FAQs

The New Israel Fund was founded more than 30 years ago to actualize the vision of Israel’s Founders, that of a Jewish and democratic state that, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “ensures complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” Through our founding, funding and advocacy of more than 800 organizations that comprise Israel’s progressive civil society, we have become the leading organization advancing democracy and equality in Israel.Widely credited with building Israel’s progressive civil society from scratch, we have provided more than $300 million to more than 900 cutting-edge organizations since our inception. And we are more than a funder; NIF is at philanthropy’s cutting edge thanks in large part to Shatil, the New Israel Fund Initiative for Social Change, and to our own projects, programs and coalitions.

Our values drive our work. We fight inequality, injustice and extremism because we understand that justice is the precondition for a successful democracy — and the only lasting road to peace. The New Israel Fund’s founders wanted to connect with Israel in a way that reflected their progressive values, and thousands of Israelis and Diaspora Jews have joined with us for that reason. Our supporters love Israel, and see it clearly as striving for an ideal not yet attained.

The NIF family has been the agent of Israel’s most significant social change since its founding in 1979. We have won the most important legal and legislative victories that have improved the lives of tens of thousands of Israelis, opening doors to women, non-Orthodox Jews, Arab Israeli citizens, the LBGT community, immigrants and the disabled. Working at the cutting edge of sometimes-contentious social change, we have placed previously neglected issues on the public agenda and changed the consensus on some of Israel’s most difficult social issues.Thirty years ago, Israel’s NGO sector consisted of small groups that were mostly partisan and allied with political parties, and charitable organizations dominated by traditional cultural, educational and religious institutions. Today there are more than 27,000 citizen-action groups, hundreds of which are helped each year by the New Israel Fund. NIF has also influenced the principles and practice of other philanthropies, resulting in additional support in areas such as the rights of Arab citizens, environmental justice, women’s rights and more.

The New Israel Fund has nurtured many of Israel’s best-known and most effective NGOs, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel; B’Tselem; Association of Rape Crisis Centers; Community Advocacy: Genesis Israel; Israel Women’s Network; Adalah: Legal Center for the Arab Minority; Israel Religious Action Center; Bizchut: Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities; Jerusalem Open House; Kolech: Religious Women’s Forum; Tebeka: Legal Center for Ethiopian Immigrants; Worker’s Hotline, and many more.

NIF's partnership, priorities and accountability set it apart from other fundraising organizations. We are a unique hands-on international partnership between Israelis, North Americans and Europeans in the vanguard of the social change movement in Israel.  Rather than provide direct social services to Israel's disadvantaged sectors, NIF empowers marginalized Israelis to organize and speak for themselves and achieve recognition and results in the corridors of power.Investing in the New Israel Fund means investing in a specific vision of Israel. Our unshakeable dedication to democratic values and to equality and justice for every Israeli provides a values-driven measurement of success. Almost every significant cause-related progressive NGO in Israel was seed-funded by NIF, and the NIF family is responsible for significant advancements in human rights, social justice, religious pluralism, and environmental protection. And we don't just seed-fund start-up organizations; through our action arm Shatil, we give them the know-how to grow and prosper.

From small, community-based groups to Israel's most influential human rights organizations, NIF's funding, training and leadership have made the difference in building the Israel we know to be possible.

NIF participates in many activities and events within the Jewish philanthropic community. In recent years, NIF has developed partnerships with Jewish federations, groups of Jewish philanthropists, such as the Israel Venture Network (IVN) of high-tech entrepreneurs, and other foundations such as the Nathan Cummings and Dorot Foundations. NIF is a key partner in the Green Environment Fund, a consortium of funders which includes the Bronfman Philanthropies and other major foundations, and is the first and largest funding collaboration in Israel dedicated to the environment. The Abu Basma Project, run by NIF and the American Joint Distribution Committee, supports efforts to ensure representation for the residents of formerly unrecognized Bedouin villages.These collaborations help focus philanthropic dollars on issues of strategic importance in areas of common concern such as education, religious pluralism, the environment and the rights of Israel’s minorities.

The New Israel Fund is a c(3) philanthropic organization, incorporated in the U.S., with the stated mission of incubating and fostering social change organizations in Israel.  Except for public education programs in the U.S., Canada and the U.K, NIF uses rigorous guidelines to fund organizations, training and other activities in Israel exclusively.We are a funder with a point of view.  We evaluate our grantees and grantee applicants rigorously and frequently, relative to our primary goal of achieving progressive social change in Israel. NIF seeks to fund organizations that share our most significant values – justice and equality for every Israeli, as well as freedom of speech, conscience and dissent.   In addition to organizational effectiveness, NIF grantees must meet five standards:

• Legal status as an Israeli “amuta” – a registered NGO meeting the legal requirements of the Israeli government.
• Organizations must respect and support the democratic nature of the state of Israel.
• Organizations must refrain from partisan political activity.
• Organizations cannot advocate violence or the destruction of the state of Israel.
• Organizations cannot use racist or derogatory language or designations about any group based on their religion, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

And NIF is not “just” a funder.  We are an advocacy organization that takes on the toughest issues; builds coalitions; incubates new approaches, programs and projects for social change; and serves as the acknowledged leader of progressive civil society in Israel.  NIF works on the most difficult, intractable issues of Israeli society — and the issues we take up today often become the concerns of mainstream organizations tomorrow.

