by David Sheen, JGooders Content Editor

Reinventing Charity is the third in a trilogy of TED Talks that we are linking to from the JGooders blog. In this twelve-minute talk from 2007 uploaded only a few months ago, business and government consultant and author Katherine Fulton discusses the future of philanthropy. She eloquently explains the evolution of a new model for philanthropy in the digital age, and how it differs substantially from the traditional foundation — which was radical when it was invented a century ago but is showing its age as our culture changes at an exponential rate in the twenty-first century. Fulton introduces a slew of new terms that give us a framework for understanding and analyzing what JGooders and others around the world have been doing in the last few years, and that many more will inevitably adopt in the years to come.

First of all there is the democratization of philanthropy: microphilanthropy, peer-to-peer philanthropy, aggregated giving, call it what you will; it is the mass collaboration of average citizens, giving from their time and energy in online marketplaces (like JGooders), forming communities around causes. Then there is the so-called business of benevolence: venture philanthropy, philanthropeneurs, social investing, or any other synonym: the “third-way” movement that’s neither nonprofit nor for-profit, but both, combining social justice with economic accountability. In fact, I would add that the whole idea of TED — taking the accumulated knowledge of our sharpest scientific minds and most influential artists, and charging admission to their live performances, but making the tapes available to anyone with an internet connection — this is an excellent example of both of these ideals.

Amazingly, at the end of April, the TED organization will be coming to Israel for the first time since it was founded in 1984. There are certainly enough local experts in the fields of Technology, Entertainment, and Design to justify holding a TED event here. Na Laga’at, an amazing organization based in Jaffa that lists with JGooders, will be hosting the TEDxTelAviv event in their performance theater. At this point, it’s too late to get tickets to the actual event itself — the demand is massive — but as always, all of the presentations will be recorded and eventually uploaded to TED.com and the TED YouTube channel. So check out Reinventing Charity and watch it all the way to the end; I cannot recall a single TED presenter that got as emotional as Katherine Fulton did up on stage. And if you like what you learn, then stay tuned for more “ideas worth spreading”!

So many books have been written, so many movies have been made. What can I possibly say about the Genocide that hasn’t been already said six million times? Maybe it’s better not to add my voice to the chorus. Only today it’s more of a maelstrom of voices. Because by talking so much about the Holocaust, and insisting upon its singularity, we’ve made it the brand-name of national massacres. Now when anyone searches for a verbal term that has the raw power to shock and awe, they instantly click on the link “Nazi”. And what’s even sadder than watering down the suffering of my grandparents is comparing their descendants to the vile perpetrators of the carnage. Because wanton words of mass destruction can be a double-edged sword.

Now I’m not saying that we need to stop telling our stories. And I’m certainly no revisionist mystic or Neturei Karta, I definitely don’t believe that we brought it upon ourselves. But at some point, I think we need to end the Olympics of Who-Has-Suffered-More. Our Jewish Holocaust wasn’t history’s first murder in the millions. Heck, it wasn’t even the twentieth century’s (the American occupation of the Phillipines bears that shame). Was our slaughter a worse one because we didn’t have any real resources to take away, because we hadn’t done anything to deserve it? That’s true for every victim of collective capital punishment, and we aren’t short on historical — or contemporary — examples of mass executions. So how are we supposed to talk about our almost-annihilation?

Both of my mother’s parents were the sole survivors of their respective families. They lived through atrocious times. I know my grandfather’s story because he told it to me, many times. Eventually he told it on camera, and I uploaded it to YouTube, with subtitles in twenty-first century English — so that my children, who have never even heard Yiddish, will be able to understand his patois Yinglish. I wonder what they’ll think when they watch it, what they’ll feel when they hear him. After he tells his harrowing tale on tape, the interviewer asked my grandfather if he believes in God; what conclusions did he come to as a result of all of his suffering? He answered her then, over five decades later, that he had never stopped suffering, that he had never been happy ever again, ever since.

What?! My grandfather got married to my grandmother, gave life to my mom and two other children, lived for another fifty years, and was never ever happy again for even a single day of his life? I can’t possibly judge him, I’ve never experienced personal loss like that. But what was the freaking point of getting out of bed and going to work another twenty thousand times, if every blasted second of it was emiserating? His response: This accursed world has a sick, twisted way of pushing you through life. So, so sad. Zaidy, I know you had a lot of love in your heart, because you soiled and toiled in the bowels of that bakery for nearly half a century, and unbeknownst to everyone, you gave away the money as fast as you made it. You lived like a pauper, and when you died, we found out that you had donated more than a million.

