The Latest From The Foundation

We all expect social good from our philanthropy, but can we also achieve positive social impact from our investment capital as well?  Impact investors (families, foundations, endowments, pension funds) are pushing investment capital to do just that – meet financial goals while also aligning with values to achieve positive outcomes for society.  With the introduction of modern socially responsible investing in the 1970s, concerned investors began obtaining data on the

What a relief!  Finally (and none too soon), I can stop brainstorming and thinking “out of the box” in order to be innovative in my work, in my society, and maybe in my private life as well. Guess what!  Brainstorming doesn’t work. For years we have been told that in order to innovate, to create something new, to create new paradigms and models for identifying solutions to public needs, for

Announcing the “Dear Abby” Jewish marketing forum. It’s free. Post your question with your Jewish organizational marketing conundrum, and I (or my business partner, Moira Schwartz) will respond. Thirty years of marketing experience is yours for the taking: Coca Cola. Apple. More than 150 Jewish organizations in the US, Canada and Israel. Nearly 1000 nonprofits worldwide.   Let’s open up a discussion among all of us. Let others with ideas

This is my first blogging experience.  I dedicate it to fellow Atlanta Wexner Heritage alum, Seth Cohen, a well-known and highly successful blogger and the first person I discussed a pooled giving fund with.  I hereby summon his blogging aura to this post. As has been reported in two previous Wexner newsletters, we in the Atlanta 10 class have undertaken to establish a pooled giving fund/giving collaborative/Jewish social venture fund.

When Tishrei comes early Wexner members, fellows, and alumni help each other. The high holidays fall early this year, with Rosh Hashanah beginning on September 4th.  Some Wexner Alumni have realized their college kids will have just arrived on campus.  In cases when that campus is cross country, it is unlikely they will turn around and come back home for the high holidays.   Thankfully, many Wexner Alumni who live

Alumni of the Atlanta ‘10 Wexner Heritage class are pleased to announce the launch of the Wexner Atlanta 10 Giving Collaborative.  The fund arose from our class’s desire to have a collective impact on the Jewish community in Atlanta.  We are committed to help strengthen our Jewish community by funding Jewish social entrepreneurs and the innovative and promising causes they champion. The fund, which will be distributing a maximum of

I have found that many of us in the Wexner community wrestle with the call to serve our community and the call to serve humanity. We have been blessed with so much abundance, education, opportunity, and, of course, each other.  Is the highest expression of our leadership journeys to serve a largely privileged Jewish community when there is also an infinite need for our leadership in the larger world? I

Daniel is a Wexner Graduate Fellow and rabbinical student at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City, where he also earned a master’s degree in Religious Education.  Daniel can be reached at daniel.kirzane@gmail.com Jake’s 4th-grade math students are learning the rudiments of algebra, practicing the placement and manipulation of points on a grid.  Last night’s homework was to plot and connect a series of ordered pairs. 

Ann Hartman Luban is an alumna of The Wexner Graduate Fellowship (class IV) and The Wexner Heritage Program (Pro-99).  Ann is a Program Specialist in Community Services at Jewish Child and Family Services in Chicago and the Director of Recruitment for the Master of Arts in Jewish Professional Studies at Spertus.  She can be reached at annluban@sbcglobal.net. We all have those things that we think about but that just never

Martine Fleishman is an alumna of the Wexner Heritage ( NY IV) Program. Martine has dedicated herself to family, friends and the Jewish communal arena promoting Israel, Jewish identity, Jewish leadership, education, human rights and social justice. Martine is the chair of the Jewish Agency’s Project T.E.N. She can be reached at mtf37@optonline.net. At 11 years old, my family and I made our first trip to Israel. I went back