Ground-breaking Site Allows Non-Profits to Market Themselves to Pre-teens and Teens Who Experience Giving Through Educational and Social Networking Tools
NEEDHAM, Mass, November 17, 2009 – Jewish Causes of Choice, Inc., a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization dedicated to fostering the next generation of Jewish giving, announced the national launch of JChoice.org as its main tool to engage and inspire Jewish adolescents to learn about, think about and practice Tzedakah, a Hebrew term rooted in “justice” and “righteousness,” which is most easily understood as “charity.” Also announced is the launch of TheBarMitzvahRegistry.org to simplify Bar/Bat Mitzvah gifting.
JChoice.org connects a growing consciousness in the Jewish community to reignite the Tzedakah element of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience with the highly successful movement of non-profit fundraising via the Internet and social networking. JChoice.org connects young Jewish givers with important and often underserved charities by utilizing safe social networking technology. JChoice.org’s social networking tools have been custom built to engage the user and foster a greater sense of community on a website where kids learn, share ideas and champion the causes that touch them most.
“Our mission is simple. We empower this next generation of contributors to learn and experience the Mitzvah of Tzedakah and become more thoughtful in their relationships with society,” said Joshua Troderman, executive director of JChoice.org.
There are four unique feature sections on the site that make it easy to use and navigate:
• Explore Causes showcases causes that can be searched and sorted by popular categories, Jewish values and geography
• Give Now enables a user to donate directly to a charity, give to a friend or family member’s account or purchase gift cards
• My JChoice Network is the social networking community where users engage not only one another (building a shared database of Torah sermons (Divrei Torah), Mitzvah
projects, and Jewish value identification), but can also directly interact with their causes
of choice
• JMix is the multi-media area of the site that houses other areas of inspiration including music, video, arts, B’nei Mitzvah tools and contests that award participants with gifts of Tzedakah grants to be given away from their accounts.
“We built JChoice.org to meet the demand of an audience of younger Jewish donors that strive to find causes that have meaning within the context of their own lives,” said David Rosenberg, founder and visionary leader of JChoice.org.
“We did an in-depth study last summer and learned these young donors want involvement. They have told us they want to understand the impact of their activism and to be able to dialog with their peers regarding their charitable choices.”
Gift Registry Simplifies the Giving
A key ingredient and driver to JChoice.org’s success is expected to be its companion website and service TheBarMitzvahRegistry.org, (and TheBatMitzvahRegistry.org) which expands involvement beyond the user and is the key tool for engaging family and friends in the Tzedakah experience as they become supporters of youth philanthropy. TheBarMitzvahRegistry.org will allow anyone to fund accounts directly online or through the purchase of gift cards. Because JChoice.org is a non-profit organization, 100 percent of all donations, gift card purchases and charity account deposits are tax deductible.
A Marketplace for Charities
In its most basic form, JChoice is a place where charities showcase themselves to young givers who use the site to expand their commitment and understanding of charitable giving. There are currently 70 prescreened non-profits that users can learn about and support. Each charity is carefully vetted before being added to the site.
“This is a brilliant idea that comes just as the non-profit community is struggling with a decline in support that none of us has ever seen before,” said Rick Bausman, director of The Drum Workshop. “We do not have the resources to sharpen our focus on teen support on an individual basis, so JChoice.org is a no-brainer for us.”
“The causes aren’t limited to traditional Jewish charities,” pointed out Troderman. “We define Jewish causes as the charities and programs in which Jewish values can be found within their missions, and where the organization is contributing to repairing the world. The idea is not to reduce traditional Jewish Causes, but to expand the relevance of the arena in which they are found.”
The website has been in development and testing for about a year and goes fully live with today’s national launch. Throughout its development, test groups of students have put the site through its paces and counseled Troderman and his team on refinements.
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