Even while the world is experiencing chaos and confusion, it is inspiring to see organizations, particularly community based and religious institutions such as synagogues, engage with and draw in their communities in meaningful ways. The unknown is most definitely challenging, and over the past two months, people have turned to their local communities for support,…
T’ruah, a nonprofit that trains Jewish clergy to work on human rights campaigns, has a somewhat unusual funding structure. A third of its annual revenue— about $1.4 million in 2018, according to tax filings — comes from foundations, which normally make up a larger portion for Jewish organizations of its size. The rest comes from…
Bryan Leib got the dreaded call last week. His employer, the Jewish nonprofit Americans Against Antisemitism, was laying him off due to uncertainty caused by coronavirus. “We’re not a large nonprofit, and we found ourselves having to make tough decisions,” said Leib. “The last thing people are thinking about, I think, is giving to a…
The Lubavitch Educational Center, a set of schools in South Florida teaching toddlers and Talmud scholars alike, nearly went out of business in 2013. Past due on an $8 million loan, the center was facing foreclosure on three properties, including its main campus, an 84,020-square-foot behemoth on seven acres. A company made up of the…
Employees at Jewish nonprofits all over the country are disseminating a spreadsheet meant to help inform workers — especially female ones — about the salaries of their peers. The Google spreadsheet collected 210 entries in its first 12 or so hours. “If you don’t know what people are making, you don’t know what to ask…
In 2008, Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and philanthropist, pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor and registered as a sex offender. In 2017, one of the biggest Jewish charities in America accepted a $50,000 donation from him. In 2019, Epstein was accused of new sex trafficking charges. Now what? That charity, UJA-Federation of New…
The $1.3 trillion spending bill passed by the house includes a major boost in funding to protect not-for-profits from security threats. The Non-Profit Security Program out of the Department of Homeland Security will see its budget more than double, from $25 million to $60 million. The program provides grants to not-for-pprofits for security equipment and…
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! Early this morning, I received an email from a friend who has worked for years with leaders of national nonprofits. “Tell me I read the Forward figures wrong,” she wrote. “I saw no…
