Youth groups also accept donations
צילום: יצחק ברבי
New website gathers donations for Israel
JGooders houses hundreds of pro-Israel, Jewish projects to which one may donate as little as $5
Meet JGooders, a philanthropic website that helps the public get involved in various projects dedicated to Israel and Judaism worldwide.
The site, which has existed for under a year, aims to render the act of donation simple. "Four years ago, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, more than half of the donations for victims and the environment came from the Web," explains Ronit Dolev, one of the site's founders.
"Even Obama gathered funds through an internet campaign. A lot of internet portals have started to pop up all over the Web and only Israel and the Jewish world have been left behind," Dolev added.
The site is run by Dolev and her partner, Smadar Fogel, both of whom are strategic advisors by trade, and currently supports over 120 organizations and 200 different projects.
And the two women believe philanthropy is no longer exclusively for millionaires. The site is currently visited by 150-200 people a day, 90% of whom are relatively young. The current average donation is around $87, and the site accepts sums as small as $5.
Dolev says the financial crisis, which has hit wealthier donors especially hard, caused many non-profit organizations to realize they should begin accepting funds from less affluent donors.
"Many organizations have understood that they need to provide infrastructure that allows them to rely on a larger array of donors, and organizations and entrepreneurs who invest systematically in this have succeeded in obtaining more funds than others," she says.
Tova Sirkin, who manages the site's business development, says many members of Jewish communities worldwide have come to rely on the site as a type of portal to the Jewish world.
"We use classic advertising in print and online, contacts with organizations, and the more virulent world of youth – the initiative has a blog that is regularly updated and allows you to see new projects and read comments about older projects to which you can donate," she says, adding that the site is also present on Twitter and has a newsletter as well as a comic strip.
Sirkin says that as of now the site exists only in English, but that they expect to launch a Hebrew parallel in 2010.
"There is a great significance in succeeding to achieve relevance in such a globalized world, especially for young people. This can connect them to joint issues important to all of us as a people," she explains.
