Joseph Gitler, Founder and Chariman of Leket Israel

change the world 12

Hi everyone. Thanks for tuning in today. I have Joseph Getler with me. He is

the founder and chairman of ETT Israel. Joseph, thank you so much for being

Guest: for the opportunity.

yourself, about your background and how you got into the nonprofit world.

Riverdale, New York. After I got married to my wife, Lela who's from Toronto, grew up a very, I would say a typical modern, Orthodox Jewish background.

Jewish day schools, high schools. She university had a very brief legal career

before we made Aliah 10 months and happily living in Israel for the past 22 years. I think, uh, my involvement in the nonprofit world. Would've happened

Like many of us do in the day school. I would've sent my children to the high

school who knows the synagogue, the Mikva, whatever it may be. And that

probably would've been, and that's a wonderful way to help the community. But by coming to Israel, a even right after my Ali, I got involved in the type of

charities.

And on the other hand, like, uh, many of the fortunate few. Seeing the

Wow. So tell

wagon, which generally, if you're aware you get a tax break for [00:04:00] the first car you buy in Israel, you wouldn't typically use that car for the transportation of cooked meals and the spills and smells that go with that.

In the area around where I live. Right. Farba Celia pickups were mostly in that

And what our staff does and our 40,000 plus volunteers a year. And I'm sure

many people who are watching this have, have picked fruit s or vegetables would ed or have worked in our warehouse. And if not, they're of course all welcome. Now with that, we will, this year probably rescue about a hundred

million dollars worth of food.

And one that unfortunately in many countries in the world, everyone's too scared to do, even if they can figure out safe way. To do it. They're just scared of getting sued. And so they just say, who needs the trouble? Let's just dump it.

about a year you had what you called a mini strategic plan.

So tell me what that looks like. And I I'll tell you why I'm asking, because I have found most founders that I interviewed, they kind of look back and they can't even believe they don't even know where it happened, where it scaled. It didn't seem intentional. It was almost by accident. The need kind of took on a life of its own.

So I just, um, so excited by someone who seemed to have done it intentionally .

They had no choice. They had no money. So they had to figure it out. You

know, our, our generation may be a little less so. And, uh, you know, we, well,

the votes aren't yet. And really for me, it, you know, it was, it was gathering, uh, some people that I trust and putting them around the table and trying to talk through some of the issues and figuring out, you know, I'm not a financial person per se, figuring.

Also, we didn't really, our board was, you know, Joseph Getler and two friends

of his, because that's how you, when you start. And you have a concept. You

don't want people getting in your way in the beginning , but within three, four years of let get started, we started to bring in serious board members with serious credentials.

I always say the only reason I get invited. So the board meetings is cause I

And so today we have a wonderful board in Israel, very hardworking, very

much in tune with what we're trying to accomplish. And of course we have all those friends of organizations in America, Canada, UK, et cetera, who help us out in a myriad of other ways.

Great question. So look, if you had asked me that question before COVID, I might answer differently. And if you had asked me that question before the inflation that we've seen over the last six months, I might have answered differently. COVID turned out to be an operational challenge. Because our, just everything we do changed overnight and we thought.

Sk

No, if ends or butts. And so we're feeling it and other charities are gonna feel it. And so. This is a problem in general, in the social service world. And one that charities need to think about how to solve. And we're thinking about ways we're a little late, maybe for this one, but we're gonna do our best.

That's very

And of course, we all know that when you cut in a charity, you know, the last

It's not a, uh, uh, a cry from the dark. This is just reality. As of today, for all I

So of course the, the, the likely answer is you cut those things that are certainly not luxuries, but that people look. As luxury or the kind of things. Poor charities. Don't do the marketing, the events. Of course, the flip side to that is if you don't do that, are you gonna bring in money? But I don't have answers to global versus short term.

Right? Yeah. And, and you gotta spend money. We've learned over the years,

but, but we spend money smartly and we're always testing the waters. And

That's what brings in the best results to look at. We have campaigns. We have tens of thousands of donors a year, but the bigger bucks come in from just sitting one on one and telling people the story of what we do. And, you know, there's, there's no seed. The secret to fundraising is. Getting your supporters passionate enough about your work, that they don't just support you.

I mean, especially in the nonprofit world, between COVID and inflation and

Ukraine, and everybody's feeling it. What do you think is changing and will

change? Over the next, let's say three to five years because of how the world has evolved

Definitely just a general concern about, well, I'll give you, it's funny. Before we,

[00:16:30] report. And what it spoke about the, the key for me was actually

Okay. So that I think is gonna be a big concern. If inflation continues over the

next couple of years, even if people dig deeper into their pockets, even if they understand maybe 5%. Is not enough for my foundation. Let's get it up to 7% or 8%. So more funds flow in. It's no different than your own finances.

We work hard. The numbers are smaller. But there's plenty of money in this

country. We we're very happy to have the support and we need the support from the diaspora. And so that could impact Israeli giving just in, in general. And I'd say the other big piece for us is ju is again, it's an Israel specific and that is cost of housing.

He has four kids there. And so. And in Israel, the big discussion when you talk

And now it's gone down a level. If we can say that where people are saying we can't even afford rents, like it doesn't matter how far we go from Tel Aviv. It doesn't matter how far we go from Jerusalem. And so that may, that is going the defining issue in Israel, except for elections every two weeks over the next few years.

And so we all want the population of Israel to grow. You know, we want

And that, of course, that impacts me because the people that we're trying to

And then we can go back to Lala land, which is where we were the pass of heart to believe COVID was a bit of Lala. Financially for a lot of people.

Tzivia:

Ha

ve you noticed any shifts in terms of the demographics of the people giving the ages at which they're giving or the ways at which they're either giving or wanna be involved?

Okay. So we definitely have people involved, but it's, we're not overwhelmed

Thankfully, our difficult people come through in big ways for like it when push comes to shop. So we don't just put up with them. A lot of them have made us better as an organization with the hard work they've put us through in order to get their financing, financing i n place. You know, the big change I would say for, for the younger generations, just how they give.

And then of course, Facebook and Instagram and. On and on and on. I help

where I can, but thankfully, a lot of that they do for me. So , so that, that's the

really the biggest change I've yeah, a lot,

have to really be ready to

I do a lot of that kind of stuff. That's, you know, our CEO says that's the best

use of my time. So I, that sounds about I wanna keep, I wanna keep 'em happy. So I, I go along.

Just something that you'd like to share with our listen.

Guest:

Sure. So collected is an interesting animal because we don't serve the poor directly. And so in all those stories, we often don't have have them, or if we, and we don't chase after them either. But I always remember, I think it, it, it's an important, just a point to make when it comes to respect and how we treat the people we serve.

And so, you know, what it said to me at the time was of course this is about

providing, we, we take very seriously that we're providing healthy, nutritious

I'm not using philanthropic dollars for that. I have no problem with it, but the

money is limited and I wanna use it for the right things. And so for me,

whenever I think about that, I think about the fact that, you know, part of our

mission is the right food to the right people at the right time within logistical

limitations.

We have enough food to feed everyone. This is not, thank God. You know, it's

just unfortunately hearing on NPR about what's going on in Ethiopia, where

people, unfortunately it's the worst drought in a thousand years in Ethiopia on their, their. You know, it's like going back to my youth, uh, people there are at risk of starvation, millions and millions of Ethiopians.

That's

Thank

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