His whole world was snatched away from him, and he carried the pain of it all with him for the rest of his life. I guess that anonymously helping others was one of the ways that he numbed away that terrible pain. I wish that he had room in his heart for another emotion, I wish he could have known some joy. I wish that we could have shared some. But looking back now, I realize that what he had shared with me was the greatest life lesson, the noblest truth. And that is: The reason to live… is to give. That is all. There aren’t any evil villains that we aren’t capable of becoming, and he sure wasn’t some kind of hero to hide out in the forest, when his whole village was herded off into cattle cars. But in his simple working-class way, he had hit upon the real meaning of life: Give It Away Till It’s Gone.

Okay, I’m rambling. It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, and I’m allowing myself to stagger through philosophical musings on the Shoah. Thank you for reading all the way to the end of this diatribe; there’s only one paragraph left to go, I’m going to summarize now, and get straight to the point. I know that of late we tend to commemorate this date by wrapping ourselves in the flag. And I’m not saying anything about the flag — this flag, or any other. But I just wanted to put another idea out there, as a possible alternative: this Yom HaShoah, let us answer the killing fields of history by opening the storehouses and giving out the grain to anyone that asks for it, whatever they look like. Let’s make pre-emptive peace and stop all the holocausts from happening ever again.

Inter-Generation Holocaust Education Project

New Village for Orphans of the Rwandan Genocide

Now that 2009 is three months behind us – the numbers are starting to roll in – how much did the internet grow, how many people used it – and for what? Below I’ve compiled some of the more interesting figures from the year – enjoy! (Unless otherwise stated, data is courtesy Pingdom)

JGooders was not the only new website added to the growing cyberspace over the course of last year; 47 million new sites were launched in 2009. Luckily, while number of sites continued to grow, there was also an increase in the number of users by 18% over the previous year. In September 2009, it is estimated that there were 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide. One might assume that most of them come from North America – but see the numbers below:

* 738,257,230 – Internet users in Asia
* 418,029,796 – Internet users in Europe
* 252,908,000 – Internet users in North America
* 179,031,479 – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean
* 67,371,700 – Internet users in Africa
* 57,425,046 – Internet users in the Middle East
* 20,970,490 – Internet users in Oceania / Australia

When I saw the following numbers below, I couldn’t help thinking about how we spend our time, and what we have to give up doing to do be online as much as we are:

* 90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009
* 247 billion – Average number of email messages per day
* 1.4 billion – The number of email users worldwide
* 100 million – New email users since the year before

Makes you wonder…but even these numbers don’t reflect our time online – it’s just e-mails. You need to read and answer them but then think about all the other online activities out there – tweeting, sharing links with the growing number of your online friends, groups, blogs, networks, etc.. So here is what it accumulates to globally:

350 million – People on Facebook
50% – Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day
126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse)
84% – Percent of social network sites with more women than men
27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States

And we did not mention, googling, gaming, shopping, chatting, traveling, Skypeing…if this is how much time we spent online in 2009 – just imagine what the future holds – each of us will literally spend years of our lives in front of computers. We had better do good with some of this years.

During the 1990’s, the Internet was primarily focused on providing information and services in a top-bottom fashion. That means many of the sites were taking printed data and making it available for the general public by digitizing that information. It was revolutionary, but as we approached the new millennium, the focus shifted slowly from the institutions to the end user. The Internet went through a process of reinventing itself. It is then that the terms Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 came into use. Web 1.0 refers to the classic web while Web 2.0 is all about the era of social networking. Looking back at this decade, it is clear that its biggest impact was the ability of people to connect and network directly, thereby bypassing the big institutions.

In many ways online fundraising, also known as e-philanthropy, was born just around the same time as Web 2.0. Since its earliest days, philanthropy was about the human touch. People were asking other people for help and so the appeal had to be personal and emotional. At a first glance, fundraising via the Internet is in stark contrast to that axiom. The human touch, a crucial part of the process, is lost. Still, e-philanthropy is thriving. It has grown over the last decade by over 7000% and while overall philanthropy has decreased during the economic crisis in 2008, e-philanthropy has grown by 44%.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon, many having to do with the power of the long tail and micro-philanthropy. But what is true for buying books on Amazon is not necessarily true for donating money. The answer, in part, is the combined use of social networking such as Twitter and Facebook and the equally important use of central portals such as Justgiving and JGooders. All of these sites provide a partial solution for the loss of human touch. People are now able to open individual web pages and make a personal appeal to others and try to raise support for not-for-profit organizations.

