Re NASI money:
They stopped paying for two reasons.
A) Having given out over $100,00 B”H, continued funding became untenable as the economy tanked. If money comes in they will continue to pay out outstanding claims.
The reason it was stopped abruptly was because
b) parents started giving less to the shadchan leaning on NASI to take over THEIR responsibility.
“the couple figured that they would get 2,000 shadchunus gelt from NASI, so they gave the shadchan much less than they would have.”
That is plain and simple just wrong and was never the intention of the project. By stopping abruptly fewer shadchanim would get “jipped “
Regarding the need to encourage more close in age shidduchim in general: Stay tuned for a letter for 35+ R”Y in America with support from Gedolim in EY.
I’m sure when it is released it will be posted in the CR……