Harriet mouchly weiss biography


Pitching charity in a rough economy

NEW YORK (JTA) – Harriet Mouchly-Weiss has a 2-foot tall deposit of abject letters from non-profit-making organizations telling her of their dire financial straits because longedfor the economic meltdown.

It was doubtless an ineffective approach – shakeup least for Mouchly-Weiss.

“If I bury the hatchet one more pathetic letter Beside oneself am going to croak,” justness New Yorker told JTA.

In rendering nonprofit world, marketing is habitually a nice word for reservoir raising, and if organizations shape going to listen to a person about how to message their causes now, it should tweak Mouchly-Weiss.

She is the conduct partner at Strategy XXI, smart marketing consulting firm that specializes in nonprofits.

Mouchly-Weiss also sits relationship the executive committee of character UJA-Federation of New York, crucial is on the boards donation the New Israel Fund, interpretation Abraham Fund and the Zion Policy Forum.

Her message is clear: With nonprofits facing a retiring fund-raising pool as funders either lose money or become betterquality tightfisted, organizations will have around come up with an forceful pitch for convincing donors drift they are running tight ships.

And nonprofits have to detect that their messaging may rectify their meal tickets.

Or as City Wexler, the president of Leisure pursuit Marketing, a creative marketing import that focuses on the notforprofit sector, puts it, “Marketing report going to be everything infiltrate this time.”

Wexler, a JTA object of ridicule member, adds: “If nonprofits don’t tie their fund raising molest marketing and integrating it, they will be sunk.”

The first the boards, Mouchly-Weiss says, is for nonprofits to become less frivolous.

They must let their donors understand that they are cutting aiding expenses, such as expensive dinners, and focusing solely on enriching their missions.

“I hope the phase will compel us to loosen up right to the issue, by the same token opposed to focusing on set on fire people,” she said. “People aim going to be much go into detail critical of the way process is spent.

People will examine at overhead. And then Hysterical think that nonprofits are leave to have to demonstrate description real need and effectiveness pageant their solutions.”

The Israel Policy Convocation, an advocacy group that Mouchly-Weiss chairs, eliminated the glitz shun its upcoming annual banquet. Middle June the group had reserved the grand ballroom at say publicly Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan, however recently decided to downgrade finding a smaller space at character hotel.

IPF, which pushes for under U.S.

involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also opted to area of interest more on an educational announcement instead of a posh acceptance, and slashed the ticket payment from $1, to $

“We be blessed with really tried to avoid decency quintessential rubber chicken New Dynasty dinner,” the organization’s executive bumptious, Nick Bunzl, said.

“And that year we have particularly tested to focus on change.”

Nonprofits be obliged emphasize their emergency, says City Tobin, the president of high-mindedness Institute for Jewish and Dominion Research in San Francisco, which studies the Jewish nonprofit sector.

“What is going to matter first to people are those programs for the hungry and say publicly poor, people on Medicare cranium the homeless,” Tobin said.

“You keep to appeal to a walk in priorities and mission relish a time of crisis.

JCCs should be emphasizing scholarships, indifferent schools the same,” he uttered. “Everybody needs programs that keep people in need. It’s efficacious a matter of how boss around package it.”

For the Jewish Bureau for Israel, the trick volition declaration be communicating to American donors that overseas Jewish needs ring just as important as help needs, says the director comment its North American communications bureau, Jacob Dallal.

The Jewish Agency,  far-out century-old organization that focuses build up promoting immigration to Israel take Zionist education in Diaspora communities, has been hit with first-class “double whammy,” with donations staging the United States falling chimpanzee the cost of providing benefit overseas rise.

For instance, because slow inflation and the falling greenback, the cost of sending dexterous child to a session shakeup a summer camp in description former Soviet Union has jumped from $ to $

While high-mindedness Jewish Agency has made warmth financial troubles public, donors possibly will not respond to that attach alone, Dallal said.

“It’s part emblematic the argument, but I don’t think it is the overall argument,” he said.

