The Giving Group Community (GGC) was founded in 2021 to enable passionate philanthropists to connect with each other and explore unique giving opportunities in Israel and the Jewish world. We aim to entwine the powers of storytelling and technology to transform lives, and in doing so, revolutionize the way people give. We offer a boutique philanthropic advisory tool designed to increase donor engagement and convenience, galvanize multiple generations of philanthropists, eliminate inefficiencies, and consolidate a fragmented marketplace. Through our membership-based community, values-driven individuals, families, and foundations can discover new and high-impact social ventures, where your gifts can make a transformational difference.
David Messer
Built with a team of two senior executives, built SET from a $50 million annual revenue enterprise in 1998 to annual revenues of $1.5 billion by 2005. In 2007, Mr. Messer again led the sale of a majority of the company to The Royal Bank of Scotland, formally establishing the RBS Sempra Commodities joint venture on April 1, 2008.
Rebecca Sugar
Rebecca grew up in Harrison, NY and attended Westchester Day School and Ramaz High School. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English literature and holds a Masters Degree in Jewish History from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Jonathan Leader
The primary philanthropic concerns of Jonathan and Dina Leader are the preservation of Judaism and its values. They devote their life to Tikun Olam, emphasizing the beauty of our religion.
Martin Rozenblum
Martin Rozenblum is the Director of the Rozenblum Foundation, which through various initiatives and partnerships, supports arts, culture and social causes.
Glen Golish
is President of Golish Financial Group, LLC. He specializes in assisting seniors, business owners, and high net worth families with creative…
Jeremy Dunkel
is a Director of Taurus Capital, a family office consultancy specializing in philanthropy. His accounting and finance experience includes working for Chemical Bank, Chase Manhattan, and Price Waterhouse. He is a Non-Executive Director of Pengana Capital Group, an ASX-listed funds management group.
Elie Lederman
made aliya with his family from Melbourne, Australia to Ra’anana in 1993, is actively involved in numerous non-profits in Israel. Chairman of the Board since 2017, Elie has been a supporter of The Benji Hillman Foundation since the commencement of the project
Batsheva (Levine) Moshe
GM Israel @ WIX.com⦿ Chairperson @ Yozmot Atid, Board member @ Ofanim, Sapir college, Or movement
Daniel Posner
Daniel Posner is the Chief Investment Officer of Rensop Investment Group. The firm focuses on Private Equity investments in Energy, Real Estate, Specialty Finance and Growth Equity strategies.
Seth H. Davis
Founder & CEO, Giving Group Community
Seth is a social entrepreneur who has helped raise over $100M in philanthropic capital during his 15 year non-profit career. He has been featured in an array of professional forums and media channels, where he discusses philanthropy and outcome-driven impact.
Marc Pollick
President Giving Back Fund
an internationally recognized speaker, writer and consultant on philanthropy and charitable giving, who has guided the philanthropic efforts of an impressive clientele of celebrities, professional athletes, high net worth individuals and corporations.
PRASHANTH PALAKURTHI
Chairman
FOUNDER & FORMER CEO, REFLEXIS SYSTEMS. Prashanth Palakurthi founded MA-based Reflexis systems in 2001, and with a team of co-founders, Mr. Palakurthi pioneered the category of Retail Execution Management solutions that enable companies to simplify store operations and execute labor operations and customer engagement strategies.
GGC Team & Technology Advisors
Seth H. Davis
Founder & CEO, Giving Group Community
Seth is a social entrepreneur who has helped raise over $100M in philanthropic capital during his 15 year non-profit career. He has been featured in an array of professional forums and media channels, where he discusses philanthropy and outcome-driven impact. Seth’s former roles include CEO at IsraAID U.S., and senior roles at The Center for Entrepreneurial Jewish Philanthropy, HaShomer HaChadash, Kenafayim, Israel Tennis Centers Foundation, and Ashkelon Foundation. He has served in volunteer capacities to raise funds and support organizations improving quality of life for marginalized residents in the periphery of Israel.
