Two old friends join forces to help Israel’s disadvantaged by pairing donors with the needy.
By RIVKAH LAMBERT ADLERThe two women are the founders of Ten Gav, providing modest materials to needy families.(photo credit: Courtesy)
Naomi Brounstein and Vivi Mann have known each other for years; they attend the same shul in Ra’anana and share a history of being deeply engaged in community service.Recognizing a similar passion in one another for service to the disadvantaged, over the years they talked about working on a joint project.Mann is an experienced management consultant who previously ran a Max Brenner chocolate franchise and was involved in e-commerce. Brounstein trained as a lawyer in Toronto and then completed a master’s in social work at Tel Aviv University. More recently, both have been engaged in a variety of volunteer and community leadership positions; each brings considerable professional skills and personal experiences to the table.Nevertheless, their partnership didn’t gel until a local philanthropist who knew both women approached them, asking if they would consider working together on a project to raise small amounts of money for specific needs. The model the philanthropist had in mind has been modified by Brounstein and Mann to fit better in Israel, but that email was the catalyst the women needed to finally put their heads together.Their project was accelerated by last summer’s Operation Protective Edge. Brounstein elaborates, “We were pushed into action over the summer by a donor who is a friend of mine; he approached me during the war to see if we were operational. He knew what we were planning and wanted to give money right then, and have it go to needy people in the South. He had an awareness that if there was a war, then the needy would be all the more needy.“We were not, in fact, up and running yet but we decided it was worth it for us to get a jump-start like this, so we built the website rather quickly and began work.Over the summer, we managed to fund 16 cases.”A year after beginning their preliminary planning process, the two women are knee-deep in running Ten Gav, the social service organization they created. Ten Gav matches donors to families in Israel with specific, modest needs, such as eyeglasses, refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines; each need has been verified by social workers.Mann explains that the name Ten Gav “implies support – propping someone up on your back. The idea is that everyone needs assistance from time to time to get over a hurdle. It’s the kind of support that gets you past a certain point, and then you’re back on your feet.”Brounstein sees many advantages of the partnership on a daily basis, and Mann notes that it’s “great to be working with someone whose skills and personality are complementary.”
The administrative costs of Ten Gav are covered by a separate gift, allowing it to operate on the 100-percent model – that is, 100% of every donor’s money goes to fund the case of his or her choice. Brounstein details the unique model of charitable giving that Ten Gav offers. “The giving experience is personal: You go into the website, read about a real person dealing with real-life problems and you choose to donate to a case that speaks to you personally.“Also, no single need costs more than NIS 5,000. This is important is because we want our donors to feel like their personal gift represents a meaningful percentage of the total need. If a woman in Sderot needs NIS 2,000 for a new oven and you give NIS 200, well, you actually gave 10% of the total need. We hope that’s very satisfying to our donors, that their dollars or shekels made a real difference in acquiring that specific item.”“Also,” continues Brounstein, “the giving experience on Ten Gav is verified. That’s a very important point to us. Each case has come to us via a social services professional, usually a social worker. As part of the application process, the social worker submits a report on the need and the report is cosigned by a supervisor, so we know a second professional stands behind the need as well. In addition, they must forward one or two price quotes.“In other words, the Ten Gav process includes a thorough due diligence process and we want our donors to feel very comfortable with that.”Mann points to one of her favorite cases. “We helped two Ashdod boys with their soccer registration fees.We are talking about two brothers from a family that has a very complicated social service profile; the boys occasionally exhibit aggressive behavior and, as part of their therapy, it was strongly recommended that they participate in a soccer chug [after-school activity].The cost was relatively small – just NIS 1,140. A soccer chug is something that many of our children take for granted, but it was out of reach for this family.“The chug empowers these boys by providing structure; it requires discipline and allows them to be part of a team. Is this a basic need? Maybe not, but it certainly gives these boys a chance to participate in something that makes them part of normative society.”Brounstein also puts a personal face on the work she and Mann do together. “Social workers around the country go on home visits and see problems and challenges that they can’t possibly satisfy with the means available to them. Yes, the state provides a great deal.But when you go on a home visit to see an elderly, sick man and find out that his elderly wife is standing over the kitchen sink washing clothing because the washing machine broke down several months ago, that is something that cannot be ignored. How will this woman have the energy to care for her husband if she is exhausted from her household chores? “Most of our clients are people who are very wellknown to social services; they are families with lots of problems and daily challenges. We can’t solve their problems, but sometimes we can help them tread water.We can prevent a backsliding that would prove insurmountable by supplying them with a particular need. Sometimes we can help other members of the family so that they are better able to cope with the difficult situation caused by the family member who is the actual client of social services.”Brounstein and Mann have high hopes that their work together will grow. “We hope that donors from Israel and from North America will find the entire Ten Gav giving experience to be satisfying for the reasons that we think it is,” commented Brounstein. “We want and expect to grow. The pace will be determined by the two sides of our coin: We need donors to give via the tengav.org website, and we need social workers around the country turning to us with cases that are appropriate for this type of giving.“Obviously, acute situations should not be sent to Ten Gav. On the other hand, there are many, many types of needs that we can present to a very wide public and let the free market determine what gets funded.”“We hope to attract a wide variety of needs so there will always be something on the Ten Gav website that a person will connect to personally,” says Brounstein.“We also want to emphasize that we are not looking for major donors on the website – we are looking for lots of traffic. We want to involve lots of people, to visit and give what they can. With this project, modest amounts can make a real difference.”Reflecting on their motivation to work on Ten Gav, Brounstein notes, “We are motivated by a desire to contribute to Israeli society. I think many olim share that wish. At the end of the day, we came to Israel; we live here, we contribute our kids to the army, but we are left wondering, ‘What am I actually doing to contribute?’ We all have answers and are hopefully busy making contributions in various ways; starting an amuta [nonprofit] is just one more way of doing that.“Personally, I went back to school to study social work because I was looking for a way to give back in a professional manner in the social services area.”Similarly, Mann asserts, “Working with Ten Gav allows me to use my professional experience to contribute to Israeli society in a direct way.”
