Charities, You’re Leaving Money on the Table
Pickings in a mid-winter mailbox are slim: The holidays are over; it’s too early for spring catalogs, and a property tax bill that will raid my bank account hasn’t yet arrived. No better time for an envelope to get noticed.
So why did a Jewish non-profit that does good work come away empty-handed after grabbing my attention with its nice brochure?
Strike one: The appeal for funds was addressed to my husband, despite a previous donation, made in both our (different) surnames.
Strike two: The letterhead shows an all-male board.
Strike three: There was no reply to my email explaining why my wallet would be closed.
Did I expect a response? Not really. What did I hope to accomplish, except to deliver a message: You’re leaving money on the table.
As someone who has joined the ranks of targeted giving (donating to a specific project rather than to a communal pool of funds), I want quick victories for my dollars. That’s good news for certain non-profits, where even small checks can go a long way. So why favor my husband with an appeal and neglect me as a potential donor?
That oversight can be corrected. But with philanthropy so competitive, I want to give where women have a say in how that money is spent.
There’s a lingering perception, as old as Moses, that influential audiences are sometimes more receptive to men. Perhaps that explains why women are woefully under-represented or absent altogether from too many public events hosted by the Jewish community, as Jane Eisner wrote in this recent Forward editorial.
With two post-war generations of well-educated women, there is hardly a shortage of Jewish female scholarship or expertise. So when the Forward asks, “Where Are The Women?” we need answers to why a gender imbalance exists at the microphone in front of Jewish audiences.
Perhaps it boils down to being comfortable with whom you know, and who is considered acceptable to a particular crowd, especially when the subject involves matters of Jewish law.
But is there, conscious or not, an impression (in some quarters) that male speakers bring a certain heft? If so, it’s a short distance to diminished expectations: Can numerous female headliners attract the turnout of a testosterone-dominant podium?
At least one academic, Shaul Kelner of Vanderbilt University, has taken a stand, declining to take part in all-male panel discussions in the Jewish public sphere. (His refrain has been an effective remedy.) Hopefully, others will follow his example.
Kelner’s action has persuaded me to exercise greater scrutiny to ensure that non-profits, (Jewish or otherwise), include women in decision-making circles. Whether it’s the benefit of someone’s scholarship or a fistful of charitable dollars, perhaps nothing speaks louder than the word “no.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Make a Passover Gift Today!
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
- 4
Opinion Yes, the attack on Gov. Shapiro was antisemitic. Here’s what the left should learn from it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Harvard president: As a Jew, ‘I know very well’ that concerns about antisemitism are valid
-
Fast Forward Ben Shapiro, Emily Damari among torch lighters for Israel’s Independence Day ceremony
-
Fast Forward Larry David’s ‘My Dinner with Adolf’ essay skewers Bill Maher’s meeting with Trump
-
Sports Israeli mom ‘made it easy’ for new NHL player to make history
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.