שתיל - שירותי תמיכה וייעוץ לקידום שינוי חברתי

As part of SHATIL/NIF's efforts to minimize the effects of the world financial crisis on Israeli social change efforts, SHATIL Director Rachel Liel met with the director general of the Finance Ministry last week along with Ran Melamed, associate director of Yedid, the Association for Community Empowerment. SHATIL and Yedid are partnering in an effort to advocate for government policies to assist an ailing third sector. In this and other meetings with government officials (including NIF Executive Director Eliezer Ya'ari and Melamed addressing the Knesset Finance Committee,) SHATIL and Yedid are advocating for special emergency measures such as tax breaks for NGOs, the provision of bridging grants, policies to encourage philanthropy, and other steps to provide a safety net for the third sector. Forty additional NGOs are partners in this effort.

Since the trend toward privatization in the 1990's, NGOs have been providing for many of the needs of the most vulnerable. Thus, the weakest population groups in Israel would be those hurt if NGOs were to collapse.

"Aside from its unique and unparalleled contributions to Israeli society, civil society is also a big employer in Israel, providing jobs for at least 250,000 people," said Liel. "Just as the government is planning a safety net for businesses, it has a responsibility to do so for NGOs as well."

SHATIL presented the government with a policy paper outlining steps the government should be taking to assist civil society which includes a detailed analysis and costs.

On a second track SHATIL is providing valuable guidance to our partners in the field with a task force specifically created to address the problem and targeted capacity building to NGOs on how to best survive the crisis.

An example: In recognition of the fact that it will likely be years before the market is back on its feet, SHATIL is now placing greater emphasis in its consulting to and training for NGOs on raising funds within the community through membership programs, direct mail, special events and income generating projects. This new emphasis is further to the guidebook SHATIL published earlier this year entitled "Raising Funds in the Community" which elaborates on each of these areas of potential fundraising. Emily Gantz McKay, a world renowned expert on NGOs, long time friend of SHATIL and director of Mosaica in Washington DC, is at SHATIL for two weeks, lending her vast expertise to Israeli NGOs to help them weather the crisis.

SHATIL is staying in close touch with nervous NGO staff and lay leaders through a series of town meetings with organizational representatives to continuously assess their current needs.

SHATIL, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, MATAN (the Israeli United Way) and the Israeli Civic Leadership Association, are collaborating on an internet hotline that will make experts available to answer organizations' pressing questions as they relate to the crisis.