Naomi Eisenberger is a proud “Jersey girl” who has never left the Garden State for greener pastures. She is the Founding Executive Director of The Good People Fund which she helped found prior to 2008’s great economic downturn and the Madoff implosion. In the past 18 years this dynamic, countercultural tzedakah fund has raised not only in excess of $33,000,000, but also a legion of more than 260 small impactful nonprofit organizations in both the United States
and Israel, many of which have grown into mature programs that help make this a kinder and gentler world by easing human suffering in creative ways.

A woman of many talents from an early age, Naomi began her career as a high school American History teacher. While home raising a family she quickly used her talents as a needlepoint pillow maker (remember them?), kosher caterer, and plant doctor when houseplants were de rigeur. Along the way, she took over the family clothing business.

Always an organization junkie and do-gooder, in 1991 she met poet and Mitzvah Guru, Danny Siegel while serving as her synagogue’s President. That chance meeting brought her into the tzedakah world and eventually she served as the first employee of Siegel’s Ziv Tzedakah Fund.In 2007 when he decided to shut down the successful fund, she realized there were many donors who loved the low overhead, grassroots appeal of direct giving to early-stage organizations begun by inspiring individuals, actually Good People. She began The Good People Fund with the help of a cadre of donors and thinkers who believed in this creative model.

In a world of increasing polarity, animosity and hatred, she feels blessed to be able to do this important work with the support of her husband, kids and grandchildren. Life IS good!

The Good People Fund supports individuals and their organizations in the U.S. and Israel leading creative, deep and impactful grassroots efforts to advance positive social change and improve the lives of others. While our grantees represent a broad spectrum of critical work — from providing food security and medical access to fighting antisemitism to empowering women and girls — they have a few things in common: They each punch above their weight, their impact in their communities and beyond disproportionate to the minimal staff and resources with which they make due every day; and they occupy a remote corner of our philanthropic and nonprofit communities, one where their voices are not often heard.

In November 2024, with the support of generous donors, The Good People Fund brought together 65 of its grantees for the first time at a two-day gathering in New York that we called “the (un)conference.” At the gathering, where our grantees learned from experts, shared knowledge and experiences and re-energized their commitment to their work, we also learned a lot through conversation and observation.

Here are five vital lessons we were reminded of during the event:

1. The work of social visionaries can be lonely

Social visionaries pour their hearts and souls into their nonprofit work, often with little support. Some run their organizations with a very small team — or even just by themselves — and sometimes it feels as if their efforts go unnoticed. Yet, despite the isolation and challenges, they continue, driven by an unwavering passion to fill a need they have identified and make the world a better place.

At our gathering, we saw firsthand how crucial it is to recognize and support these individuals. One of our grantees, who works tirelessly on women’s empowerment, recently faced a moment of crisis. Overwhelmed and unsure of how to move forward, she felt the crushing weight of being the sole leader of a small organization. In her moment of doubt, she received an unexpected call from someone she met through a Good People Fund event. The call was a lifeline — a reminder that, even in her loneliness, she is not alone in this journey. That simple gesture lifted her spirits, and in that moment, she realized that even the most solitary paths can be filled with unexpected support and solidarity.

2. The transformative power of togetherness

Bringing people together in person to meet, learn and share ideas ignited a spark of energy that was truly electrifying. The connections, conversations and collaborations that blossomed during our time together were nothing short of magical. This collective synergy reminds us of the profound impact we can have on each other. When we unite, we create something that gives energy not just to ourselves but also to everyone around us.

In the words of one of our grantees, who leads an organization supporting vulnerable youth, “The power of being together was palpable. Hearing others’ stories of success and overcoming challenges gave me hope that I, too, can push through my own struggles. Being together truly felt like magic.” The future-focused conversations and moments of laughter and shared challenges were all a testament to the power of togetherness.