NIF is governed by an international Board of Directors that includes Israelis, Australians, North Americans and Europeans who represent different points of view within our common values. The New Israel Fund CEO, development, communications and financial management functions are located in various offices in the U.S. The Executive Director in Israel manages NIF-Israel, which includes grants, program and administrative staff as well as Shatil, NIF’s action arm, which provides capacity-building and training programs from five offices around Israel. The New Israel Fund of Canada, New Israel Fund-UK, New Israel Fund-Australia and New Israel Fund-Switzerland also contribute financial and volunteer support to the NIF family of organizations.The grant-making process begins in Israel where our office accepts applications that are reviewed by staff, then by the relevant Grants sub-Committees. These and other Board Committees are composed of members of the Board, members of an International Advisory Committee, and other non-Board members who have a familiarity with the Israeli non-profit sector and are experts in social change or other specific NIF issue areas.

The Grants Committees make detailed recommendations to the Board, which then considers which grants to approve. NIF consistently monitors the use of funds in grantee organizations’ activities to ensure that grant funds are being utilized effectively, efficiently and for the purpose for which the grant was approved. Grantees include grassroots community-based organizations as well as regional and national professional organizations, and cover a diverse range of issues assisting all sectors of Israeli society.

NIF does not fund direct services, except in special circumstances.  Our orientation has always been towards changing Israel as a society so that all citizens will have equal opportunities and live in a just society. In certain instances, as during the Second Lebanon War, we partner with other agencies and organizations to provide emergency relief to sectors in dire need of assistance. Some of our grantees do provide direct services in cases where they are developing a model that may be replicated, such as intervention programs for youth at risk, micro-enterprise training for unemployed women, and alternative educational programs for liberal Orthodox pupils and others.

We generally do not fund academic or research, and do not fund organizations affiliated with political parties.

NIF publicizes its activities and financial statements in our annual report and on our web site.  We are transparent about our donors and grantees, and provide audited financial statements each year to our donors and to the public.

NIF’s funding priorities are determined through a combination of long-term strategies and more immediate needs and opportunities. Some NIF priorities take years to bear fruit; others have immediate impact. Committees of NIF board, staff and qualified outsiders intensively analyze requests for grants and funding each year, and the Board of Directors has the final say on funding allocations.

In terms of fundraising priorities, NIF works to cover its core commitments (as set in the annual approved budget) as a higher priority than raising funds for extra-budgetary projects.

Generally, our priorities fall into three major issue areas – human and civil rights, social and economic justice, and religious pluralism. We also focus on issues of the environment and environmental justice through our partnership in the Green Environment Fund.

NIF’s guidelines are designed to inform its grant-making, capacity-building and project decisions. These highlight three principles:

1. Respect for a multiplicity of viewpoints;
2. Transparency to grantees, donors and the public at large
3. Compliance with standards of accountability and due diligence

Criteria for Grant-Making and Support

1. Compliance with the laws of the state of Israel
2. Respect for the principles of the New Israel Fund and compliance with its policies and procedures
3. Relevance to NIF strategic priorities, including:
   • A focus on social change
   • Strengthening Israel’s democratic values and institutions
   • Missions that fall within one of NIF’s six general issue areas: human rights and democracy; shared society and combating racism; social and economic justice; religious freedom; Palestinian citizens of Israel; and New Initiatives for Democracy.
4. Nonprofit status
   • Registration as an amuta or a company for the benefit of the public;
   • Publicly available bylaws;
   • Audited financial reports;
   • Confirmation of proper accounting procedures as required by Israeli tax authorities and possession of a certificate of tax-withholding at source.
   • The above eligibility requirements will not apply to individuals or coalitions requesting capacity building services from Shatil.

Organizations that engage in the following activities will not be eligible for NIF grants or support:

1. Participate in partisan political activity
2. Promote anti-democratic values
3. Support the 1967 occupation and subsequent settlement activity
4. Violate the human rights of any group or individual, advocate human rights selectively for one group over another and/or reject the principle of the universality of human rights
5. Condone or promote violence or use violent tactics
6. Employ racist or derogatory language or designations about any group based on their religion, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
7. Works to deny the right of the Jewish people to sovereign self-determination within Israel or to deny the rights of Palestinian or other non-Jewish citizens to full equality within a democratic Israel.
8. Engage in activities at odds with the positions, principles, or vision of the New Israel Fund.

Approved July 29, 2010 – Tel Aviv

Learn more about New Israel Fund’s Principles.

NIF raises funds to cover its operating budget on an annual basis. Foundations and individual donors in the U.S., Canada and the UK – as well as a small but growing number of Israeli philanthropists – provide the more than $30 million that comprises the overall NIF annual budget.  Within that overall budget, the Ford Israel Fund is a grant-making partnership between the Ford Foundation and the New Israel Fund to promote peace and social justice in Israel.

