Peer Networks and Forums
One of the ways to motivate and ensure an effective social investment is the ability to form philanthropic collaborations. We encourage our members to create peer networks when the need arises to handle a specific social topic in an in-depth and comprehensive manner. We believe that the joint forces generated from the connection made among social influencers can promote real and meaningful change.
Peer Networks allow funders to unite around a topic or specific field in which they aim to make a change and to lead mutual learning processes and share work methods as a basis for creating operational collaborations.
JFN initiates, promotes and assists the Peer Networks and Funder Forums. Small-group sessions with peers who share a similar agenda is an opportunity for learning and unique activity.
Mental Resilience, Social Resilience, and Philanthropic Responses
This peer interest group focuses on Mental Resilience, Social Resilience, and Philanthropic Responses in the context of the ongoing conflict in Israel. It aims to address the widespread psychological damage and community disruption caused by recent events, including the October 7th attacks and subsequent war.
The group recognizes the unprecedented scale of civilian needs that extend beyond traditional state responses, affecting diverse populations from evacuees to active-duty personnel and their families. With an emphasis on developing effective models for building resilience and providing mental health care, the network serves as a platform for philanthropists to engage in shared learning, consultation, and collaboration. It seeks to identify and support social organizations and initiatives that can contribute to long-term social rehabilitation and civic resilience.
The ultimate goal is to foster innovative philanthropic practices and cooperation to meet the complex challenges facing Israeli society in the aftermath of recent traumatic events and ongoing tensions. The group is open to members and non-members and meets virtually and in-person.
You can view the recent mapping of philanthropic giving to resilience
and mental health here. This mapping aims to provide a comprehensive overview of
philanthropic giving since October 7, 2023, highlighting major trends up to the
present.
For more information, please contact Reut Stoller:
"Education in Mind"
The funders’ interest group on education in Israel is a network of donors and foundation representatives who are active in the field of education or interested in learning about it.
The goals of the group are gaining a deeper and joint understanding in the fields of education and philanthropy in Israel, sharing work methods and experience, exposure to different models of activity, enhancing networking, support, assistance and mutual connections between the philanthropic actors in the field, and sharing opportunities for collaboration.
For more information, please contact Elad Berger: elad@jfunders.org
Green Funders Forum
This is a forum comprised of funders and professionals at philanthropic foundations who share a common interest in environmental issues; some of its members are also involved in philanthropic giving in this field.
The Forum meets four to six times a year, bringing together dozens of funders and foundation representatives from Israel and overseas with experts from academia, the government, and the philanthropy sector for sessions of learning, sharing, consultation and skill-building in various subjects related to environmental protection in Israel.
For more information please contact Gil Yaacov:
Arts and Culture Forum
The Forum was established in 2020 as an operative platform for joint and tailored philanthropic learning and action. The Forum includes donors and philanthropic foundations who are invested in supporting arts and culture in Israel and see great importance in strengthening infrastructures, organizations and activity in these fields and developing them as social growth engines.
The Forum convenes about seven times a year and meets with artists, cultural bodies, researchers, government and local government officials, with the aim of initiating and supporting collaborations and strategic processes, as well as expanding philanthropic resources and partnering with additional funding.
The Forum’s activities led to the establishment of the first joint venture with the Ministry of Culture to promote cultural management in local authorities.
For more information, please contact Adi Goldner, interest group project manager:
Gender Giving Forum
In March 2021, a small group of JFN leadership came together on international women’s day to explore the complex identities of leading women in the global Jewish philanthropic world. This meeting exposed the glass ceilings women face in their homes, boardrooms and the communities to which they belong. Out of this initial meeting stemmed the JFN Gender Giving Forum which held its kick-off meeting in December 2021, hosted by JFN Board member and forum champion, Dafna Meitar-Nechmad and featuring Israel’s First Lady, Michal Herzog.
The forum is focusing on peer learning of the field of women and girls and relevant philanthropic models of intervention. In addition, members of the forum on working and funding to create a toolbox in the form of a guidebook to inform funders looking to fund in the area of women and girls and to apply a gender lens to a current philanthropic portfolio.
In the war the JFN Gender Giving Forum addressed the gender dimensions of the war and
published this statement.
for funders.
Recently, the forum published the Gender Giving Guide. This guide is designed to help funders and foundations integrate gender considerations into their philanthropic strategies, thereby promoting gender equality and achieving greater impact in the social field.
For more information, please contact Sharon Dwek: sharon@jfunders.org