3. Connection’s ripple effects: An expanding impact

The return on investment in these relationships has been nothing short of extraordinary. Grantees are now offering each other meaningful support through visits, phone calls, shared projects, referrals and more. Grantees have visited one another’s projects, featured each other on their podcasts, shared each other’s posts on social media and engaged in so many follow-up interactions and collaborations that the list is too long to fully capture.

This wave of reciprocal giving and receiving, which we’ve come to call “the ripple effect,” has far surpassed our expectations. It highlights how building a strong community can amplify impact in ways that are nearly impossible to quantify.

One example that stands out is Rutie Pilz-Burstein, founder of the Israeli nonprofit Sport – Bridge to Education, who recently brought her team of educators to visit Yoni Yefet Reich at Kaima Farm, a previous Good People Fund grantee, in Beit Zayit, Israel. Rutie wanted her staff to draw inspiration from the organizations’ shared values and commitment to vulnerable youth and benefit from Yoni’s years of leadership and Kaima Farm’s successful program — and they were truly inspired.

We have a list of dozens of these “ripples,” and we know they are just a glimpse of the broader impact that has unfolded. The ripple effect continues to grow, creating connections and fostering collaborations that extend far beyond what we initially envisioned.

4. We need each other now more than ever

In a world that often feels fragmented and divided, the importance of coming together has never been more crucial. By partnering across sectors, geography and causes, we can address the immense societal challenges we face. When we unite, we don’t just accomplish more — we ignite each other’s passion. This shared energy fuels our determination, giving us the oxygen to continue our work and make a meaningful difference.

Following our recent gathering, the message was clear: being together made us stronger, alleviating loneliness and fostering the exchange of ideas. In response, we’ve launched a pilot Community of Practice, where eight nonprofit leaders will come together to support one another and continue building on these vital connections.

As one attendee shared, “This was like a breath of fresh air — a place of hope and warmth, nurturing human connection. It felt like a lighthouse in a stormy sea, reminding me that even in the toughest times, there are principled people out there who act, support and illuminate the world with compassion and understanding.”

Together, we are stronger, and we can keep shining a light of hope in the world.

5. Collaboration, not competition

Collaboration doesn’t just benefit individuals; it strengthens entire communities.

In a world where nonprofit organizations are often pressured to compete for scarce resources, we’ve seen that true success lies in working together. This is a paradigm shift: Helping one another is not a weakness — it’s a strength. When we collaborate, everyone thrives.

At our gathering, grantees shared invaluable knowledge with each other, whether it was fundraising strategies or helpful connections to potential partners. The impact of this collaboration has been profound. With our gathering just three months behind us, we already have numerous examples. Here’s a favorite: At our event, Alma Schneider and Iris Mehler — founders of 1in6 Support, which supports families of children with disabilities — met John Beltzer, founder of the Songs of Love Foundation. During the event, John led us in a beautiful activity: recording a song for Zeke, a child with severe health challenges. Through the interaction between Beltzer and Schneider and Mehler, a new partnership was born, and now the families of 1in6 Support will benefit from access to the support provided by the Songs of Love Foundation as well.

We are living in a time of global upheaval and transition. For all of us on the nonprofit spectrum — whether we work in small neighborhoods or across global networks — the need for strong, connected communities has never been more urgent.

 Julie Fisher is the associate executive director of The Good People Fund.

Not all charities and nonprofits are big. Not all of them need huge infusions of cash from single donors, big foundations and funds, and other large organizations. Not all of them have to be filtered through a logistically and bureaucratically necessary but still time- and soul-sucking set of requirements.

Some of them are small and nimble. The help they provide is less systemic than individualized and personal. Their creators can use mentoring to guide the internal fires that propel them.

Both kinds of organizations are necessary, but the smaller ones can be less visible.

Naomi Eisenberger sees them. And her background as a serial entrepreneur, shul leader, and volunteer has developed her internal Rolodex, taught her to listen intently, and equipped her to provide those nonprofits with the help they need.

