It’s hard to believe that Charidy, the online fundraising program, is not even five years old. It seems we’ve been receiving — and been touched by — their attention-grabbing emails for years. But according to Yehuda Gurwitz, its CEO and founder, they’re only just getting started. With $500 million of tzedakah raised so far, that’s a good “start.”
Gurwitz, who is 32 and single, has always been a go-getter, whether it was raising $40 in second grade for his teacher’s surprise birthday party, $1,000 in seventh grade for Chanukah, or eventually hundreds of thousands for kimcha d’pischa in his community of Crown Heights. It seemed everything he touched turned to gold, and fundraisers soon queued for advice.
“I can’t help you fundraise,” he’d tell them, “but I can help you become a better fundraiser.”
One such fan was the head of one of Chabad’s largest institutions. Yehuda pointed out names on the man’s donor list whose generosity he wasn’t maximising. “He was a great fundraiser,” Gurwitz explains. “He raised millions over 40 years. Yet he wasn’t as effective as he could be. He was leaving a lot of money on the table.”
Gurwitz coached him, and two weeks later the man raised $70,000 more from two donors who each used to give him five grand. It felt odd to Yehuda that this veteran fundraiser needed knowhow from a self-proclaimed “shnook.” But he realized that if he could help organizations fundraise more effectively, they could raise more in a shorter period of time.
He studied traditional giving throughout history and identified a few core principles: People care about financial value, about time, and about social issues. Guided by these insights, Charidy was born. Its concept of high-impact big-goal matching online campaigns in a short amount of time was the first of its kind, even in the non-Jewish world. “There were copycats,” says Gurwitz, “but I was flattered. The biggest compliment was when Facebook added a similar fundraising feature.”