Danny Siegel said the Ziv Tzedakah Fund had grown too large for its “small and very simple” model.
Photo courtesy Washington Jewish Week
Sidebar
‘Mitzvah Heroes’January 10, 2008
Next month will mark 33 years since Danny Siegel decided to try something new. Instead of the usual tradition of waiting until his friends gave him the typical dollar or two to bring to Israel for tzedaka, he solicited them for money.
He wound up with $955. When he got to Israel, he asked around: “Who’s doing good things?”
He distributed the funds, then came home and wrote a report to his donors describing the recipients. He continued that pattern for several years.
By 1981, his pre-trip collection had grown to $12,000 and a friend suggested that he register as a 501(c)(3) charity. A published poet and writer, Siegel formed a board and the Ziv Tzedakah Fund was born.
Twenty-six years later, having grown into a fund that distributed more than $1.9 million to more than 100 charities in the United States and Israel last year and $12 million overall, Ziv Tzedakah has just become too large and complicated to sustain in its present form, said Siegel, who lives in the Washington area. By the end of 2008, Ziv will be defunct.
Naomi Eisenberger, Ziv’s Millburn-based managing director, credits Ziv with having made “a tremendous impact on Jewish philanthropy” in a variety of ways, from popularizing bar and bat mitzva tzedaka projects to allowing donor-designated contributions — a practice Jewish federations have adopted increasingly in recent years.
It also taught that there is “no such thing as a small amount of money,” she said. And even as the fund grew in size, that concept remained true. When Siegel read off a list of the most recent checks deposited, there were a few $5,000 amounts, but far more written for $10, $18, and $36.
“Ziv was based on a model that was small and very simple,” Siegel, 63, said in an interview last month. It was all about “finding good people and getting them…money to allow them to do what they do best,” he said.
Ziv primarily has supported individuals or small programs that provided direct services with a minimum of overhead and bureaucracy. (See sidebar.) Siegel discovered what he calls “mitzva heroes” by simply asking others the same question he asked on that trip to Israel: “Who’s doing good?”
But joined by just Eisenberger in the United States and a part-time staffer in Israel, Siegel, who does not draw a salary for his work with Ziv, said he couldn’t have the personal contact with each beneficiary that he wanted.
“Ziv as it is now does not resemble the vision,” said Siegel.
The decision was not a hasty one. Siegel had been discussing it with board members for more than a year. He said he explored options other than closing the fund. He said it wasn’t feasible to shrink the organization, and hiring more staff would have changed Ziv’s essential nature. (Until this past year, staff salaries were not taken out of general Ziv funds but covered by designated donations. In 2006, of the $2.1 million the fund raised, it distributed $1.9 million to charity.)
Plus, with Siegel synonymous with Ziv, having someone else head up the organization was not an option, said board member Glenn Easton.
“It could not possibly be the same organization,” Easton said. “There is only one Danny Siegel.”
Eisenberger said she is hoping to start a new organization to follow in Ziv’s footsteps. A former teacher and businesswoman, she began working with Siegel after she invited him to speak at Congregation B’nai Israel in Millburn, whose president she had recently become. She became Ziv’s full-time managing director in 1997.
As for Siegel, he quipped that he’s not closing Ziv just so he can get more sleep. He also stressed that his health is fine and that he does want to spend some more time with friends. But the author of Gym Shoes and Irises: Personalized Tzedakah and other books said he wants to devote more time to his writing. He also hopes to expand his educational work by teaching 15-hour “mini-courses” around the country. Siegel has lectured at 500 synagogues throughout the years, and taught some 15,000 teens as a scholar-in-residence for the USY Israel Pilgrimage program.
As for the closing of Ziv, Siegel is confident he has made the right decision, offering a quote from educator John Holt to illustrate what Ziv has built: “Charismatic leaders make us think, ‘Oh, if only I could do that, be like that.’ True leaders make us think, ‘If they can do that, then…I can, too.’ ”
‘Mitzvah Heroes’
The Ziv Tzedakah Fund shined the light on small and little-known charities, Jewish and non-Jewish. Among its beneficiaries:
• Am Echad provides financial assistance to Jews in St. Petersburg, Russia. Ziv provides about 20 percent of the Potomac, Md.-based organization’s annual budget of approximately $35,000. That often includes paying for onetime medical emergencies, in addition to the monthly payments Am Echad provides for close to 100 Russian Jews.
• CHAI (Concern for Helping Animals in Israel) works to prevent and relieve animal suffering in Israel. During the Second Lebanon War, CHAI focused much of its efforts on the rescue of animals abandoned in the northern part of Israel.
• The Giraffe Project trains students and educators in social activism and identifies individuals and organizations “who stick their necks out for the common good.”
• Lev Ramot distributes food left over from celebrations to needy families in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot and provides cooked food to 200 families weekly.