Her 17-year-old Good People Fund has given more than $23.2 million to support 242 programs, spent not quite five percent of what it’s raised on expenses, and because some donations are designated for administrative costs, has spent nothing else on overhead.

That’s not bad for an organization that until this year has had only one employee — Naomi Eisenberger.

So who is she?

To begin with, Ms. Eisenberger’s got deep roots in New Jersey. “I’m from Caldwell,” she said. “My parents came from Manhattan and the Bronx to Caldwell in 1932. My father, George Kaplan, came with his brother-in-law to start a men’s clothing store, and he and my mother, Molly, basically became pillars of the Jewish community.”

Caldwell was a small town then; much of it was farmland, Ms. Eisenberger said. “My parents were one of the first Jewish families in town. They opened a small synagogue, Agudath Israel” — now it’s a prominent, flourishing Conservative shul — “and my father was president there.”

Men’s clothing stores seemed to run in the extended Kaplan family’s DNA. Ms. Eisenberger’s father’s store, the Caldwell Men’s Shop, “stood in the middle of Bloomfield Avenue until 1996,” Ms. Eisenberger said; in 1986, she and her husband, Gerry, bought it from her father.

After she graduated from public school in town, Ms. Eisenberger went to Montclair State, and then taught history in Whippany Park High School. She and Gerry moved to Millburn. Then they had children — two of them, Andrew, who now is married, the father of three children, and an oncologist at Columbia Presbyterian, and Sara, a former social worker, the mother of three daughters, who lives nearby in Short Hills — and she became a serial entrepreneur. “I started a plant decorating business, and then I had a needlepoint finishing business, and then I became a kosher caterer,” she said. It was the 1980s, and those businesses were on trend. People decorated their houses with plants, they loved making needlepoint but didn’t know how to turn the finished product into something usable, and it was possible to run a catering business out of your own kitchen. “I was following trends, and I did things that I was good at and cared about,” Ms. Eisenberger said.

She was also learning a great deal about working with people, figuring out what they wanted and what they needed, and how to adapt as time, technology, and the world around her changed.

In 1991, her children were in college, she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, and she was the newly elected president of her shul, Congregation B’nai Israel in Milburn. “I was in the rabbi’s study” — that was Steven Bayar, now rabbi emeritus — “just about to go on vacation, and I saw some books on his shelf written by Danny Siegel.

“I had never heard of him.”

Danny Siegel is a philanthropist, poet, writer, and charismatic animating spirit behind the Conservative movement’s youth group, USY; he was the international president in 1962, and has influenced generations of once-young people ever since. Ms. Eisenberger had been a USYer, but she hadn’t gone on Pilgrimage, as the group’s summer trips were called, and she hadn’t been active on the national level. Somehow, she hadn’t been influenced by Mr. Siegel — at least consciously.

“So when I saw these books, I asked Rabbi Bayar ‘What is this about?’ and he said ‘Take these books and read them on vacation.’

“I did, and I was blown away.

“So I came back and said that we have to bring him here. Our plan was to start a tikkun olam committee — we didn’t have one then — so we hired him for a Shabbat as speaker in residence.

“Like most people, I was totally blown away.”

That was the first time they met, and they stayed in touch. “Then, a few years later, he asked me if I would like to volunteer for his organization, the Ziv Tzedakah Fund, and I said omigod yes! It kind of felt like being anointed.

“So I drove down to Rockville,” Maryland, where he lived, “and I gathered up all the records, and I became the volunteer administrator.

“At the same time, we were running our family business, which by that point we had bought from my father.” It was a lot, even for someone as energetic as Ms. Eisenberger.

“I went to Israel with him in the summer, I became very interested in his program, I got to know the grantees, I went to CAJE conferences with him” — that’s the now-defunct Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education.

“And then in ’95, when we decided to close the store, I said to Danny, ‘I can’t continue to do this. I have to get a job. You either have to hire me or I have to go.’