Seth began his career as an entrepreneur in the start-up arena, with a focus on global business. With an MBA in Marketing and Management from Bar Ilan University and Professional Fundraising Course at Boston University, and he served in the IDF Special Forces.
Ted Sokolosky
Sr. Philanthropic Advisor, East Coast
Ted served as President and CEO of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, a position he held for eleven years until he retired in 2016. During his leadership, Ted oversaw the extraordinary growth of the Toronto Jewish Federation into the third-largest Federation in North America, raising over $100 million annually through annual and endowment campaigns.
Ted also established UJA Federation’s Jewish Toronto Tomorrow Capital Campaign–a groundbreaking capital initiative that redeveloped Toronto’s Jewish community infrastructure over three community campuses across the Greater Toronto Area. That endeavor raised nearly $400 million in the most extensive redevelopment in the community’s history.
Ted formed his own philanthropic consulting firm following his retirement as CEO. During that time, Ted has been an active Senior Consultant with the Jewish Agency for Israel, Sephardi Voices International, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and the Center for Jewish Impact.
Adina Rahamim
Projects Coordinator, Israel
Adina made Aliya from Australia five years ago and is now a resident of Jerusalem. With a background in social work, Adina has social work experience in hospitals and academia in Melbourne and Jerusalem. With an MA in non-profit management from Hebrew University, Adina also has ample experience in donor relations and program development in a number of diverse Israeli non-profits.
Uri Smajovits
Sr. Philanthropic Advisor, South East Coast
Uri was born in Israel and grew up in Montreal, Canada, and has resided in the Tampa Bay area for over 30 years. He and his wife Lisa are the proud parents of two sons, Harrison and Ethan. He is a passionate Zionist, who understands the importance of supporting the State of Israel having been raised by concentration camp survivors. In fact, his late Mother was not only an Auschwitz survivor, but also a Mengele survivor. Uri brings 25-plus years of professional philanthropic experience focused on Israel. In addition to his work experience, he holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in commerce and accountancy respectively.
Peter Adler
Sr. Projects Advisor, Israel
Born in Australia and made Aliya 40 years ago. A resident of Jerusalem, Peter Adler has been involved in a professional capacity for over 25 years in philanthropy focusing on Israel and the Jewish World and has been deeply involved in the Israeli Third sector. Peter is the former Chair of the Forum of Foundations in Israel, has been a consultant to Keren Hayesod, JDC and the UIA Canada and continues to act as Israel Projects consultant to numerous European, Australian and Israeli Foundations and individual high net worth Donors. Peter has been involved in supporting and contributing to hundreds of projects based in Israel and has facilitated over 100 million dollars in grants and donations to NGOs (Amutot).
Samantha Burke
Admin & Operations Manager
Foundation Coordinator part of the Giving Back Fund support team. Providing admin, compliance and general operations needs.
Went to college in New England and then spent the next 3.5 years working for the Washington Ireland Program, a student and leadership development program. The program specifically focused on university students from Northern Ireland and Ireland and built from a program called Project Children that originated during the 1990’s and the peak Troubles in NI. I held several roles during my time with WIP, starting as an intern focused on events management, and by the time I left was managing the DC office operations. I also worked closely with the ED on financial management, grant applications and reporting, and CRM management – to highlight some of the experience I now use with GBF. I took a pause from non-profit work for two years during COVID and joined Noom in the private sector, originally working in a client-facing role, and then transitioning back to learning and development work on the project side. I was hired to join the wonderful team here at GBF last Fall and have been delighted to be back to my non-profit roots and supporting the work of my incredible group of clients since.
Andrey Kontrius
Head of Platform Development Team
Partner at Web development, Android and iOS mobile apps, UI / UX design, testing and support. Information Technology & Services
Tomer Tveria
CRM Technology Advisor
Salesforce Strategy & Marketing Consultant for Non-profits, Social business, Startups and Higher Education Institutions, Dreamforce Speaker, 6×Salesforce Certification