But while this new way of philanthropy is rapidly growing, one must not forget that people are still social creatures who need a sense of belonging and expect the one-on-one interaction even if they decide to donate as little as $5 through an online request. This is why we at JGooders preach to our clients about the need for thank you letters and the importance of cultivating online donors. We must remember that portals and social networks are only tools, however necessary, that help us extend our reach to a larger group of potential donors and other partners for our not-for-profit activity. If we neglect their continuous need for the human interaction, they will seek it elsewhere and we will end up losing them forever.

No one can really predict what lies ahead in the upcoming decade and how online philanthropy will continue to grow or what impact the introduction of Web 3.0 also called the “Semantic Web”, will have on e-philanthropy. But it is a fair assessment to say that the more we spend our time surfing the web, the more likely it is that our giving will shift towards the online. This is good. It is even great. As long as we all remember that at the end of the day, it still all about people that are giving a helping hand to other people.

Happy new decade.

Today, one of the easiest, most convenient ways to raise money is of course via the internet. That said, you can build a site, advertise, spread the word – and still the donations will not just appear. What did you do wrong? What was the mistake? When you look at the statistics for your site – it seems that as soon as people come to the site they run in the other direction without donating. It’s possible that something as basic as your website design is to blame. Below I lay out some very brief tips to help you attract more visitors and receive more donations.

1. Build a user-friendly site. When creating a website for online fundraising, it is critical to make the donation process as simple and as clear as possible – for returning donors – but in particular for new donors. Don’t forget to link to your donate page from your homepage – in as visible a manner as possible so no visitor has to look too hard.

2. Require registration? Don’t. It is best not to ask potential donors to register first. Many times, site visitors prefer to donate anonymously, or without leaving a trail online – a registration process hinders this. Requiring detailed information may simply scare off donors.

3. Information matters. Writing for a website is different than writing offline. Weigh every word you write and consider that the clearer, more open and more accessible your writing is – the more likely a site visitor is to feel comfortable enough to open up his/her wallet and donate.

4. Volunteering and Donating. Clearly money is of utmost importance to your organization, but sometimes an extra pair of hands is just as important. First, today’s volunteer might be tomorrow’s donor – but even today, volunteers can help you raise money as well. Make sure your website advertises that you are looking for volunteers as well – it makes your organization look that much more attractive.

5. Truth in Advertising. When advertising online, and that’s what a website is after all, it is important to be consistent and honest in the information you provide. When you place information elsewhere on the web, make sure that it is consistent as well. One someone has to take out a credit card and donate online they need to trust you.

6. News and Updates. Your website should include space, probably on every page, but at least on the home page, for news and updates about donation and the progress you are making. This shows potential donors that they are joining an already group of existing supporters and it encourages them to donate as well.

I’ve always loved Hanukkah, lighting the candles, the songs, the donuts, the dreidels, the family gathering the drops of rain on the window and the smell of the wet earth…

But looking beyond this, one must wonder what we celebrate. The heroic rebellion of the Hasmoneans? Maybe it is the need to remember that we are not that strong as a people? While some might say that we were forced into the Hellenistic form of living, others might argue that we were easily tempted and maybe today things aren’t all that different.

Recently I heard a fascinating lecture offering a different point of view of what Hannukah is all about:
*Caring
*Remembering
*Praising
*Weaning

Care for the needy - Hanukkah gelt has developed over years to be something we give children. The original idea however, was to cast the poor over the wealthy. Encourage everyone to open their hhand and assist the needy…as much as they can or desire. In that respect, we light the social candle of caring and sharing at Hanukkah.

Remember when efforts were made to extinguish the candle of Judaism. Hanukkah is about remembering when Jews helped the oppressor for lucre, position and power. Remember also the heroic sacrifice of those willing to become martyrs to ensure continuity of Jewish life and faith. In that respect we light the Jewish candle of Peoplehood and continuity at Hanukkah.

Praise the values that define you as a human being. The ones that made our ancestors flee to their death while other adopted the Hellenistic form of living. The fortitude to rebel against the decrees regarding forced conversion from Judaism. In that respect we light the value candle of choosing to live a Jewish life for its values and essence at Hanukkah.