“He was of the school that you don’t use donated money to pay anyone’s salary, but he found a donor who would pay a half-time salary.” So Ms. Eisenberger worked half-time for the Ziv Tzedakah Fund and half-time for the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, out of USCJ’s New Jersey office.

That didn’t last, though. She was far more interested in philanthropy than movement politics. “So I said to Danny, ‘Full time or nothing,’ and I ended up working full time as the managing director of the fund.”

That lasted until 2007, “when Danny announced that he was retiring. ‘You’ll land on your feet, Naomi,’ he told me.”

When she began to work for Danny Siegel’s fund, it was raising $250,000 a year, she said; by the time he shuttered it, it was raising $2 million annually, and that money was doing good work. So “the night the board voted to close, I just blurted out, ‘This work is too important. We are doing too much good. Our donors believe in us. I’ll start over.’

“The next morning I got on the phone and called seven donors.

“I sat down with a friend and we wrote a business plan — he was my first board chair. We came up with a budget. I had to raise $175,000 for each of the first two years. I reached out, and those seven donors I called gave me the money we needed to start.

“We incorporated in the state of New Jersey in 2007. We opened the Good People Fund on May 1. That was 17 years ago.

“My office then was in my son’s bedroom. And it still is.”

What drives her?

“This is not a job,” Ms. Eisenberger said. “This is holy work. Literally holy work.

“I don’t have a bad moment, because it is only doing good, and I get to hang out with the best people God has put on this earth.

“We seek out and support small grassroots organizations in the United States and in Israel. They don’t have to be Jewish — in Israel they can be Jewish or Bedouin or Muslim. We fund them.

“And we mentor them.

“Something that’s common to all of them is they each have an individual or small group of people who are visionaries. People who have identified problems in the world and have found creative ways to solve those problems.

“And it’s give and take. Sometimes she’ll call me and ask me for advice.

“She is able to make anybody feel that they are the most important person in the world. She is available. When you call her, she just picks up the phone.

“She is absolutely for real,” Ms. Judas concluded.

Debra Orenstein is the rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel in Emerson. “I love Naomi, and I love what she does,” Rabbi Orenstein said “I have invited her to my synagogue to speak to the Hebrew school. She is so relatable.

“When you talk about big problems in the world, it can be overwhelming. Massive amounts of money are needed. Her approach to tzedakah is targeted and personalized. It enables people to connect, and it also allows a few dollars to make a very big difference.

“It’s not as if we don’t need the bigger charities — we do — but this is not either/or. Naomi’s approach is really helpful both to the organizations that are running on a shoestring and the donors who can see how their money makes a difference.

Rabbi Orenstein has known Ms. Eisenberger for years, but they hadn’t been in touch until earlier this year, “when I read a beautiful email that she wrote about hope,” she said. “I was about to teach an online course about hope, so I called her to ask what if I were to teach it in partnership with the Good People Fund and raise money for her cause.

“The proposal was totally out of the blue. Everything was easy. There was no red tape. She just said, ‘Yes. Let’s do this.’

“What amazes me about Naomi is that she always has her finger on the pulse,” Rabbi Orenstein continued. That was true when she ran her small business from her home, decades ago, and it’s true now, too. “She knows where the community is, and what it needs. I was very involved with freeing slaves, and she was very involved in that, too. When I first spoke to her about #MeToo, she already was involved with #GamAni,” Me Too in Hebrew. “She knew people’s stories. She is so remarkably plugged in.”

It’s not clear how that works, Rabbi Orenstein said. “It’s not that she’s in any kind of boys’ club elite. She knows those people, but she’s not one of them. But somehow she knows Jewish organizational life, writ large, in all of its different incarnations — the big, the small, the medium.

“She knows people, she connects with people in such an authentic and deep way that people share with her, and she shares with them.

“She is easy to partner with. Her default answer to so much of life is yes. That is rare. Most people who are in the difficult but enviable position of being able to grant money see themselves as gatekeepers. They feel they have to say no. But Naomi — who is always totally responsible about where and to whom she gives money — is always game to meet someone new, to try something new.

