Two trends that IP has been reporting on lately are the reliance of donors on more sophisticated due diligence to guide their giving, and the robust state of Jewish philanthropy, with donors and funding organizations in this space engaged in record levels of giving.
So it was only a matter of time before those two trends collided. Goodnation, a platform that matches donors with nonprofits, recently partnered the Jewish Communal Fund and the Jewish Funders Network to launch the Jewish Philanthropy Project. The project provides access to 150 pre-vetted Jewish nonprofits, supporting initiatives including Jewish education, Israel advocacy and fighting antisemitism. Donors can input their preferences and a “philanthropy advisor” guides them through the entire giving process, from nonprofit selection to grant monitoring and communication. It’s like J-Date for Jewish givers.
This partnership comes at a moment when new funding intermediaries are appearing on the philanthropy scene and existing ones are seeing explosive growth. In the past few years, we’ve reported on the emergence of organizations like Blue Meridian Partners, Co-Impact, the Audacious Project, and the American Journalism Project that aim to make it easier for major donors to provide large-scale support to causes like reducing poverty in the U.S. or improving global health abroad. Meanwhile, we’ve written about the expanding work of longstanding groups like New Venture Fund and Proteus Fund that connect funders to nonprofits. What all these entities have in common is that they allow donors and foundations to outsource the heavy lifting required for smart philanthropy to experienced third parties.
It’s not surprising to see new infrastructure of this kind in the Jewish funding space, as major donors—many of whom may have little experience in the nonprofit world—need help figuring out where to direct their charitable dollars for maximum impact.
According to Goodnation founder Rob Hansen, “It's a real challenge for a donor to conduct effective due diligence. To do this, the donor has to understand what the nonprofit is accomplishing and how these accomplishments compare to others working on similar issues. Happily, that is exactly what the professional foundations do every day within competitive grantmaking processes. Goodnation makes the end result of this, a broad selection of highly effective organizations, available to donors so they can spend more time on the enjoyable part, exploring what kind of work is meaningful to them.” Stated another way, Goodnation aims to democratize sophisticated grantmaking.
A notable feature of the Jewish Philanthropy Project is that it’s predicated on connecting donors with nonprofits according to a values-based system. According to Ellen D. Israelson, VP of Philanthropic Services at JCF, aligning a donor’s values with those of a grantee organization is the optimal starting point for a relationship.
Speaking on a panel called “Philanthropy and its Role in the Family Office” at the Opal Group conference in Newport, Israelson points out that once an agreement on guiding values is in place, the partner organizations “can begin to analyze how they can approach this effectively in their philanthropy.” That opens up a range of avenues for the partners to explore, including localized or global giving, building and fostering support systems, investing in socially responsible businesses, and so on.
Israelson also notes the trend of enhanced due diligence, and how that is translating into increased risk taking. “There’s a greater appetite or resilience in terms of failure. People are more able to take risks with their philanthropic capital, because there’s not the same stigma around [making mistakes]. Now that people are more aware and cognizant of building in metrics and gathering evidence and data, they can step back and redirect, and not look at [a mistake] as a personal failure of ‘I wasn’t the smartest philanthropist in the world.’”
With the Jewish Philanthropy Project, Goodnation is positioning itself at the intersection of enhanced due diligence and Jewish fundraising prowess. Not a bad place to be at the moment, given the impact those trends are having on the broader philanthropic landscape.