Carly Friedman, Founder of MyTzedakah

Change The World Podcast-Ep. 11

Guest:[Thanks so much for having me my pleasure.

Tell me a little bit about yourself.What's your background?

There was always a new board that they wanted to join. There was always a new cause that they weren't involved in. So I really grew up where, Tzedakah was the major value and it was a major value of mine as well. I always feel like. Empathetic person like there's no, you know, I hear something that's going on the world.

And whether that be, when my friends, my friends are running for a marathon, they posted about it on Facebook. Or when, you know, I got some urgent pressures, guilt filled, you know, link from someone like that's where I was donating my money. And it was like, you know, $180. $36 here. There was no accountability, there was no intention or impact.

I have so many questions. Let's, let's go back a little bit. Tell me, what do you think is the root of this? Because I it's, what you're saying is resonating with them, but I never thought of it that way. What is the root of our generation? Maybe not giving as intentionally as they should.

But they have, and they ask for so much money throughout the year that I think the average Jewish millennial, next generation giver concentrates a lot of their mosque on their kids' schools. And isn't really able, you know, even have the time to learn about other Jewish nonprofits that are out there in the world are.

So I think those are all really, really important factors.

It was going to these large community institutions. It was going forward. It was going directly towards community, could see exactly what their impact was. Our generation it's all set up. So where really is our society going? And I think that lack of transparency, um, makes people RHB like, you know, what, if my money.

Going forward, but know like how impactful can I actually be another factor that for

That's what percentage do you give to women? What percentage you give to Israel? And you can add as many or as few nonprofits as you want. Like the places that you want to commit to the places you want to support. Sustainability, you know, it helps them reach sustainability and then you choose an amount that you, that you feel comfortable donating every month.

And I'm like, you may or may not remember to donate your 18 or 36, $180. You're actually really a supporter. You're an ambassador for them. You're committing to them like as if you were working for them. Um, and essentially helping them get their monthly recurring revenue.

We ask a few questions. We make sure that they're a 5 0 1 C3. You know, you can get the tax write off. We do due diligence if like some vetting vetting process to make sure everything's. And then they can join our platform very easily. The third way that we actually really love is when our donors themselves, that, you know, I am going, you know, I have a, I have a portfolio I'm like DACA, but I really love this XYZ.

s, um, because non-profits are not paid enough. Like I'll just put that out there. People who work in nonprofits aren't paid enough. So they're not able to function like a, like a business, but there aren't enough people who care about microbes owners.

You know, like they're, they're going to rely on endowments and whatever's written in their Wells from our parents, but people, our age are. Are much more likely to be giving micro donations or consistent monthly donations. And so I think that cultivating even a micro donor is something that nonprofits should be doing more of.

So that means that, you know, every few months we're going to be releasing new features that really solve these needs. But what we essentially want to be is the marketplace for Jewish nonprofits and Jewish stores to be able to meet meaningfully. And that means building those features. So like, we want to look like Facebook for Jewish nonprofits.

And that's a return on value as a social worker. Uh, like an ROI in, in the, in the social sphere. So what we really want to do is build out impact investing on our platforms so that if someone's donating consistently to a certain cause or a certain social problems, social issue, they'll be able to know exactly how impactful their.

We want to know where our money's done. The older generation was a lot less. I mean, everyone wants to know. Um, but the older generation was a lot more, it was more obvious, you know, I'm zoning to the shool, I'm turning to the school, I'm doing it to the mix class. Now we're all a lot more savvy when it comes to our finances because of all the tech solutions that exist.

But I think that nonprofits really have to feel like they're coming off authentic for us to really resonate with what they're asking. So that that's where really

When a nonprofit is able to have impact investors. Who really are just donating because they love them, then they're able to be more . So I do think that it's worthwhile for, I think it is great for people to be critical and cynical and like really look into it into the knockoff.

anything you didn't anticipate, whether in, for the good, or maybe in a more

challenging way that like, kind of that you didn't anticipate the response would be for me to let's say the nonprofit side or the donor side, cause this is something fairly new as far as I'm aware for like the Jewish nonprofits.

Like, you know, there's like 25 million mental health or non-profits out there who are working with. It, it it's challenging and hard to see them all be competitive instead of like joining together. But I think that everyone is going to start changing the way they behave when this new generation is the main generation.

And I think that a lot of their previous behaviors are going to change and they're going to have to change.

I think answer they're like their problems will be the answer to their problems. Like we want them to be able to build a place where if a donor comes on, because they want to do ASU tequila, which is a huge name. They inevitably end up donating to like three or four nonprofits nonprofits. If they've never heard of.

So I always ask this question. I'm just curious if you have any like favorite stories, I guess from your time in the nonprofit world or your time building this platform that you can share with us.

Like it's such a unique challenge. First of all, it's a unique challenge to be

a woman in tech. Then Annie, on top of it to be in the Jewish world, there are so many challenges, but I mean, I live in, I live in Jerusalem now. I live in, shall I am. And I'm introduced to so many amazing. Philanthropists and like tech giants or Tor giants tech giants.

And they're still happy to like, you know, have an open space for me. I. Concerns that that wouldn't be the case. And so my favorite part is really being like delightfully surprised that that is not the case. I feel like their Judaism and has become so progressive and so open. And that really propelled me forward.

And I think that there's a lot that we can be changing coming from like a completely different perspective. So, you know,

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