The Heart of Grantmaking: Relationships, Empathy, and Trust
Insights from One of the Foundation’s Newest Team Members
Insights from One of the Foundation’s Newest Team Members
From the Foundation Team
Growing up in a Jewish home, engaging with various Jewish organizations, living in Israel, and working at a Jewish foundation have allowed me to feel connected to Judaism and the Jewish Community. Participating in the Moishe House Ignite Retreat, a retreat…
From the Foundation Team
I realize that one of the first rules in communications is, “Don’t bury the lead!” And yet, I feel compelled to begin with a bit of context before actualizing my metaphor. As a five-year transplant to the Bay Area, to say that I entered Warriors…
From the Foundation Team
Earlier this summer I spent a half-day with this year’s cohort of Kevah Teaching Fellows. Kevah is a nonprofit that empowers individuals and organizations to build Jewish learning communities by creating Kevah Groups matched to an outstanding Kevah…
From the Foundation Team
Children are served best in classrooms and other learning environments that consistently take into account their specific learning needs. The support children receive is most effective when it is offered throughout the entire day of learning—by all…
From the Foundation Team
Work at the Jim Joseph Foundation this summer will be highly concentrated, as it has been these past ten summers. Immediately following the Foundation Board meeting in mid-July, we will begin preparing for another meeting with the Board of Directors in…
From the Foundation Team
A couple of years ago, four foundations set out to find the answer to a critically important question: How do we measure the success of our Jewish teen engagement and education initiatives? The question, while specific, also spoke to a real need. Our…
From the Foundation Team
In San Francisco, the school year is about to end. Teachers and children (mine included!) are counting down the final days to summer. In the Jewish calendar, we are counting, too, but upwards rather than down as we mark the days of the Omer. The end of…
From the Foundation Team
The Jim Joseph Foundation invests in curated immersive learning experiences and the training of talented educators who facilitate them. From a pedagogical view, these kinds of experiences stand in contrast to the simpler “trip to the museum,”…
From the Foundation Team
As I move through my eleventh and final year as executive director at the Jim Joseph Foundation, I find it helpful to reflect on key grantmaking principles that inform how I work with Foundation Board members and professionals to help to shape the Foundation’s…
From the Foundation Team
The Jim Joseph Foundation invests in curated, immersive, learning experiences and the training of talented educators who facilitate them. From a pedagogical view, this learning experience stands in contrast to a simpler “trip to the museum,” which…
From the Foundation Team
Today’s young adults possess passion and energy in abundance. They are ambitious, smart, creative, and driven by a desire to help others. They know how to bring new technologies and networks of peers to bear on the hard work of community building. They…
From the Foundation Team
As Jews around the world soon sit down for Seders, we are reminded again of our tradition’s powerful message to welcome the stranger. Some heed this call year-round; others do it once a year; still others maybe never have, but commit to do so now. While…