Foundation News —Chip Edelsberg

Foundation News
—Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director

April 2009

Continued fraying of a tattered economy is tearing our communal fabric. The very future of an unknown number of Jewish organizations is imperiled. The editors of the NonProfit Quarterly observe in the current issue of the journal that “we are in the midst of turbulent economic, societal, and demographic changes. Every nonprofit will be affected, and there are no bystanders in this game.”

Jim Joseph Foundation Directors determined that one reasonable response for JJF to make in this time of need was to provide short-term emergency relief targeted to education. Directors focused on the four greater metropolitan areas in which they reside in awarding $11 million dollars—$5.5 million dollars over each of the next two years—to support needs-based financial aid for Jewish youth attending Jewish day and high schools, early childhood programs, and residential camps.

JJF has learned from its grantees that established institutions and newer organizations alike are threatened by severe financial austerity. Concurrently, the unrelenting pace of change spurred primarily by proliferation of technological innovation challenges even the most resilient of these 501(c)3s. Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that what author Dan Tapscott calls the “Net Generation” and “Generation Next” (see Tapscott’s Grown Up Digital) are “remaking every institution of modern life.”

Young Jews whom JJF’s philanthropy serves are neither, as a general rule, either particularly patient or undemanding. They expect choice, easy access, flexibility and interactivity, authenticity, meaningful content, Jewish particularism offered in universalistic contexts, and opportunities to help co-create experiences in which they choose to participate. Institutions that are unresponsive to these interests and proclivities are likely to wither.

In this fluid environment, JJF believes it has to take well-calculated risks if it is to make progress in achieving its vision of increasing number of young Jews engaged in ongoing Jewish learning who choose to live vibrant Jewish lives. The Foundation’s brief history of making relatively longer term funding commitments of significant resources to adaptive organizations bespeaks JJF’s faith in an unfolding future that will be full of myriad forms of effective, engaging Jewish education.

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