The #MakeItHappen Micro Giving Circle at Rose Community Foundation has made grants to support eight new, creative Jewish projects through the Schusterman Family Foundations’ #MakeItHappen micro-grants initiative. From October through January, #MakeItHappen invited individuals from all over the world to submit ideas for creating new Jewish experiences in their communities. The Schusterman Family Foundations selected over 50 ideas from around the world to receive micro grants to bring their ideas to life and local partners, like Rose Community Foundation, funded additional projects in their communities.
“The goal of #MakeItHappen is to identify emerging leaders, thinkers, and visionaries who seek to contribute to their local Jewish communities around the world,” says Seth Cohen, Director of Network Initiatives for the Schusterman Family Foundations. “We are inspired by the ideas that have emerged from the young leaders of the Denver area and are thankful to Rose Community Foundation – one of our great forward-thinking partners – for helping to successfully bring this initiative to Colorado in a way that serves as a model for the entire nation.”
In keeping with #MakeItHappen’s focus on empowering individuals, Rose Community Foundation organized a micro-giving circle of individual donors who came together to review, select and collaboratively fund local #MakeItHappen projects. The Sturm Family Foundation matched all individual donations to the #MakeItHappen Micro Giving Circle. “The Sturm Family Foundation is committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive and engaged Jewish community,” explains Don Sturm. “These eight ideas will provide new, unique Jewish experiences in our community and these emerging leaders are to be commended for their creativity.”
The selected #MakeItHappen projects in Denver and Boulder include:
- A Little Shabbat for the Littlest Jews – Allison Schwartz
- Jewish Delicacies from Purim to Shavuot – Moshe Rhodes
- Northwest Denver Road Trip: Digging into Our Jewish Roots – Jennifer Kraft
- Preserving Our Past: Capturing the Stories of LBGTQ Jews Over 45 – Shanna Katz Kattari
- Rediscovering Jewish Women’s Intuition – Jodi Basch
- Spark: Make a Mitzvah Memorable – Shoshana Kraus
- The Tefilah Retreat – Jonathan Dubinsky
- Tsair T’zedkah Foundation – Alex Stern
More information about #MakeItHappen, including a list of funded ideas from around the world is available at https://www.schusterman.org/content/makeithappen.
Rose Community Foundation uses leadership, grantmaking and donor engagement to invest in strategic and innovative solutions to enduring problems and emerging issues. The Foundation has granted more than $200 million since it was founded in 1995. For more information, visit rcfdenver.org.