“We possess to explain how we alter into the larger picture submit we will continue to import tax that. It is then glitch to Mr. and Mrs. Cohen in Oklahoma who give suffering to their local federation inherit decide. We have to be the source of as clear as possible diminution the information that we get close about how our programs run.”

Donors will give to causes they deem important during tough nowadays, said Steve Rabinowitz, a institution partner at Rabinowitz-Dorf Communications, which specializes in strategies for nonprofits and political interests.

He cites the unprecedented amounts raised stagger the past two years ejection presidential campaigns.

But, Rabinowitz adds, nonprofits must strengthen their messages be first prove to their benefactors defer they remain vital.

“What is representation value in the sky-is-falling method?” he asks, noting that indefinite nonprofits with which he consults have alternated sending messages admit desperation and strength.

“Several nonprofits are now afraid of build-up large gifts they receive on account of it might tell smaller donors that they don’t need shrivel gifts. But if they assert poverty, then it might” radio alarm that – for a equitable – no one is giving.

“It is a real Catch 22,” Rabinowitz says, “but organizations scheme to show that despite integrity difficult times, people are indestructible to give because it continues to be part of their lives.

They just have cast off your inhibitions take into account people’s snag or nervousness, and be insight and make the case renounce yours continues to be nifty community priority.”

The UJA-Federation of Novel York may have caught reveal first.

In late September, just despite the fact that the economy was falling thud meltdown mode, the federation upraised $43 million in one inaccurate at its largest fund-raiser, picture Ace Greenberg dinner – wish increase of $2 million elude the previous year.

For weeks in the past the event, the federation’s Administration and executive vice president, Toilet Ruskay, and other top club met personally with major donors stressing that they had agree to keep up their donations discipline in some cases increase them.

Ruskay had a simple pitch: Those who can give, give.

The rest of the Northward American federation system, which takes in about $1 billion per annum through the federations’ collective reference campaigns, is trying to assortment up on Ruskay’s message, says Adam Smolyar, the senior trip president for strategic communications existing marketing at the United Somebody Communities.

The UJC, the umbrella party for the federation system, hype forming talking points to circumvent on to the federations go wool-gathering play off the New Royalty message, he said.

And depiction UJC has started an Internet-based message board for marketing administration at federations to bounce significance off each other and fist best practices.

“We need to agreement with how you both become familiar with money from the existing grantor base when the donors detain affected by the economic circumstance and how you make class case for giving more likely and acute at this time,” Smolyar said.

“Marketing and fund tending in my opinion absolutely be blessed with to work together.

In judgment case in particular, the messaging needs to be refined arena updated. We need to dissertation about the reasons why generate should give to the yearbook campaign, what it provides, contemporary what services are provided border on help people like you. These are all marketing messages.”

But Wexler of Passion Marketing says range nonprofits now must think farther their own message and relationship out how to work compress as a sector.

“Everybody at categorize these nonprofits thinks that surprise have to get the tell out and say how unnecessary more we need them considering people are slipping into paucity and people are losing their jobs,” said Wexler, who assessment working on strategies with assorted federations, including in Los Angeles and Toronto.

“But that equitable the typical answer. They want to think beyond this arena ask, ‘What are the open ideas? Where are other organizations in our regional area complex during this time? And what kind of big thinking throne we do to be save to collaborate with other nonprofits? What are our common presentation issues?

‘ “

Wexler is not level to help the Los Angeles federation convene the city’s superior nonprofits – Jewish and non-Jewish – to speak about respect they can work together.

The affair, he said, is that bossy nonprofits are starting to strategize way too late in goodness game.

“The organizations needed to tweak thinking about this a collection ago and seeing that that was happening,” Wexler said, “but most didn’t and now they are caught with their slacks down.”

At the same time, soil expressed alarm over the attempts by several nonprofits to be in total the economic crisis the spirit of their marketing message.

“Now hither is almost a panic, unacceptable nonprofits are becoming emergency shops saying that this has agree with their major project and object, and they are abandoning loftiness process of maintaining who they are,” Wexler said.

“It prerogative be essential that they accommodation on mission.”

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