Sunday, December 28, 2014

Comparing with Jewish Ams. Astounding!



      SELF had a great week, raising $100k, thanks to YOU!  However, unless this trend is kept up for 40 more weeks, 80-20 is still dying.

                   A Board of Donors Member sent me the following:


"Recently I attended several parties and talked to some relatively new friends about 80-20. The people were all shocked when they got to know so few AsAms donated to 80-20. The room went silent when they were told 16% of US non-orthodox Jews donate to Israeli religious organizations every year, because we all know those 16% Jews cannot all be the wealthy bankers."


                                Guess What, 16% is way too low!

    S. B. Woo thought the 16% figure sounded low.  

    The Jewish Ams are politically so strong, because they know that "money talks" and they donate to let those who know politics protect them.  The "donate to Israeli religious orgs" category used above may be too restrictive to accurately reflect the tradition of the Jewish Ams.  
     So S. B. googled for more general information about the giving tradition of the Jewish Americans. 

    Click here to see an article based on Pew Report, entitled "How to expand shrinking Jewish middle," Nov 12, 2014.  The following is a summary statement:


Of particular note to federations and all who care about : Just 43 percent of non-Orthodox Jews between 30 and 49 donate to any Jewish cause, sharply down from 60 percent among those just 20 years their senior.


    ASTOUNDING!    Even 43% is too blow!  How do we compare?   How do YOU compare? 


                          DONATE here till it hurts.
    
SB Woo
President, 80-20 Educational Foundation
A Volunteer 
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PS.  SELF money verified!  A committee of 3 BOD members was appointed by S.B. to verify the existence of the SELF fund and that not a penny has been spent except for banking fees.  The committee has reported back, shown below, verifying the above statement.  

"We have verified the cash accounts (the "Accounts") of the 80-20 SELF (the "Organization") as of December 20, 2014 per the request of the Board of Donors ("Board Request").  Our responsibility is to independently confirm the Organization's cash balance as of December 20, 2014 based on our observation of the Accounts via online banking.

 
The Accounts was opened upon establishment of the Organization and all of the contributions have been deposited to the Accounts. No discretionary expense has expended except processing fees and bank charges associated with the processing of contributions. We were provided monthly bank statements as well as the 80-20 Educational Foundation, Inc.'s 2013 Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, which contained the relevant information to the Accounts.  In addition we were provided continued access to the Accounts for the purpose of monitoring of the SELF fund on an on-going basis.

 
We have identified PNC bank at which the Organization currently maintained the Accounts as of December 20, 2014 and independently verified the Organization's cash balances of the Accounts ("Statement of the Accounts") on December 20, 2014. For the purpose of this Report, "independently verified" means that we were provided the online access to the Accounts, and physically reviewed the cash balances of the Accounts. 

 
Member of the Audit Committee
Tony Li
Larry Ho
William Pak"