שתיל - שירותי תמיכה וייעוץ לקידום שינוי חברתי

Veteran U.S. organizational consultant and social change expert Emily McKay, is used to working in war zones. So she wasn’t scared when she arrived in Be'er Sheva -- to offer a training to social change organizations in the south on surviving the economic crunch -- to a hail of exploding rockets.

"I spent a lot of time in Sarajevo when they were shooting at people including me. You do the work you need to do in your life and you don’t let things keep you from doing it," she said. ”My commitment has always been to build the non profit sector in areas of conflict."

So when McKay got a call from SHATIL director Rachel Liel telling her not to go to Be'er Sheva on December 31 after she heard rockets were falling there, McKay responded, "I'm already here."

McKay planned to spend her annual two weeks at SHATIL helping social change organziations cope with the economic crisis and indeed, she did conduct four training on the topic throughout the country, though she also spent time helping SHATIL staff and organizations cope with the reality of war.

"It's a terribly painful time for everybody, and it's hard for everyone to think of anything but the war," said McKay. "It's very hard for Israeli Arab SHATIL staff and activists with relatives in Gaza to say, we may not agree but we have the same values and we have to keep working together. I admire that."

McKay's main economic message: Hard times force us to think in new ways.

"This is the only country where most of the money for non profits is raised outside the country and the time has come to turn to Israelis. In our trainings we focused on community fundraising, income-producing ventures, and sharpening the organization's message, which requires more involvement from the entire staff and board. This is an opportunity to do things differently.

"We also had lots of discussions about lessons to be learned from the Obama campaign – using technology to engage citizens in their society, building a movement.

"You can't change things in any country without a strong independent sector," she said. "That's what I've worked on all my life in America and that's what I work on here. There are a lot of people doing very important work here and as much as I teach, I learn things that help me in my own work." McKay is the director of Mosaica, the Center for Non Profit Development and Pluralism in Washington DC. She has been volunteering two weeks a year to SHATIL and the organizations with which we work for 23 years.

"People who support SHATIL and the New Israel Fund should support them especially now because their work is hugely important and the work of building a better society can't stop because the economy is bad. It's the advocates who make sure that in tough times, people who are poor and disadvantaged don’t get forgotten. It's when things are toughest that protection of human and civil rights is most important.

"Its' God's work. It's good work. I'm glad to be part of it."