The Financial Meltdown has hit non-profits particularly hard. When people review their personal finances and decide it's time for some belt-tightening charitable giving is usually the first budget item that gets cut.
So what's a Director of Development to do in times like these? Direct Solicitations? Grant proposals? Direct Mail? Rubber Chicken Dinners? Chinese Auctions????
NO, NO and NO again... Cruise the homeless shelters for some big time donors.
Ida Fischer passed two years ago and bequeathed 250K Hebrew University on Mount Scopus in her will while leaving nothing to her family. Initially a spokesperson for the University described the mystery donor as a homeless women. While the reports of her homelessness turned out to be incorrect (she lived in a subsidized 1BR flat in Turtle Bay-Manhattan) this is not the first time in recent years that oddball, eccentric loners many of them homeless, have left huge gifts to Jewish and institutions and other non-profits.
There was the frugal auditor who left a bundle to Y.U. The evicted nonagenarian subsidizing Chabad in Little Rock to the tune of 100K. The homeless guy who willed a small fortune to RSA-Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim because IIRC, "They were nice to me. They sent me Hebrew-English Calendars every year before Rosh HaShanah" (sorry haven't been able to find a link to that story.) Or the homeless Atheist with a $4 million dollar estate who left huge gifts for NPR ( לחי ) and to a Catholic Mission in Phoenix (Head Scratcher).
So though the Bowery, Hoovervilles and Skid Row might be easier targets what the enterprising fund-raiser REALLY needs to discover is "where do all the eccentric loner millionaires hang out?" A daunting challenge indeed as most eccentric loners are by definition recluses who don't hang out anywhere.
So what's a Director of Development to do in times like these? Direct Solicitations? Grant proposals? Direct Mail? Rubber Chicken Dinners? Chinese Auctions????
NO, NO and NO again... Cruise the homeless shelters for some big time donors.
Ida Fischer passed two years ago and bequeathed 250K Hebrew University on Mount Scopus in her will while leaving nothing to her family. Initially a spokesperson for the University described the mystery donor as a homeless women. While the reports of her homelessness turned out to be incorrect (she lived in a subsidized 1BR flat in Turtle Bay-Manhattan) this is not the first time in recent years that oddball, eccentric loners many of them homeless, have left huge gifts to Jewish and institutions and other non-profits.
There was the frugal auditor who left a bundle to Y.U. The evicted nonagenarian subsidizing Chabad in Little Rock to the tune of 100K. The homeless guy who willed a small fortune to RSA-Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim because IIRC, "They were nice to me. They sent me Hebrew-English Calendars every year before Rosh HaShanah" (sorry haven't been able to find a link to that story.) Or the homeless Atheist with a $4 million dollar estate who left huge gifts for NPR ( לחי ) and to a Catholic Mission in Phoenix (Head Scratcher).
So though the Bowery, Hoovervilles and Skid Row might be easier targets what the enterprising fund-raiser REALLY needs to discover is "where do all the eccentric loner millionaires hang out?" A daunting challenge indeed as most eccentric loners are by definition recluses who don't hang out anywhere.
Maybe he ought to cruise the J-Blogosphere. Especially HaMavdil. No one here but us loners.
Qedusha-Havdala...Have you had yours today???
Qedusha-Havdala...Have you had yours today???
3 comments:
Cute.
Always amazes me when I hear stories like this. If I had the guts I'd live on the streets to learn their secrets.
On a slightly more serious note, if you did have 20 mil, what organization would you bequeath it to in your will?
Bray: Kushen tuchus.
--Der Moderne Shaygetz
DMS-
Huh??? Who's am I kissing now?
JS I'm selfish I'd leave at most 4 mil to tzedaka and the balance to my kids.
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