Introduction
This handbook lets you know the many ways that Kulanu might be able to support your community. Some communities may get a few of these resources and some may get many. Community leaders and regional coordinators can make a difference in how a community gets access to Kulanu resources.
Regional coordinators are volunteers who serve as liaisons between Kulanu’s partner communities and our staff and board. Each one develops their own special way to do this job, according to their interests, skills, and time available. Possible roles include getting to know the community and its needs and advising Kulanu how it can get involved, guiding visitors and volunteers who may want to visit or work with the community, helping with Jewish community development and Jewish learning, mentoring and providing oversight for special projects, writing articles for Kulanu or other publications, participating in online programming about the community.
Connecting
The regional coordinators and community leaders stay in touch with each other on email, whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, or Zoom. Some regional coordinators visit their communities. Kulanu relies on community leaders and regional coordinators to communicate their successes, their challenges, and the kinds of support they’d like to Kulanu staff and board.
- We have had online meetings and Facebook or whatsapp groups for community leaders who speak English
- Reporting at Kulanu board meetings
- We have considered networking groups for regional coordinators
Kulanu has a technology fund to help communities get a computer, tablet, or smartphone and to start getting internet access if they don’t have it. Our technology director helps evaluate the situation and recommend what is needed, and helps communities write proposals and budgets for this and other programs and report on and evaluate what they have been using.
Contact: Sarapage Podolsky, Technology Director (in Israel)
More Information:
Kulanu and Computer Technology by Mili Leitner Cohen (2018)
Volunteer Spotlight by Sarapage Podolsky (2018)
Volunteers and Visitors
Communities should let Kulanu know if they want to encourage visitors to their communities. If they do, they may want to add a page to Kulanu’s website inviting people to visit. See our “Visit Kenya” page for an example. The coordinator often plays a role in advising people on what they can expect, what to bring, etc. Contact our Deputy Director for help with the web page, and Program Manager to request volunteers.
Similarly, the community should let Kulanu know if they want longer-term volunteers to spend time in their community, or if they want volunteers to work with them remotely. Potential volunteers should click here.
Jewish Learning
Kulanu’s website has a great list of online Jewish learning resources at kulanu.org/resources.
For groups that do have a computer or tablet and don’t have enough Internet access, Kulanu can provide a rich set of Jewish texts to be copied from a USB flash drive. We encourage “chevruta study” where people take a text, read it aloud, and discuss it with a partner.
Kulanu sometimes can arrange for volunteer rabbis, cantors, and Jewish teachers to study with individuals or groups online. WhatsApp chat groups are helpful when audio or video connections are too difficult.
Kulanu occasionally can send visiting rabbinical students through our Kulanu Global Teaching Fellows program, or other volunteer teachers.
Kulanu sometimes provides advice on study programs in the US or Israel.
Grants
Kulanu has limited funds available for discretionary grants to communities. Some regional coordinators and community leaders also find donors who want to make special grants for their communities. To apply for a mini-grant, use this link.
For a group that needs help, Kulanu will try to find mentors to help a group develop a plan, write a proposal, prepare a budget, and send reports. Some regional coordinators provide this help themselves.
If Kulanu has agreed to send you money to your community, please contact our Program Manager. You need to be prepared to explain how you can receive money – do you have a bank account that will receive international wires? Can you receive Western Union payments to a bank account? Are you in a country that can receive money by Sendwave? You also need to explain how your community makes decisions to receive and spend money, and who is authorized to handle money for the community.
Whenever a community gets funds from Kulanu, the community is required to submit narrative reports, financial reports, and photos. It helps if they also stay in touch as the program goes on, sharing news and photos. Click here for our mini-grant reporting form. (See the section below on how to share photos.)
Kulanu sometimes can get donations of Jewish books, children’s books, Jewish ritual objects, and Torah scrolls. We send them with travelers or ship them – but shipping is difficult.
Contact: Jo Ann Friedman, Program and Development Manager
More info: http://kulanu.org/ways-to-donate/
Sometimes community leaders, regional coordinators, or other volunteers want to raise money for your community. If you want that money to go through Kulanu, you need to first get approval from Kulanu’s president. Kulanu needs to decide whether it supports the program and whether it has the resources to provide appropriate management and oversight. Kulanu leadership can sometimes provide advice about fundraising – using personal fundraising pages, bar/bat mitzvah, or twinning projects, for example. Kulanu keeps 10% of the total amount raised.
Publicity
Partner communities should be listed on our map at kulanu.org/communities. In addition, we encourage you to sign up so your group is listed on Google maps (business.google.com).
Contact: Molly Levine, Deputy Director
Each partner community should have a web page on Kulanu’s website. Please review it and see if it is accurate and up-to-date. Ideally, the page would have a message from a community briefly telling the community’s history, present Jewish practice and programs, and the ways that Kulanu has supported this community.
Questionnaire for input for web page
Contact: Molly Levine,Deputy Director
Kulanu posts on Facebook, Instagram, and sometimes on Twitter. Share your stories with our deputy director so she can post them.
If your community has a web site, Facebook page, or blog, please let Molly know so we can link to it.
Contact: Molly Levine, Deputy Director
Kulanu sends out email updates about once a month and occasionally features developments in partner communities. Send your suggestions.
Contact: Molly Levine, Deputy Director
Regional coordinator and community leaders are invited each November to submit highlights for Kulanu’s year-end letter/annual report, showing what we have accomplished together. We rely on your reports for our fundraising.
We publish two magazines a year. Let the magazine editor know if you want to suggest an article or write one.
Contact: Judy Kloper, Magazine Editor
We urge community leaders and visitors to share photos with Kulanu, to appear in kulanu.smugmug.com, our online photo archives. Ask our multimedia manager to create a link so you can upload your photos to our Smugmug albums, the largest collection of photos of this kind in the world.
Click here to learn more about sharing your photos and videos with Kulanu.
Please upload videos to Youtube or Facebook and share them with our deputy director – or send them using wetransfer.com
Contact: Molly Levine, Deputy Director