- We funded a teen dating abuse program, whose participants included both teen boys and girls, because the primary beneficiaries of this program are teen girls and young women.
- We also funded a domestic abuse education and training program in Israel for policy makers, police officers, judges, social workers, etc. Most of the participants were men, but the program was created to benefit the victims of domestic abuse, more than 90% of whom are women. We will consider projects that benefit Jewish families, but we continue to assess their benefit to women and girls as mothers, daughters and sisters.
- Using educational tools to influence individual and group choices.
- Creating public education opportunities: educating ourselves, other funders, funding partners, public policymakers, and the general public about pressing issues impacting Jewish women and girls.
- Funding projects that work towards sustainable social change, and that incorporate advocacy components.
- Lobbying within organizations, communities and political institutions to promote a bill or policy.
- Supporting grantee partners by providing them with feedback and by connecting them to other resources, potential partners and stakeholders.
Another kind of social change is something that gives an idea new meaning, or helps the community or society see an issue in a new light. An example might be the funding we gave to build the Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse (JCADA), which is helping the community understand that there is domestic abuse in the Jewish community to the same extent as in the broader community. The coalition is raising the community’s awareness and helping to educate the community about how to identify and respond to the issue. It is changing our understanding of the issue and our willingness to support appropriate responses to it. Social change can also be change in policies and institutional or governmental systems.
Social change at the broad level is related to advocacy. An organization’s work might change laws or institutional systems to better address an issue. The example given in the advocacy section, above, of a training program for judges, police officers, educators, and other first responders about domestic abuse applies here. The goal of this program is to change systems; to inform police how to better respond to domestic violence situations and protect victims; to inform judges about patterns of behaviors and change their responses when they deal with perpetrators of domestic violence; to help educators and social service providers to better detect potentially violent situations and intervene to protect families.
Social change may also be related to maintaining prior progress gained and to further reinforce better attitudes and behaviors around gender equity. For example, reinforcing the idea that women can serve on boards, succeed in professions, win votes, etc. and are equal to men in such pursuits; and therefore deserve equal pay and equal opportunity. Social change might also be seen in programs that build a critical mass of participation or buy-in, to accomplish a goal. For example, taking a movement to a tipping point and creating change through a campaign or education or networking, etc. This might be within a single institution, or more broadly in society. Examples:
- Promoting the recognition of emotional stress on teen girls might be one such way to change programs in schools. (Advocacy)
- Promoting a new law mandating equal insurance coverage for men and women is an example of promoting social change on a societal level. (Advocacy)
JWF funds available for grant making are limited, and our process is competitive. Your chances of success may change in a given year, depending on the number of requests that we receive, how well designed the programs are and how well the grant requests fit our mission and guidelines. Please be sure to discuss the proposal with our Director, who will be more than willing to offer some guidance about what may or may not strike a responsive chord with our Trustees. Unfortunately, no individual Trustee can make promises about the chances for success of an application. We have a very democratic process, and each of our current Trustees is eligible to vote.
- Are you requesting that the JWF support items that are already covered in your general operating budget, such as rent, electricity, gas, maintenance, etc.?
- Have you considered sharing resources or partnering with another organization that has a similar mission and can complement your work?
- Have you looked at other sources of funding and/or applied for other funding? We encourage you to leverage any funding that you receive from the JWF. This will allow you to enrich, expand or extend your program beyond the grant period.
- Are you using other sources of revenue to pay for some expenses, such as using a fee for services sliding scale; or charging affordable user participation fees or ticket sales, when your target population can afford to pay? If so, have those fees been included in the Revenue so they can offset the cost of the project?
- Has the requesting organization or the partner organization committed any of their own financial resources to the project? If not, then are there other indications that there is a strong commitment to the project?
- Will the requesting organization or the partner organization be contributing services or staffing as In-Kind contributions to ensure the success of the project?
- Are the costs shown in the application budget sufficient? If funded, will the amount requested be sufficient to ensure a successful project? If not, where will the organization find the additional funding needed to ensure success?
- If you do not receive full funding, how will you adjust the project to insure its success with less than you are requesting?
- Allocation of space in a building over the course of the project.
- A portion of staff salaries and benefits, allowing you to show the cost of committing staff members to the project.
- The contribution, purchase or use of equipment.
- The cost of services supplied by partner organizations, such as design services, mailing services, custodial services, etc.
- In addition, utilities, telephone and other administrative and overhead or general operating costs that are covered in the organizations’ operating budgets and therefore do not need to be requested from the JWF.
- We did purchase yoga mats for a program involving healthy choices for teen girls.
- We declined to purchase electronic lighting and recording equipment to help a one year girls’ theater program at a school that serves boys and girls.
Please note that the JWF guidelines state that we do not participate in Capital Campaigns.
An exception may be in the case of a very small or a “grass roots” effort, or one in which the organization has been created specifically to provide the program outlined in your grant request when its mission is consistent with the mission of the JWF. If we do fund some operational costs for such an organization, we are unlikely to support costs related to daily business operations, such as utilities, phone, postage, etc. Other exceptions to this rule fell outside of our regular grant cycles and were part of recent critical needs allocations, due to the economic downturn. We do, however, support staffing needs related specifically to a project; not, however, if the project is a regular part of an established staff person’s portfolio. In other words, although we may fund employment related costs that are specific to the program, they must be additional (new) costs incurred as a result of initiating this project. We will not reimburse your organization for payroll costs that would be incurred whether or not this project is implemented and we will not fund costs that are already covered in your organization’s annual budget.