[COMMUNICATED CONTENT]

On Thursday, December 17, Jewish educational institutions across North America area will be joining together for an end of the year , first-ever collective day of giving for Jewish education, using the online crowdfunding platform Charidy.com.

The current goal is $2 million (and growing) across the participating institutions, which span a variety of education styles, age levels, and communities. Among them are Staten Island Hebrew Academy; Shor Yoshuv, a yeshiva in Lawrence; and JEP, a Hebrew school in Rockland County.

Charidy campaigns feature three donors, each pledging to match a quarter of the predetermined goal, if the public contributes the final quarter within twenty-four hours, effectively quadrupling each donation. As an all-or-nothing campaign, the funds are only collected if the entire goal is met.

“This is our third campaign, which is really exciting for us.” said Yocheved Sidof, Executive Director of Lamplighters Yeshivah, a Brooklyn-based Montessori school which has raised over $300,000 through Charidy in the past. “The Giving Day not only gives us the opportunity to raise necessary funds for our school, but creates awareness and palpable excitement for an important cause in a unifying way.”

A Giving Day is a conglomerate of many Charidy campaigns, each one representing an individual organization. On the day of the event, each organization aims to reach its independent goal. Donors have the option of donating to the individual campaigns, as well as on a communal landing page featuring an “Everyone Fund” that disburses funds to all organizations equally.

“We have found that this model is proven to increase donations by over 25%,” said Charidy’s COO, Moshe Hecht. “Leveraging the large donors to bring in smaller ones using our time limited all-or-nothing model, is in and of itself a novel idea. A Giving Day only adds to the success of that, by bringing in a wider pool of donors with similar interests in a common cause, thereby extending the reach of each organization tenfold.”

To date, Charidy has hosted a total of four Giving Days, including Millions for Chesed, Million forOutreach, Million for Kollel and Million for Chabad San Diego. In June, The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s online journal, Philanthrophy.com, reported on the success of the Charidy Giving Day model, including testimonials from a variety of satisfied organizations.

To participate in the Millions for Jewish Education Giving Day, email menachem@charidy.com or call 347-565-4943 ext.107