The Jerusalem Foundation

The Jerusalem Foundation has been working on behalf of Jerusalem and its residents for more than 45 years. The Foundation’s early years were shaped by the city's need to develop, mostly by building a city, block by block, school by school, park by park. 

Without neglecting the development of  physical infrastructure, and continuing to care for previously completed projects, our last two decades were marked not only by physical but also programmatic investment, from community empowerment projects, to creating cultural programming, to leveling the playing field between east and west Jerusalem, to coexistence programming. 

Four decades after our founding, we have left our imprint on about 4000 projects, many of which are some of the city's best known landmarks.  

We continue to support institutions we founded, while adding many more programs to our roster, supported by direct donor funding. 

Our Vision: A Jerusalem that is pluralistic, vibrant, modern and economically flourishing.

Our Mission: We live and breathe Jerusalem, the spiritual center of the Jewish people. We look beyond its daily complexities, identify its ever-changing needs, devise solutions to address them and improve the quality of life of its residents.

Our Goals: To achieve our mission, we must focus on goals that advance the Foundation and the city we serve. To this end, our objectives are to focus on strategic priorities for the city and concentrate on measuring results.


STRATEGIC DIRECTION: We will identify and implement high impact projects, both physical and programmatic, that are catalysts for change in the city. These core areas are:

I.  COMMUNITY

Bridging Gaps: Jerusalem is a diverse city, with Jewish, Muslim and Christian populations, ultra-Orthodox and secular, old and young, immigrants and veteran Jerusalemites - all who experience this city in different ways. Bridging the gap among these populations requires us to make efforts that attempt to secure equal footing for all in these areas:
 
a.  Education: Supporting projects that create an excellent public school system that is sensitive to students’ needs and puts children first and support for higher education that serves to keep the young educated population in the city.
b.  Economic Independence: Supporting projects that foster economic independence and entrepreneurship and that keep young people in the city.
c.  Citizen Participation: Supporting projects that empower and encourage citizens to organize and set their goals at the grassroots level and work together to find solutions to unaddressed problems, influence the decision-making process and implement change.
d.  Access to Services: Supporting projects that expand services to those that do not have access to them and assisting residents in securing rights to which they are entitled.

II.  COEXISTENCE:

Shared Living: The diverse populations in the city have little natural or automatic interaction among them, and to a large extent, lead parallel lives. Although we share a city, true shared living falls short of expectations. We will continue to focus on projects that improve the quality of social relationships through:

a.  Education: Supporting projects that encourage mutual respect through formal and information educational endeavors.
b.  Shared Spaces: Supporting projects that encourage interaction and engagement in shared public spaces and developing cooperative practices that create social harmony through activities that build our trust of one another.

III. CULTURE:

Enriching Lives of Residents: Culture is a right not a privilege, one of the most crucial factors that have the potential to improve the city, a catalyst for improving the quality of life while impacting economic revitalization. The projects we support will:

a.  Nurture Jerusalem artists: Supporting projects that give them an opportunity to create and work in the city while stimulating economic and artistic growth.
b.  Make culture accessible: Supporting projects that create new groups of cultural consumers and reach out to expanded audiences.
c.  Impact the image of the city: Supporting projects that portray Jerusalem as a vibrant city with a rich tapestry of cultural activities for all.

Projects will be evaluated for sustainability and we will conduct external evaluations to determine our impact in the core areas noted above. 

FOCUSING ON RESULTS

Without funding for projects in the city, the Foundation cannot accomplish its mission. We will hone our fundraising efforts and focus on results, widening our donor base and finding new sources of funding for Jerusalem. We will also also hold projects to high performance standards, with clear and concise goals, measurable outcomes and supported by evaluations.

a. Increase Fundraising: The Foundation will continue to develop a new and younger donor base while also maintaining ongoing relationships with current donors, renewing their interest in new projects. Equally important is development of an Israeli donor base, private and public donors who commit local support for Jerusalem and our projects.

b. Streamline decision-making:  After many years of working in Jerusalem, the Foundation has supported a wide range of many different projects. In order to create clear and transparent internal organizational processes, we have clear standards and practices for project submission, selection and evaluation of projects. A Project Review Committee meets regularly to evaluate projects based on our strategic direction and including the following criteria: an assessment of the need, attainability of the project, marketability to potential donors, sustainability, leveraging with other partners and the role of local and national government in the project. Projects seeking our assistance must explain their goals, the impact the project will have and proposed evaluative measures.

Emphasis will be placed on projects that demonstrate a trend toward sustainability or identifiable exit strategies. This means support for projects that build capacity of residents, giving them a hand up and not a hand out. Occasionally, projects require a philanthropic push in order to prove their worth, and thereafter, the government takes over the project once it has demonstrated success. Accordingly, sustainability and/or exit strategies will be a major selection criterion for Foundation support.