The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation to Provide Up to $5 Million to the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund Aligned Grant Program

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation is pleased to announce it has become a new partner to the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund (JCRIF) Aligned Grant Program as they begin their second round of grantmaking. By committing to make up to $5 million in grants in the next year, the Mandel Foundation joins other core funders of the JCRIF’s Aligned Grant Program which includes the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, Jim Joseph Foundation, Maimonides Fund, and The Paul E. Singer Foundation.

A major piece of JCRIF’s 2021 efforts will be its new RESET Grants, that will support efforts to seize this unique moment in history to reimagine, renew, and reset Jewish communities for the future. The funders are issuing a Request for Proposals for those grants – seeking new ideas that look beyond current organizational boundaries, structures, missions, and program delivery mechanisms to envision a new future for Jewish communities in North America. Applicants can apply for up to $10 million of funding over 1-5 years for major new efforts to reset Jewish communal life. The JCRIF grant program will also continue to offer grants for emergency needs and for innovative adaptations to programs and organizational structures in response to the pandemic.

JCRIF’s second year of grantmaking will build on lessons learned in its first 8 months. The funders are also pleased to share JCRIF Lessons Learned 2020, a report written by Felicia Herman, Director of the JCRIF Aligned Grant Program. Grant funding to date has provided emergency support, fueled innovation and adaptation, and addressed some of the many systemic issues that have arisen from – or been accelerated by – the wholesale closure of Jewish institutions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund was created in April 2020 as a partnership of 8 major Jewish foundations and the Jewish Federations of North America to distribute more than $90 million in grants and no-interest loans to Jewish communal organizations meeting new challenges and opportunities posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.