“Her default is yes, and that is what makes her so delightful.”

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This article first appeared as the cover story in The Jewish Standard, June 14, 2024 print edition and on their website.

When Elie Klein was 13, he knew that giving back meaningfully and making a mark on the community was part of becoming a Jewish adult; this translated to donating about a tenth of his gift money to charity, he told eJP. But today’s “mitzvah project model” is more effective as an educational tool, he said, “because it highlights personalization and promotes advocacy and action.”

Now the North American director of development at ADI, an organization that cares for and empowers Israelis with disabilities, Klein listed some of the ADI-based projects that b’nai mitzvah have participated in: twinning with an ADI resident of a similar age, running bake sales, bike-a-thons and other small-scale fundraising projects to help the organization secure equipment, therapies and opportunities for those who benefit from ADI’s services, adding that these experiences will enable young leaders to “choose their own adventures.”

As Jewish youth learn the cantillation for their Torah portions, worry about the notes of the haftarah and navigate the social pressures of the parties, they are also giving back to their communities as part of their b’nai mitzvah training, raising funds and awareness for favorite causes or new initiatives, learning new skills and developing their passions.

The mitzvah project has even been in the pop culture spotlight recently: “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah,” which debuted on Netflix in August and is still a subject of conversation in the Jewish community, featured a throughline of protagonist Stacy’s search for a mitzvah project that spoke to her. The film portrays the mitzvah project as a one-off event, more like a single good deed. Stacy considers making friendship bracelets for dogs or volunteering at a retirement home (where her crush just happens to regularly visit his grandmother). But Rabbi Rebecca, Stacy’s quirky, tough-love-wielding Hebrew school teacher, tells her that “the sooner you do your mitzvah, the sooner you’ll find things falling into place.”

“Mitzvah projects are the norm in hundreds of Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Renewal communities, but very few synagogues dictate the exact nature of the mitzvah project,” Rabbi Daniel Brenner, vice president of education at Moving Traditions, told eJP. He explained that the “project” designation encouraged students to do something beyond writing a check to charity, and gave it additional visibility by making it a part of the d’var torah or b’nai mitzvah speech.

Rabbi Jason Miller, who has been officiating private and customized bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies for more than two decades, told eJewishPhilanthropy that the mitzvah project can be a space to be creative and discover new passions. When in-person volunteering was not possible during the pandemic for health reasons, Miller said, two students whose b’nai mitzvah were a month apart joined forces on their mitzvah project: they volunteered to cook food for parents staying at a Ronald McDonald House in Ann Arbor, Mich., whose children were in treatment at a nearby hospital.

“The problem was that neither of these boys had ever cooked before,” Miller said. “They were determined, though, and spent hours learning how to cook by watching YouTube videos and then made breakfast on several occasions for dozens of parents at the Ronald McDonald House. These two boys loved the mitzvah project so much and they both love to cook now. They just never realized it was a passion.”

Elana Beame, who spearheads the mitzvah project program at Tzedek America, recalled a student in Southern California who was extremely passionate about food waste. “He learned how grocery stores and markets will throw away produce no longer at selling standards. This produce was still completely edible. He took the initiative to go to his local grocery stores, markets and farms and started rescuing the produce that would be thrown away and instead donated them to local food banks,” Beame said. “He used rescued produce to create table centerpieces at his celebration, which were then donated to a food bank immediately following the party.”

This week, Tzedek America founder Avram Mandell spoke with a student who has the Torah portion of Bo, which talks about the plague of darkness. “We talked about vulnerable populations and the connection to feeling vulnerable during the plague of darkness, and she connected darkness to depression and no one wants to feel that kind of sadness,” Mandell said, adding that this framework “made her feel more inspired to work with the vulnerable population she chose.”

