Brandeis University Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies
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Brandeis University Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies The New Philanthropy: American Jewish Giving to Israeli Organizations Eric Fleisch Theodore Sasson April 2012 The New Philanthropy © 2012 Brandeis University Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies Additional copies of this publication are available from: Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies Brandeis University Mailstop 014 Waltham, MA 02454-9110 781.736.2060 www.brandeis.edu/cmjs The Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, founded in 1980, is dedicated to providing independent, high quality research on issues related to contemporary Jewish life. The Cohen Center is also the home of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute (SSRI). Established in 2005, SSRI uses innovative research methods to collect and analyze socio-demographic data on the Jewish community. The New Philanthropy i Acknowledgments We thank members of our research team including Yael Kletter, Hillel Buechler, Emily Baum, Benjamin Briscer, and Monica Pevzner. We also thank our colleagues and experts in the field of Jewish philanthropy who reviewed a draft of the report, including Charles Kadushin, Jack Wertheimer, Benjamin Gidron, Chaim I. Waxman, Barry Kosmin, David Rosenn, David Dolev, Misha Galperin, Jeffrey Solomon, Shmuel Rosner, Gabriel Sheffer, and Leonard Saxe. Finally, we thank Ilan Troen and members of the Schusterman Israel Studies Seminar for inviting Eric to present this research and for offering helpful suggestions. ii The New Philanthropy About the Authors Eric Fleisch is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. He is also a Fellow at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. Eric is currently writing his dissertation, entitled, “Israeli NGOs and Their Overseas Partners: The Real and Perceived Boundaries of Influence and Legitimacy.” Theodore Sasson is Senior Research Scientist at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research Institute, Brandeis University. He is also Professor of International Studies at Middlebury College, and Visiting Research Professor, Sociology Department, Brandeis University. The New Philanthropy iii Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 1 Fundraising organizations ................................................................................................... 3 Fundraising amounts ........................................................................................................... 4 Fundraising by category ...................................................................................................... 5 Comparative trends ............................................................................................................. 7 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 9 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 10 Notes ................................................................................................................................. 11 References ......................................................................................................................... 15 Appendix: List of organizations by category .................................................................... 17 iv The New Philanthropy List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: American Friends Organizations by Year Established and Category ................... 4 Figure 2: Fundraising by Category ....................................................................................... 5 Figure 3: Revenue, Top Five American Friends Organizations by Category and Year ....... 7 Figure 4: Top Five Overall.................................................................................................... 9 Table 1: Total Donations, Select Years ................................................................................ 9 The New Philanthropy 1 The New Philanthropy: American Jewish Giving to Israeli Organizaons INTRODUCTION including Israel.4 Some observers have expressed concern that this pattern indicates Diaspora financial transfers are increasingly distancing from Israel.5 Indeed, the notion important topics of scholarly and public that American Jewish donations to Israel are policy interest because of their role in declining has become a core claim of homeland development and for what they scholars who believe the two largest centers can teach us about diaspora identity.1 The of world Jewry are growing apart. main channels for diaspora financial transfers are remittances, foreign direct Over the past two decades, as donations investment, and philanthropy. The relative through the federation framework have importance of each of these channels varies declined, there has been a concomitant across diaspora communities. The Chinese increase in the number of Israeli diaspora has emphasized foreign direct organizations directly reaching out to investment. The South Asian and Latin American Jewish donors.6 Some scholars American diasporas have emphasized have estimated that the increase in donations remittances. The Jewish diaspora has been to these independent entities has offset the unique in its emphasis on philanthropy.2 decline in federation giving.7 However, to date, no systematic research has tested this Donations by diaspora Jews played a major hypothesis.8 role in the establishment and development of the state of Israel.3 Since the 1930s, the main This is the first research of its kind to emphasis of diaspora philanthropy has been provide a comprehensive account (within the on the resettlement of Jewish refugees, limits of the available data) of American including Holocaust survivors in the 1940s, Jewish giving in Israel. Our study draws on Middle Eastern Jews in the 1950s and 1960s, U.S. Internal Revenue Service documents to Ethiopian Jews in the 1980s and 1990s, and describe the sum and distribution of Jews from the former Soviet Union in the American Jewish donations to causes in 1990s and 2000s. The main vehicle for Israel and to provide a partial account of diaspora giving has been the United Jewish historical trends. Appeal and its successor organizations the United Jewish Communities and the Jewish METHODOLOGY Federations of North America. The UJA- UJC-JFNA raises funds through the annual The organizational channels for American campaigns of Jewish federations and Jewish donations to Israel derive from U.S. disperses funds in Israel through the Jewish tax law. Since 1917, the U.S. government Agency for Israel. has offered American taxpayers deductions for domestic charitable giving to In recent years, scholars of the American organizations that met three requirements: Jewish community have noted declining they had to be not-for-profit; they could not contributions to the federations and declining be overtly political; and they had to be transfers by federations to overseas causes dedicated to “religious, literary, scientific, educational, recreational, or charitable 2 The New Philanthropy purposes.”9 Since 1938, donations to foreign donations to Israeli NGOs that by-and- non-governmental organizations (NGOs) large do not have their own American have also been tax-deductible as long as Friends organizations. Most pass-through three additional criteria were met: Donations organizations do not espouse a particular had to be made through a domestically ideology or agenda; rather, their sole incorporated not-for-profit organization with function is to make equivalency a board of directors comprised mostly of determinations and provide oversight of American citizens; the foreign NGO had to grants in order to enable American be deemed equivalent to a U.S. not-for-profit donors to earmark donations to Israeli corporation (meaning it would fall within NGOs. IRS criteria for tax-exempt status were it a Ideological Umbrella Funds. These are U.S. corporation); and the responsible organizations that fundraise to serve a American not-for-profit had to exercise particular ideological or political purpose oversight over its foreign grants.10 in Israel, for example, to support West Bank settlers or to promote democracy These rules for overseas donations have and human rights. Ideological umbrella given rise to four types of fundraising funds support multiple Israeli NGOs that organizations. advance their particular purposes. The Federation System. The UJA-UJC- In addition to these four types of fundraising JNFA transfers a portion of funds raised organizations, tax-exempt donations can be by 157 federations to an American not- made through private foundations and for-profit organization, the United Israel religious organizations such as synagogues. Appeal. In turn, the UIA transfers funds to the Jewish Agency for Israel and In all cases except the last, the grant making ensures that its donations serve their organization files an annual tax return known intended purpose. In recent years, a as a Form 990. In recent years, these tax growing number of federations have also returns have been made readily available made donations directly to select Israeli through web-based search engines such as NGOs.