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_attention.html) and read her blog at http://www.gettingattention.org for more insights, ideas and great tips on attracting the attention your organization deserves.
Oct
6
Amuta 2.0 gets Wordle-d
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Joel Katz, one of the participants at Amuta 2.0’s launch event, wordle-d Amuta 2.0 and produced this nice word cloud:
Of course I went to check out what a wordle is all about and started having way to much fun.
Wordle is an online toy for generating “word clouds” from text or URLs that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.
Aside from being a fun distraction, Wordle is a helpful tool for your organization to get a snapshot of any webpage and see which words are being used most. Then you can decide if the word collage reflects the essence of your organization.
[hat tip: Debi'z blog]