Wean yourself from the need to connect faith with miracles done by the Almighty. There are no short cuts as we all well know and being Jewish is not about the size of the miracle that is or was done. It is about love and faith, commitment and continuity, family and tradition, values and caring. In that respect we light the faith candle of Jewish spirit and ideas at Hanukkah.

So make this Hanukkah special for you and your family by dedicating each night’s candle to another great Jewish value. Caring for each other, Tikkun Olam, human dignity, and liberty, truth, justice, peace, creativity, excellence… or any other value you or they choose. Show them how miracles are done by all of us every day, when we do good and help make this world a better place. Happy holiday to all of you.

This post is dedicated to a great teacher Eli Riefmann who, in his most unusual way, helps many understand and connect to their Jewish Identity.

Usually when we think of anonymity on the internet, we don’t see its civic advantages. Our immediate reaction is rather negative probably because every now and then, we hear about another case of criminal exploitation of online anonymity. You can probably recall a case of ‘sara12’ who was actually a 65-year-old pedophile named John, trying to abuse innocent young girls in a popular chat room. Even when you are looking for love in online dating websites such as JDate, we face a basic question: are the people behind the nicknames and photos really who they say they are, or claim to be?

However, in a closer look anonymity in the internet world seems far more complex. In fact, it might ensure protection to some surfers who fight to promote democratic ideas rather than breaking criminal law. For example, for dissidents in countries like China and other non-democratic regimes, the ability to use “anonymizer” software such as Freenet, guarantees open channels to the world to report violations of human rights. In these instances, online anonymity actually promotes democratic values by exposing totalitarian regimes to international pressure.

It is fascinating to see how the internet and social media in particular take a leading role in igniting, coordinating and publicizing public protest. To note a recent case, in Iran’s last elections Twitter was the most salient mode of communication among protesters against the regime. Explaining why this new media medium is so suited for mass protest, Time magazine reporter, Lev Grossman noted that: “tweets go out over two networks, the Internet and SMS, the network that cell phones use for text messages, and they can be received and read on practically anything with a screen and a network connection. This makes Twitter practically ideal for a mass protest movement, both very easy for the average citizen to use and very hard for any central authority to control.”

The sad side about it that this case is that protesters did not use online anonymity techniques to protect their personal offline identities. As a result, as much as Twitter did help to coordinate the protests at the beginning of the events, and even enabled their expansion in the streets of Tehran by providing exclusive real time footage, soon the amateur reporters were arrested and information ceased to be broadcast live from the midst of the clashes. But anonymity is not only a blessing for prosecuted minorities in non-democratic regimes.

In a very interesting way, online anonymity coincides with a very old way of giving in Jewish tradition. The Rabbis placed giving charity in secret (‘Matan Baseter’) as the noblest form of philanthropy. It is not only that the benefactor is not exposed to the giver and therefore does not feel ashamed when receiving the gift; it is also that the giver gains nothing apart from the benefit of a pure act of giving. To illustrate this last point let me share with you the development of corporate giving schemes since 1950’s, also known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Part of the consideration in developing CSR is whether these policies have a positive impact on economic revenues. Even though there is no clear answer to this question, the assumption is that with efficient PR, CSR can help build a positive company reputation which can later translate into better economic performance. In other words, giving was never seen more as a form of investment than it is today.

When we meet with new organizations or with NPOs already on the JGooders site, we tell them that some of the donations made to their projects are made by donors who wish to remain anonymous. Online fundraising, and especially giving portals such as JGooders, enable users to give to their favored projects without exposing their contact information to organizations. In this way, they can protect themselves from any further direct communication with the organization, but also permits them to follow the old path of giving charity in secret (‘Matan Baseter’) – the noblest form of philanthropy.

So we’ve set up a spot where we can share with you all those fundraising tips and tricks. Our last update to the system revealed a new section in our NPO center called Resources. We started with only a few tips (mostly about social twitting). This was about two months ago. And you read them all in a jiffy. Obviously, the little we gave you was not enough.

Today we are revealing a completely new Resources section – a sorted, search-able inventory of the best we’ve collected during the last years.Some of it is our own articles, but most is just links to great stuff out there that can enrich your online fundraising experience.

We will continue to expand this, but it is pretty extensive right now, and you we urge you to visit it regularly. In a short while we’ll enable registered fundraisers to add their own tips to the pool and comment about each item, making the resource section a more social place to learn online fundraising.

