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Tzedakah, Inc. Mission and Activities

Our Mission

    Tzedakah, Inc.'s mission is to help raise the level and effectiveness of Jewish charitable giving by encouraging more informed giving and better managed, more open, and accountable charitable organizations.

Our activities

    Tzedakah, Inc. has developed the following tools to encourage more giving, more informed giving, and more transparent and accounatble Jewish nonprofit organizations

1.   The Just Tzedakah website. Since 1998, Tzedakah, Inc.'s website just-tzedakah.org has been making available to the general public a wide variety of resources to faciliate more informed giving. The site also provides several novel ways to incorporate tzedakah into people's everyday lives. Visits to the site are currently running at 75,000 a year. Below are several principle features of the site:     
(a) Profiles of Jewish charities. Profiles on a growing number of Jewish nonprofit organizations. Profiles include information about charities' activities, leadership, governance, and finances. Click here for more.
(b) Guidelines for giving. Five short essays describing guidelines for charitable giving drawn from Jewish tradition. The essays cover such topics as when to give, to whom to give, and how much to give. Click here for more.
(c) What our sages say about... What Jewish tradition has to say about various issues relating to charities and charitable giving. Click here for more.
(d) What's new in the world of nonprofits. Occasional reports on new developments in the nonprofit world. Includes updates on our activities, summaries of interesting new research on charities and charitable giving, state and federal legislative developments, alerts about charity scams, and general news items. Click here for more.
(e) Giving CertificatesTM. Giving CertficatesTMare used to mark any occasion with tzedakah. They work like gift certificates in a department store. But instead of being allowed to choose gifts for themselves, honorees have a budget (paid for by the well-wisher) to allocate among approximately 75 selected Jewish and Israeli charities. Click here for more.
(e) Giving RegistryTM. Allows those ready to celebrate a wedding or other simcha to select charities to which well-wishers are invited to contribute. It works very much like a gift registry. Click here for more.
(f) Giving on ScheduleTM. A service which sends emails at regular intervals to remind participants that it's time to give tzedakah. The plan allows donors to easily, quickly, and conveniently set up a routine to give pre-determined amounts to charities they designate. Click here for more.
2.    Jewish Nonprofits in the Sunshine TM Donors have a right and responsibility to know about the organizations to which they contribute and charities have a reciprocal responsibility to be transparent. Tzedakah, Inc.'s Jewish Nonprofits in the Sunshine (JNS) is designed to help achieve these dual objectives. JNS makes it easy for donors to learn about participating charities in depth. We congratulate participating organizations for their extraordinary transparency and accountability. JNS looks at charities from four sides: (1) Mission and activities, (2) External recognition,(3) Leadership and governance, and (4) Financial and human resources. For each participating organization, we put the information on our website in a compact, easy to read profile that is available free of charge. Click to learn more.

3.    Educational resources for donors and charities
(a) Be Pure Before God and Israel: Principles of Ethics, Governance, and Accountability for Jewish Philanthropies in the United States Resources for Jewish charities to help them better achieve the highest standards of ethical and transparent operation. Includes Tzedakah Inc.'s "Standards of Practice for Jewish Philanthropies in the United States," The Orthodox Caucus's "Tzedakah and Tzedek Halachic & Ethical Financial Requirements Pertaining to Charitable Organizations" by Rabbi Daniel Feldman as well as other reference materials. Click here for more information.
(b) Raise Your Standard of Giving: Practical Tzedakah Guidelines Drawn From Jewish Tradition A lecture presented by the renowned scholar Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz, Halachic Advisor to Tzedakah, Inc. Available on our website. Click here for more information
(c) Smart Tzedakah: How to Evaluate Charities Before You Give A pamphlet based on our Jewish Nnprofits in the Sunshine program that guides donors as they search for effective charities. Click here for more information.