Imagine, for a moment, that a wealthy philanthropist announced that he would be giving $10 million to various Jewish charities. I’m sure those in the Jewish community would take note of this amazing gesture.
Well, in under five years, the 14,000-plus members of Daily Giving have now collectively contributed $10 million to more than 75 worthy Jewish charities. In the next 12 months, it will be donating more than $5 million to its nonprofit recipients.
“It’s pretty incredible what can be accomplished when the Jewish community comes together,” said Dr. Jonathan Donath, a chiropractor in White Plains, New York, who founded the organization. “Several thousand individuals are giving a dollar a day to charity, but the compound effect is that together we have given away $10 million.”
DailyGiving.org is a website and a 501(c)(3) organization, where people can sign up to give a dollar a day to a different Jewish charity. The organization now has more than 14,000 members in 39 countries, which means that every day, a different organization gets over $14,000. On July 6, Daily Giving reached a milestone, and hit $10 million in total donations distributed since its inception in 2019.
“For just a dollar a day, you get to give to a diversified portfolio of organizations that help families suffering from poverty, widows trying to support their children, cancer patients, Jewish prisoners, special needs children, those suffering from substance abuse and mental health issues, and a whole lot more,” said Dr. Donath. “It’s been amazing to see our impact grow.”
Seventy-nine different organizations regularly receive a daily donation, after which the cycle repeats and goes back to the first charity. Each charity is the beneficiary of more than $65,000 a year. The organizations receive 100 percent of the donations, which are charged to members’ credit cards on a monthly or yearly basis. All of Daily Giving’s administrative, marketing, and operating expenses are raised from private donors.
Ezer Mizion is the world’s largest Jewish bone marrow registry and is one of the charities that is part of the Daily Giving pool. They swab an IDF soldier for every $50 donated to them. Because of the donations from Daily Giving, 3,419 soldiers have been swabbed – and seven lives were saved in the last year as a result of the Daily Giving donations.
Other notable charities that are recipients of Daily Giving’s regular donations are Camp HASC, Leket Israel, Chai Lifeline, United Hatzalah, Pantry Packers, Migdal Ohr, and Yachad, among others.
One of the benefits of signing up as a Daily Giver is that you get an email, identifying the charity that is getting the donation that day, along with the total amount donated. Each day the amount grows, and the donor gets to learn more about each charity that is receiving the donation in the email. Recipient organizations have reported that some large donations have come from individuals who first learned about their organization through Daily Giving.
Many individuals start by giving $1 a day, and then raise that amount to $2 – or even $1 for each person in their family. There are hundreds of people who have signed up and given $1 a day to charity in the merit of a sick person, or in memory of a loved one. It’s also a wonderful bar or bas mitzvah gift to teach a youngster the importance of tz’dakah.
Each year, Daily Giving receives hundreds of new applications from nonprofits that want to be included. Daily Giving has an allocation committee and a rabbinical council that vet and ultimately decide which charities should be added to the list.
Donath has bigger goals in mind. “We are on track to generate another $60 million to charities over the next five years. Our goal is to have at least 100,000 Jews signed up for Daily Giving. That would mean we would be giving over $50 million a year.”
It only takes a minute to sign up with Daily Giving and become part of a very special community of individuals dedicated to performing the mitzvah of giving tz’dakah every day. Please visit DailyGiving.org – and sign up today!
By Michael Feldstein