Todd Shotz, founder of b’nai mitzvah prep company Hebrew Helpers and the Mitzvah Learning Fund, which provides grants for Jewish learning opportunities, said that his organization’s students are encouraged to pick an ongoing project, to “use this moment as a launching pad for a life dedicated to tikkun olam.”

“Our mentors frame it as the student putting their new role as a fully responsible member of the community into action,” he told eJP. Hebrew Helpers also asks its students — now more than 1,200 b’nai mitzvah trained — to go beyond fundraising and actively volunteer for their chosen cause if possible. “It is always engaging to a student if the charitable cause is centered around an interest or passion of theirs,” Shotz said, recalling students who knitted baby blankets for the local children’s hospital; made and gathered dresses for Dress For Success; and made dog toys and raised money for the Israel Guide Dog Center.

Many Jewish programs preparing students for their b’nai mitzvah require that they complete their community service commitment by the date of the synagogue service, as if the project is just another to-do on the b’nai mitzvah checklist, which may not encourage longer-term engagement with the cause in question. And some families do opt out if volunteering is not required.

At Congregation Beth El in Bethesda, Md., Robin Finkelstein, b’nai mitzvah coordinator and hazzan assistant, said her synagogue strongly encourages students to participate in mitzvah projects, but does not require it — of this year’s 26 b’nai mitzvah students only 13 have reported mitzvah projects, “definitely a drop from last year,” she said. This year’s projects included helping new immigrants, cooking meals at an interfaith center, collecting toys for a hospital pediatric unit, raising money for The Trevor Project, supporting an education nonprofit for kids with disabilities and park cleanups.

Making mitzvah matches

From 2000-2013, longtime Jewish educator Sheri Gropper had a thematically appropriate 13-year run helming “Mitzvah Mania” fair, where families would receive a packet of materials, listing various nonprofits grouped by areas of interest with contact information and ideas for helping them. The fair would draw more than 130 families of pre- bar/bat mitzvah students per year, she told eJP.

Today’s technology enables a different approach, but today’s students and their parents still need help to find their mitzvah project match: enter Tzedek America’s Mitzvah Project Central, a password-protected database of partner organizations that have volunteer opportunities available for b’nai mitzvah-aged students. The opportunities are tagged by topic and shown on a map (some of them are marked as opportunities that can be done from anywhere).

“If a student comes to us and is unsure of what social justice topic to focus on, we explore the different options together, or we look at their Torah portion for themes that can be connected to a social justice topic,” Beame said. “Students tend to want to focus on organizations that are in their backyard so they can volunteer in a hands-on way. We encourage the students to look at all of the organizations we partner with, regardless of location, to get inspired and learn more about what different regions focus on.”

Also helping teens find meaningful mitzvah matches, the Atlanta-based Creating Connected Communities (CCC) started as a bat mitzvah project 25 years ago, when Amy (Sacks) Zeide organized a small holiday party for a local shelter.

“The theft of kids’ Christmas presents from a local Atlanta agency inspired Amy to use bat mitzvah gift money to create Amy’s Holiday Party, an annual event that brings local kids together for a fun day of games and music, and to distribute holiday gifts their families might not be able to afford,” Naomi Eisenberger, the executive director of Good People Fund, told eJP. “This annual party is a key activity for CCC teen participants,” she added.

Today, CCC is an independent 501(c)(3) and builds community, provides Jewish teen leadership training and guides young teens, synagogues and other groups in creating meaningful mitzvah projects. A division of the organization, Amy’s Holiday Party, pays tribute to the original project, but now serves thousands of children and families in need year-round, and engages hundreds of teens in hands-on volunteer work.

“As a community, we want giving to become a central part of our young leaders’ identities, and the best way to achieve this is by plugging into what they are already passionate about,” Klein said. “We empower them to use what they love to rally their communities around the cause and help us make a profound impact for disability care and inclusion. In addition to providing the perfect recipe for self-motivation, this method also ensures the greatest possible satisfaction, as teens are excited to be the ones running the show and imparting knowledge and values to the adults in their lives.”