NIF is at philanthropy’s cutting edge in large part because of Shatil, the New Israel Fund’s Initiative for Social Change (formerly known as NIF’s Training and Empowerment Center for Social Change Organizations).Founded in 1982 to complement NIF’s grant making, Shatil’s original mission was to provide grantees and other social change organizations with hands-on assistance and training in the basics of non-profit management. As a capacity-building center for grassroots organizations, Shatil provides tools that empower its clients to improve their lives and communities and build institutions to promote long-term social change. Widely regarded as one of the world’s most successful capacity building centers, Shatil regularly originates, discovers and disseminates best practices to Israel’s growing NGO sector. More than 1000 organizations are currently receiving assistance from Shatil.

Shatil has evolved into NIF’s action arm — launching innovative programs, building coalitions, and working at the forefront of social change in Israel. With more than 100 ethnically diverse professionals working in Jerusalem, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Lod, and the “Triangle,” Shatil embodies a bottom-up, community organizing approach, reaching out to constituencies on the economic and geographic periphery, helping them create and run their own programs when existing institutions fail to act, and maximizing their strength by building coalitions among them. Today, Shatil often takes the initiative in spearheading national advocacy and emergency campaigns.

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NIF stands for freedom of and from religion and the right to individual decision and conscience.

We oppose religious coercion and the monopolistic practices of the ultra-Orthodox- controlled Rabbinate in Israel, which curtails personal and religious freedom in such matters as Jewish identity and citizenship, marriage, divorce and burial. NIF supports a variety of strategies to combat this monopoly, and to promote the rights of all Jewish streams to receive official recognition and equal allocation of State resources. NIF is currently the only major funder with a dedicated program promoting pluralistic voices in the Orthodox community; the seed-funder of Israel’s first secular yeshivot; and the promoter of several initiatives against religiously-based racism targeting Israel’s minorities.

NIF funds “amutot” (non-profit organizations) that are registered with and approved by the Israeli government. However, given the huge impact of the occupation on Israeli democracy and society, NIF does support Israeli amutot that work on human rights and social justice issues in the Occupied Territories, or work to constrain the settlement enterprise.

The New Israel Fund was among the first funders of Palestinian-Israeli civil society – the organizations that have won groundbreaking victories for civil and human rights for Israel’s most disenfranchised minority. As documented by the Israeli government in the Or Commission Report, the 20% of Israel’s citizens who are Palestinian have suffered de facto and de jure discrimination since the founding of the state. The New Israel Fund serves on the steering committee of the Task Force for Israeli-Arab Issues, a group that includes many American Jewish mainstream groups who have come to recognize the importance of this issue.

We support Arab as well as joint Jewish-Arab civil society organizations that work to protect and promote the rights of Arab citizens on issues ranging from land and water rights to equal access to education, employment and housing. Our work in the Bedouin community, Israel’s most impoverished, has resulted in the recognition of previously unrecognized villages, the rejection of government-enforced dislocation and the slow but steady provision of basic infrastructure and services to this dramatically underserved population. From incubating micro-enterprise to uniting women against honor killings, no one has done more to empower Palestinian women than the New Israel Fund family.

Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens live together in one small nation, but bring dramatically different narratives to their shared land and citizenship. Understanding the Arab minority narrative means that we do not demand adherence to Zionist principles as a condition of our support. Achieving meaningful coexistence between these two populations will require patience, dialogue and mutual respect, including the freedom to disagree about Israel’s most difficult and existential issues.

The New Israel Fund is committed to strengthening democracy in Israel, supports freedom of speech and promotes non-violent means of expression of belief and conscience. We oppose any attempt to criminalize the legitimate expression of support for any non-violent strategy or tactic, including the global BDS movement which we do not ourselves support.

NIF does not support the global (or general) BDS movement, views the use of these tactics as counterproductive, and is concerned that segments of this movement seek to undermine the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish homeland.

NIF will not fund global BDS activities against Israel nor support organizations that have global BDS programs.

However, NIF opposes the occupation and settlement activities. NIF will thus not exclude support for organizations that lawfully discourage the purchase of goods or use of services from settlements.

The New Israel Fund opposes the passage of the Jewish nation-state bill, in all its iterations, as it will undermine the principle for equal rights for citizens of the state as well as harm the delicate fabric of life in Israel. Israel’s Declaration of Independence clearly asserts that Israel is both the Jewish homeland and a democracy that confers equal rights on all its citizens – no further legislation is necessary.

At a time when Jewish-Arab relations in Israel are particularly difficult, this proposed Basic Law would damage the democratic nature of the state by creating a precedent whereby Jews could be legally favored over non-Jews. Potentially, this new Basic Law would provide for the establishment of two tiers of Israeli citizenship, one for Jewish citizens and one for everyone else. Additionally, this legislation allows for the possibility of allowing Jewish religious law to influence legislation and court decisions. This violates fundamental democratic principles regarding religious pluralism and freedom of religion for Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis alike.

We join with President Reuben Rivlin, dozens of legal experts, political scientists, and leaders of mainstream organizations in both the U.S. and Israel in opposing this legislation as harmful and unnecessary.