The Good People Fund identifies Good People doing great work — on a personal scale — and introduces them to our donors who are seeking creative ways to help people in need. Our grantees, primarily in the United States and Israel, are small, grass-roots, under-the-radar efforts run by dedicated individuals, or Good People as we describe them. Unwilling to accept the status quo, they've found inventive means to ease poverty, hunger, disability, social isolation and more — with very low overhead and inspiring results. Our goal is to nurture their commitment and ability to achieve meaningful results, one community at a time. Grants range from small gifts to relieve urgent needs identified by our trusted sources, to seed money that leverages innovative solutions. We pre-screen and evaluate every organization to ensure that donors' funds are used for their intended purpose. We also provide significant management guidance and support to our grantees to help them grow their great work. We are guided by this simple statement — small actions, can have huge impacts. Ultimately, though we won't solve every problem, we hope that through supporting and sustaining Good People we can do our share to make this world a little bit better.

To identify new programs we make periodic site visits to Israel and various locations in the US where potential new programs may exist. The most important aspect of our work is the personal relationship with the grantee. We take our screening and vetting process very seriously. At the outset we engage in serious conversation with the founder to understand the root of their passion and the story that led them to pursue their work — usually this is a deeply profound and revealing conversation. Once we determine that we have discovered a dynamic visionary open to our mentorship and guidance, we must take a close and careful look at their financial status. We ask for budgets, 990s and any other documentation that shows the financial health of the potential grantee. We look for several things here. First, we must see a budget below $500,000 and no full-time professional development staff. Second, potential grantees must demonstrate an ability to maintain low overhead, that the majority of expenses go towards programs and that the impact of our grants will be significant. Finally, while many of our organizations are in the nascent or emerging stages, we like to see the potential for growth. Though we do not have a precise formula, years of experience have given us the ability to generally know the right fit when we see it. Once we decide to fund a new program, we then work with the grantee to determine their greatest needs and where our funds will have the most impact. Our opening grants generally range from $1,000 to $5,000 and we often offer them as part of a matching grant challenge. All of our grants are tied to a specific purpose, explicitly stated in a letter that accompanies each check, and we expect the grant to be used for that intended purpose. At that same time that we send the first check, we begin an ongoing mentee-mentor relationship, providing guidance and expertise in all aspects of non-profit management. We stay in regular touch with our grantees and our grants, along with advice, come on a rolling, as-needed basis. We do require some simple documentation, as most of our programs have neither the staff nor resources to handle anything more voluminous; moreover, we do not find layers of paperwork an effective assessment tool. We rely heavily on the personal touch, and we do require phone conversations, site visits and regular reporting on the outcome of our grants. Ultimately, we build personal, professional relationships with each of our Good People, to nurture their great work, monitor progress and ensure accountability. Our process is highly effective and successful because of what we describe as the 4Ss: (1) our humane but very careful screening process, (2) the speed at which we can meet critical needs especially when time is of the essence, (3) our unique level of supervision and (4) the broad scope of programs that we serve.

It is really the human capital that has built our organization and that keeps it going at a strong pace. We are fortunate to have an Executive Director with over two decades of experience identifying and mentoring modest-size, nascent-stage organizations. Her ability to vet these organizations combined with her expertise in the management and running of small non-profits has allowed us to grow our model. Our Executive Director is supported by a very involved and highly capable Board of Directors that each brings a unique skill set to the table. In addition, the Good People Fund maintains a small part-time consultant staff that covers public relations and marketing as well as a Jewish Educational Consultant to interact with Jewish educators and produce educational materials. (most positions are covered by grants specifically awarded to cover their costs)

There are several metrics to assess our progress. On the grantee-front, we have always strived towards a healthy balance of programs based in the United States and Israel. As long as we continue to invest the time and resources necessary to find new Good People-led programs that can benefit from our sustained funding and guidance, we know we are making progress. At the same time, a steady flow of programs that “graduate" from the Good People Fund family is also a sign of progress. Many programs stay with us indefinitely, and as long as they continue to do life-changing work, we consider that progress. However, we also like to see our programs grow. When this growth exceeds our cut-off, we know it is time to let go and make room for another program. Our donors are also a reflection of the progress we are making. Each year since our founding (in the most difficult economic downturn in recent years) we have seen a steady increase in both the number of donors and the total donations received. Our growth in this area has far exceeded our expectations largely because we help donors do a maximum of good with each dollar spent by connecting them with the Good Person whose work best realizes their personal philanthropic goals. As long as we stand by our promise to maximize the impact of every dollar spent while creating tangible, immediate results, we expect our growth trajectory to continue in a very positive direction.

Since incorporating in 2008, we have collected and granted over $11,000,000 in a less than favorable economic climate. We have identified over 100 small organizations led by dedicated visionaries and in addition to providing them with high-impact grants; we have mentored them as they grow. For some organizations, it is our injection of much-needed resources and support that keeps them going. It is our greatest accomplishment when an organization we have funded and mentored outgrows us — that is, their budget exceeds our rough cut-off of $500,000. Several of our organizations have reached this target and far exceeded it. Through our work with small organizations as well as our Human Needs/Self-Sufficiency work, we know that more hungry people have been fed, more homeless people have found shelter, more at-risk youth have discovered supportive outlets, more elders have overcome the isolating effects of aging, more disabled people have found meaning in their lives and more people caught in the cycle of poverty have moved away from that daunting edge. We also have built a strong organizational base with solid infrastructure, proper governance, financial oversight, active sub-committees and a committed board that meets regularly and have grown our staff to include consultants who assist in our work. Our work will never be complete, however. As long as deep-rooted societal problems persist, and critical needs remain unaddressed, and as long as small organizations continue to emerge to solve these problems and meet these needs, there is a significant role for us to play in the non-profit landscape. But, more specifically, there are some important areas where we would like to grow as an organization. We have achieved nearly every goal we set for our work as part of the 5 Year Plan we developed in 2008. One remaining challenge is outreach to Jewish schools and educators. We know that the Good People we support are outstanding role models and their stories can inspire everyone, particularly young people, to do good. We have recently hired a part-time Education Outreach Consultant whose job focuses on creative and effective ways to introduce our model to the Jewish education community. Now that we have found the ideal person to fill that role we are optimistic that we can achieve our goal. A significant part of the work will involve updating the comprehensive curriculum which we already make available to educators. A second challenge is getting word of our work out to a larger audience. When people hear about our unique work their first comment is why more people don't know about our efforts. Because we insist on maintaining low administrative costs, it is imperative for us to find donors who are willing to underwrite the costs associated with additional staff. The balance continues to be a challenge, but one we believe we can meet.