2020 Cohort graduates from UIA Philanthropy Fellowship

UIA NSW has concluded its inaugural Philanthropy Fellowship with the Australian Jewish Funders recently with an inspiring ‘Night of Giving’.

19 participants aged 25-38, who have an impact on our Sydney community and a connection to Israel, graduated from the Fellowship, which explored trends in philanthropy, collective giving and community building to develop empowered and skilled leadership.

Highlights of the eight sessions included David Gonski discussing community leadership and his philanthropic journey; one-on-one mentoring with key philanthropic leaders in the community, ‘Values and NextGen Giving Trends’ and learning pitching skills from communications expert Lior Shoham in Israel.

The final session – ‘Night of Giving’ – involved participants being split into groups. Each group was assigned to a UIA-supported project (Educational Youth Villages, Youth Futures, Aliyah, Net@ and Professions For Life) which they had to ‘pitch’ to the Fellowship cohort. Participants were informed directly from Keren Hayesod-UIA representatives live from Israel via Zoom, where they could delve deeper into the projects and ask questions. After voting for which project they wanted their collective donations to be directed towards, Educational Youth Villages was chosen.

“This ground-breaking initiative will certainly lead to further development of the future leaders in philanthropy in our community. We are pleased to have been able to work with the AJF and ensure their skills and passion is passed on to the future generations of UIA donors. We are so grateful to our Fellows for taking the time and sharing their vision with us, and next year’s Fellowship will be even bigger and better,” UIA NSW President Andrew Boyarsky said.

AJF CEO Tracie Olcha said: “The inaugural UIA NSW Philanthropy Fellowship was a truly unique opportunity for emerging leaders in our community to learn new tools and skills as the next generation of leaders and philanthropists. It was evident over the duration of the eight sessions that participants carefully considered their connection and engagement with defining the philanthropist and leader they would like to be. It was a privilege to collaborate with UIA on developing and facilitating the program.”