Scholars and practitioners hold a common assumption that American Jewish philanthropies have transferred ~$2 billion to Israeli grantees annually since at least 2007. Even if we were to assume no growth in real value in American Jewish philanthropy to Israel since 2007, $2 billion in 2007 would mean $2.3 billion in 2015 values. However, we identify a total of $1.8 billion, our findings, which are more inclusive in terms of donors and yet somewhat lower in terms of funding, lead us to suggest that this assumption is an over-estimation. Click on the link below to learn about our innovative methodology and more detailed findings.

The Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame (GCSHOF) is facing a pivotal organizational moment. The passing of long-time board member Les Levine is bringing attention and resources to the organization. In addition, 2025 will mark the GCSHOF’s 50th Anniversary. Clarifying the organization’s mission is essential to determining the organization’s priorities and setting the organization up for sustainable growth and operations. This report identifies short-, medium-, and long-term considerations, provides a landscape of peer organizations to inspire the GCSHOF’s strategy, and proposes next steps toward sustainable operations.

Arts, artists, and creative strategies can be critical vehicles for achieving social, economic, and community goals. Creative placemaking is one type of arts-led planning that incorporates the goals of communities with stakeholder participation. Questions exist, however, around who participates in the creative placemaking process and to what end. Here we brought together people from diverse backgrounds to facilitate community development and engagement through creative placemaking. We examined how a this type of workshop can reshape perceptions people have of creative placemaking.

This is a follow-up to our initial report. In this longitudinal study we present four waves of data: 2015, 2017 & 2019, 2020-2021, and 2022-2023. his report provides insights into U.S.- based institutional support for Israeli nonprofits during and beyond COVID-19, and at the onset of the October 7 war. Findings indicate a general upward trend in support over the years of our study. Funding remains centralized, with approximately 100 organizations (8% of the donor pool) accounting for over 80% of all donations.

With the acknowledgment of the role of community foundations in both the perpetuation of and potential to dismantle structural and systemic racism, the Community Foundation Opportunity Network launched an aligned action network in January 2021 called the Network for Equity + Opportunity Nationwide (NEON). NEON is an aligned action peer network, consisting of nine community foundations across the United States, that has collectively committed to advance equity in social and economic mobility through investments in wealth building and power shifting approaches to place-based philanthropy. This report provides an early snapshot of the cohort members’ adoption of aligned practices and strategies that advance racial equity efforts.

This report represents the collective and retrospective learning from the NEON initiative, prepared by a group of scholars from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy who observed and engaged with NEON from Fall 2021 to the present. During this time, the research team collected more than 300 documents. Has NEON demobilized as members have faced new and emerging challenges? Or has the network quietly pursued this work in other ways and is ready to re-emerge when the climate is conducive? You can read our findings, based on analysis of over 300 documents (meeting agendas, NEON materials, minutes…).