"We are proud to announce that Dave was instrumental in obtaining a
grant of $40,000 from a Wells Fargo Bank Philanthropic Services
philanthropic fund for the construction of a Veterinary Clinic and
Animal Shelter at Lands in Love, our client, a vegetarian Eco-Resort in
Costa Rica, run by a group of 17 Israelis."
Read about the incredible story behind this happy announcement:
It all started with my daughter's honeymoon to Costa Rica where her
husband, Rabbi Michael Even David, the Rabbi of Kehillat Hakerem in
Karmiel, has relatives. Two weeks before they were to depart, I received
a call from a guy named Assaf who told me, in Sabra Hebrew, that he was
one of a group of 17 Israelis who were running an Eco-Resort in Costa
Rica. Vegetarians and Vegans, they had gathered and were caring for some
200 neglected, abandoned, abused and sick mostly dogs, but also cats,
donkeys, monkeys, horses and assorted other animals. They had seen my
website Israelgrants.com
and wanted to know if I could help them raise
money for a shelter, clinic, food and medicine for these animals. The
only problem is, they said, they have no money to pay me.
Now this is not the first case that my services were requested by
organizations unable or unwilling to pay for them. So I patiently
explained that I do not work for a percentage of funds raised as this is
against the Code of Ethics of the Israel Association of Professional
Fundraisers (and of the U.S. and European associations). "But we can
pay
you in vouchers for use at our resort", Assaf suggested. You just have
to get here on your own,"
My first reaction was, "you've got to be kidding", but then I
remembered, wow, Raya and Michael are on their way dafka (of all places)
to Costa Rica, wow, this must be beshert, so I said to him
"You know what? By chance I have two staff members who are on their
way to Costa Rica.
How about if I send them to your resort, they'll check it out, interview,
gather the
data and when they return we'll write up your project in the form of a
foundation proposal." He agreed.
Raya and Michael stayed for two days and a night at Lands in Love and
had a lovely time. Michael, who is a carnivore from Chile, said that the
vegetarian food there was the best food he ever tasted. They went on day
trips and had a fantastic time, all expenses charged to my (future)
account! What a great additional wedding present a father could give to
his newly married daughter and son in law!
Upon their return they gave me a detailed report and thus I began my
work for Lands in Love. It was a bit daunting trying communicating via
Skype, with a time difference of 10 hours, working with young idealistic
Israelis who had never before had to put the good work that they were
doing into a format worthy of consideration by a foundation. But after a
couple of months and many drafts, in early November, we finally had a
proposal to begin submitting to foundations. I took the proposal with me
when I traveled last month to the U.S. to represent several of my
clients at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North
America and in meetings I had scheduled with foundations in Baltimore,
Miami, Philadelphia and New York.
One of the meetings I had scheduled was with, let's call him Chris,
a representative of the Wells Fargo Bank Philanthropic Services.
I had seen his name on a letter of rejection that a client of mine had
received from a foundation and noticed that his address was in the Miami area
where I was planning to be for part of my trip to the U.S. So being the shy
unassuming guy that I am, I picked up the phone and called him, explained that I
a representative of the Wells Fargo Bank Philanthropic Services.
I had seen his name on a letter of rejection that a client of mine had
received from a foundation and noticed that his address was in the Miami area
where I was planning to be for part of my trip to the U.S. So being the shy
unassuming guy that I am, I picked up the phone and called him, explained that I
represented a number of Israeli nonprofits and asked to meet with him
both to share my experience and perspective with him and get an insight
into his work. He agreed to meet me!
When I arrived in his office, on the umteenth floor of a Florida office
tower, he took me back down the elevator and across the street to a
restaurant, Immediately after we ordered and before I could even take
out the stack of folders with information about the various
organizations and projects that I was prepared to present to him, he
leaned forward and looked me straight in the eye, "I just want you to
know," he said, "that I'm totally with you guys." Ok,
I thought to
myself, he's talking about Amood Anan. I'll tell him about the call I
got yesterday from my daughter Avital who told me that the Siren had
gone off and that she was in our pantry bomb shelter.
I leaned forward to meet his earnest
look. "In 1967, I was in the U.S.
Army, stationed in Germany. We were put on high alert. We had our dog
tags put in protective seals and were ready to enter the war to fight on
your side," he explained. "But the call never came. Now they are
raining
missles on you. I just want you to know I'll do whatever I can for
you."
"Wow," I said to him. I think I'm at the right place at the right
time
with the right person!"
After presenting Unistream's Entrepreneurship Centers, Atid BaMidbar's
MakorRock teen music project and their Culinary Queens ethnic catering,
Midreshet Golan's Adir BaMarom post high school air force technology and
electronics training program, the Orthodox Scouts of Jaffa's coexistence
summer camp, and several others. I asked Tom to tell me about his
clientele. It turns out that his department is somewhat similar to the
Endowment Fund Director of Jewish Federations. Except that the
Federations are bombarded by requests from local and national Jewish
agencies, by the general campaign and by a growing number of Israeli
nonprofits seeking new channels for direct funding. Tom sits on boards
of trustees of quite a number of philanthropic foundations administered
by quite a number branches of his national bank. In most cases his
responsibility is to invest the funds and advise the boards of how to
follow proper legal and financial regulations. However, in a number of
instances he is asked for input into the allocations processes.
"Take for example the case of a client of mine who called me up last
week saying that he had a property he wanted to get rid of, but was
facing 50% income tax on the proceeds. How about donating it to a
nonprofit," Tom suggested. "There are significant tax benefits in
doing
it that way." But what nonprofit," he asked? "Well what do
you care
about?" asked Tom in response. "I care about dogs," was the
response. So
Tom did his homework, found 14 animal welfare organizations, whittled
them down to six and was prepared to send him the profiles of the six.
"Seven," I said. "What?" Tom asked. "You're going
to send him seven
profiles," I said and I told him the story about Lands in Love and
their
need for an Animal Shelter and Veterinary Clinic.
To make a long story shorter, last week I got an email from Tom. I'm
pleased to give you the heads up that the donor has agreed to make a
grant of $40,000 for the construction of the Veterinary Clinic, for
equipment, food and medicine." "Yes!!!! I screamed from my office
jolting my staff from their intense concentration on work for our
clients....
But the problems had just begun. The foundation needed to send the funds
before the end of the year, which was two short weeks away. How do you
get a foundation grant from a U.S. Foundation to a Costa Rican
organization. One needs a 501c3 U.S. nonprofit conduit.
My first thought was PEF, but the funds would have to go
first to PEF in NY, then to an Israeli nonprofit and from there to Costa
Rica. Not a very efficient path. So I began the search for what is
called a Fiscal Agent. About 15 phone calls 35 emails and a couple of
very late nights, an Animal Welfare nonprofit organization with the
mission to construct animal shelters world wide agreed to be the Fiscal
Agent, the funds were sent to them and they will forward them to Lands
in Love while requiring appropriate due diligence reporting.
Meanwhile, between this effort and other foundation submissions, I have
invested hours valued at several thousand dollars in vouchers for
service at Lands in Love. In March 17 members of the extended
Maeir-Epstein Family from 4 cities in Israel and 6 cities in the U.S.
will be spending almost a week at Lands in Love in Costa Rica. In
between delicious vegetarian meals, day trips to active volcanoes, zip
line rides over forest gorges, white water rafting, I intend to be
making sure that the project conforms to the proposal that I wrote. I'll
bet I can get my plane ticket to be considered a recognized tax
deductible expense. Unfortunately, I won't have any food and lodging
receipts to claim.........
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