As part of the new resource section, you may note that while we not only upgraded our resources section, but we also gave the Help section a boost, adding its own Google-powered search and navigation. But this is only a facial, what I find even more cool lies beneath the shiny new package: Eran and Cheri had fun with CamStudio and some of the pages now also include videos that, we hope, will make your life easier when help is needed.

Berlin - host of the Global Giving Marketplaces Conference

By Ronit Dolev

It even snowed. Berlin was preparing to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the wall as we gathered in the beautiful building of the Umbolt – Viadriana School of Governance, the same building in which Albert Einstein worked. We had come together for the annual conference of the Global Online Giving Marketplace (GOGM).

Over the past decade almost 20 online giving marketplaces have been developed around the world. They were developed mostly by young people who enlisted the power of the internet to develop a social space that invites all to participate, share, give, collaborate and impact change. In keeping with this generation’s line of thinking, it is about making it accessible, easy, fun and immediate. It fits the genre of “nowism” represented by many of the latest innovations spurred by the internet. It also provides transparency as a result of the new era of information technology that changes values and expectations. The recent economic crisis made it even more mandatory. Tens of billions of dollars are donated online every year by many millions of people participating in the paradigm change of democratizing philanthropy. The Berlin gathering was our effort to excel: to learn from each other, to explore ways to collaborate, to join forces in reaching out to more people to help address more needs.

This time we were hosted by Betterplace,  based on an exciting “web of trust” approach in Berlin. We are grateful to GlobalGiving, one of the more experienced and veteran members of our community for organizing the conference once again together with the excellent team from Conexion Columbia. It is impossible to list all the creative and inspiring initiatives all over the world – in India and South Africa, in Denmark and England, in the United State of America and South America, in the Netherlands and Israel. All focused on helping not for profit organizations as well as individuals in need to benefit from the infinite power of the web to create awareness, generate support and resources.

A new industry is being developed. Social businesses aimed at investing in and expanding doing -good, creating a better world, fixing the sicknesses of this world. A new economy driven by younger people that is examining the borders between not for profit and for profit,  between social aid and sustainability, between giving and sharing and between traditional philanthropy that was an exclusive club of big givers and participatory philanthropy that is open to all.

They offer employee programs matched by corporations, mustache for kids fun campaign , social investment exchange, gift centers with gift cards and social products and giving circles only to list few of the many creative ideas.

As JGooders is just about a year-old, this is the first time we participated in the gathering. One of our NY-based investors, Marcia Riklis, joined me for the exciting, inspirational conference where we were able to both share what we had learned with the other organizations ,but also learn from their successes and failures. Although Israel and the Jewish world are known for their commitment to the fields of philanthropy, Tikkun Olam and web initiatives, we have historically lagged behind in enrolling in this vibrant marketplace and we are proud that JGooders has helped to begin the reversal of this trend.

Judith Stern Peck sees the website as, "an opportunity for all of us to be part of the larger international Jewish community"

Online social networks are having a significant impact on our lives.  Through serving as a means for communication and friendship, studies show that they are actually influencing our behavior, our thoughts and emotions.  Here are some people’s recent opinions on the matter, that are worth thinking about…

An article in USA Today on Social Networking, quotes Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, co-authors of the just-published book, “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives”.

The authors suggest that the world is governed by what they call “three degrees of influence” — that is, your friend’s friend’s friend, most likely someone you don’t even know — who indirectly influences your actions and emotions.

For example, when a friend starts exercising more, “I change my mind about how much I should be exercising or I share stories with my other friends who are influenced to do the same. You either change your behavior or you transmit information about the behavior to others, who change their behavior,” says Fowler.

JGooders founding investor and board member Judith Stern Peck shares this perspective in an interview in today’s Jerusalem Post about online giving, “[Our] website can most certainly be used as an education tool. It’s a chance to transmit Jewish values and an opportunity for all of us to be part of the larger international Jewish community…Philanthropy is no longer just about where you give or how much. It’s about how you give and how you involve your children in the process.”

In an Time Magazine article about “How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live”, author Steven Johnson gets it right when he says of the 140-character micro-blogging tool, “There’s a kind of resilience here that is worth savoring. The weather reports keep announcing that the sky is falling, but here we are — millions of us — sitting around trying to invent new ways to talk to one another.”

Here’s to an ever-increasing and ever more inclusive conversation, to a social networking buzz that influences us to become more involved individuals who will build a better society.