Friday, October 31, 2008

Slingshot Fund - Innovation in Jewish Philanthropy

The Slingshot Fund is a great example of endorsement philanthropy. It leverages the due diligence process, selection criteria, and marketing muscle of a few organizations to inform multiple foundations and donors.

The Fund is now accepting nominations for the 2009 / 2010 edition of Slingshot, an annual guidebook that celebrates Jewish innovation by highlighting 50 North American organizations that take innovative approaches to addressing age-old concerns of identity and community in Jewish life. Organizations that are selected for the guidebook gain significant exposure to a diverse funding community and become eligible for a capacity building grant from the Slingshot Fund.

The nomination form can be downloaded at this Web link: http://slingshotfund.org/news/09-10_Nominations_Form.doc. In order to be considered for Slingshot '09-'10, completed nomination forms must be emailed to Barbara Taylor at Barbara@slingshotfund.org and received by December 1, 2008.

3 comments:

bethp said...

All D. needed was a mission, 5 smooth stones and good aim. . . I think this concept is right on when it comes to philanthropy/aid/development.

When the funding goes to the right orgs (ie, the ones who are doing the work well), it can make a serious difference. It’s not always the big ones or the ones who have been around a long time. It’s too hard to get this info right now. . . it should be easier!

Anyone know of other organizations that aggregate this type of info for donors?

David Stoker said...

Fast Company has a short list of high-impact organizations that it highlights each year as part of it's social capitalist awards.

TisBest also has a vetting process that it uses to create a short list then facilitates gift cards to those organizations.

Ashoka finds high-impact social innovators very early in their growth curve and has a great track record of picking winners, for example many of Fast Company's Social Capitalist award winners are Ashoka Fellows. The pool of Ashoka Fellows whether existing or paying Ashoka to find the next group of innovators in a given area would be a highly leveraged investment. Full disclosure: after admiring Ashoka from afar for many years I now work in their global office but my endorsement has not changed.

Lucy Bernholz said...

David - thanks for noting these examples - all great!
Lucy