Avraham Lewis | Fundraising Advisor to Leaders of Mosdos Torah

When The Rhythm Is Off

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 05:50:24 -0700

I see this with mosdos every summer.

A donor may be away with his family. He may be traveling. Or he may be home, with children or grandchildren around, and busy with other things. The regular rhythm is off.

But the mosad still has needs. And the leader is left wondering whether to reach out, what to say, or whether to leave it alone until everyone is back in regular mode.

This is where it is easy to get stuck. You know you should probably stay in touch, but you do not want it to feel like another fundraising conversation.

Summer does not mean the relationship is on hold. It means the contact has to fit the moment.

In the summer, I would not try to force the regular fundraising rhythm. I would use the time to keep the relationship, or the connection, warm.

And I would start with something small, thoughtful, and personal.

Just one small touchpoint that tells him:

I was thinking about you.

That could be as simple as an Erev Shabbos text: “Wishing you and your family a restful Shabbos. Hope the change of scenery is good for everyone.” Or it could be sharing something useful because you know where he is, who he is with, or what he cares about.

The point is not to create a fundraising moment. The point is to keep the connection warm in a way that fits his summer.

If the donor is the one traveling, think about what would be useful or meaningful for him while he is away. Maybe there is something his grandchildren would enjoy. Maybe there is someone who can help him where he is spending Shabbos.

The point is to notice his world, not just your need.

And if you are the one traveling, that can also become a natural opportunity. A postcard with a short personal note, or a picture with a warm message, can be enough. It does not have to be much.

These are not big things. But they show that you value...Read More

The Thought Behind the Gift

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 11:42:59 -0700

What makes a donor gift a good gift?

Usually, we think about what to send. Is it nice enough? Is it useful? Is it within budget? Should it have the mosad’s logo on it?

Those are fair questions. But they are not the first question.

The first question is simpler:

Will this gift make the donor feel that we thought about him?

Meaning, will he feel that there was real thought behind it, or will he feel like he was just on the donor list?

A donor gift does not create connection just because it was sent. It creates connection when the donor feels the thought behind it.

That is why the best gift is not always the most expensive one. It is the one where the donor feels, “They did not have to do this. But I genuinely appreciate it.”

This happens in many mosdos. Someone needs to choose the donor gifts. A few options get discussed. The budget gets checked. The logo question comes up. Eventually, something is chosen and sent out.

And sometimes the gift is beautiful. Sometimes it is useful. Sometimes it is expensive.

And still, it can miss.

Leaders will sometimes say this very practically: “We sent a nice gift, and we got almost no response. So what did it actually achieve?”

Sometimes it may have achieved more than they know. But if the gift felt automatic, it probably achieved less than it could have.

Not because it is a bad gift. Because it feels automatic.

The donor receives it. He may even use it. But nothing about it tells him that the mosad really thought about him. It feels like the gift could have gone to anyone.

If a mosad is already spending money on donor gifts, the gift should do something. Not just go out. It should move the relationship forward, even in a small way.

Not every donor gift needs to be chosen individually. Sometimes many donors will receive the same gift, even important donors. That is normal.

But when something is being sent to a higher-level...Read More

I Don't Have a Story

Sun, 28 Jun 2026 11:30:22 -0700

When I am helping a leader prepare for a donor conversation, I will often ask:

Can you give me one recent story that shows the difference your work is making?

Often, he pauses, because in that moment, he feels like he needs something that will move the donor. And he may say, “I don’t really have any stories right now.”

So instead of pushing harder, I usually ask a different question: How did you get here?

And if he starts telling me the history of the mosad, I bring him back.

Not the mosad. You.

Why does this work matter to you?

Usually, the answer is not dramatic. It may only be one sentence, or a small moment from years ago. Sometimes, it is something the leader has never thought to say out loud.

But usually, that is where we start to find something.

Most leaders prepare the facts of the mosad. That matters. But they do not always prepare the part that shows what is personally driving them.

Before a meaningful donor conversation, there is another question worth preparing for:

Why does this work matter to me?

That does not mean a leader needs to tell his life story or make the conversation about himself. He is only looking for the small piece that shows the donor why he cares.

I asked a client who ran a kiruv branch why this work mattered to him.

He came from a regular, good, frum home. Nothing dramatic. So when I asked him for his story, he said, “I don’t really have a story.”

I asked him to go back a little. “What was your experience with Yiddishkeit growing up?”

He said, “Nothing really. I went to regular yeshivos. I stayed on the derech. It was all very normal.”

So I pushed a little more, and then he started talking about Shabbos.

The Shabbos table growing up. His father and mother. His siblings. The zemiros. His mother’s chicken soup. The warmth of the family sitting together. The connection he felt.

And I saw the spark. So I asked him what...Read More

After The Gift

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 08:27:16 -0700

Most leaders feel genuinely grateful when their donors give.

The problem is that the donor does not always feel it.

A campaign ends. The team is finished. The numbers are being reviewed. There are pledges to follow up on, bills to pay, and all the things that were pushed aside because of the campaign are waiting again.

And somewhere in all of that, many donors get a thank-you that does not feel very personal, and then the mosad moves on. This is especially true for smaller and mid-sized donors, but it can also happen with larger donors.

Inside the mosad, people are happy with the outcome, and there is real hakaras hatov to the donors who helped make it possible. But unless that feeling is expressed in a real thank-you, the donor may never know it.

It happens more than we think, and it matters more than we realize.

Because a donor’s next gift is often shaped by what happens right after this gift.

Not only by the campaign or the need that moved him to give.

But by whether he felt noticed, recognized, and appreciated after he gave.

A while back, I gave small gifts to twenty online matching campaigns, and then watched what happened afterward.

I wanted to see what the thanking process looked like from the donor’s side.

Out of the twenty organizations, only five sent what felt like a real thank-you email beyond the automated one at the time of giving or soon...Read More

It Sounds Like Small Talk

Sun, 14 Jun 2026 08:27:38 -0700

It sounds like small talk.

It usually isn’t.

You bump into a donor at a simcha and he asks:

“How’s it going with the mosad?”

And usually, we answer the question exactly the way it sounds.

“Baruch Hashem, very good.”

“We’re growing.”

“There’s a lot going on.”

And then the conversation moves on.

Nothing bad happened. The answer may have been true. But the moment did not really go anywhere. He gave us a small opening, and we kept it polite. We did not give him anything meaningful to walk away with.

That is the part we often miss.

A donor’s casual question is not always just small talk. Sometimes it is a moment where his connection to the mosad is either strengthened or lost.

So when a donor asks how things are going, what should we do with that moment? And what is he really asking for?

I don’t think he is just asking for an update. He wants to feel connected. He wants to know that his support has a real part in what is happening.

He may not say it that way. But that is often what is underneath the question.

So the practical answer is simple.

Before the moment comes, have one short story ready.

Not a report. Not a speech. Not a pitch. Just one real story that helps him see what is actually happening in the mosad and feel the meaning of his support.

Here is an example.

The donor asks you, “How’s it going in the cheder?”

When a conversation matters, we usually focus on what we're going to say.

What should I ask? How should I respond? How do I move the conversation forward?

Those are important questions.

But there is a deeper question.

What do I believe before the conversation even begins?

You can feel it before an important conversation.

Part of you is already thinking about what you need to happen.

Two leaders can have very similar conversations and leave completely different impressions.

The words may even be similar.

But one feels present.

The other feels like he needs something.

The person sitting across from them may not be able to explain it.

But they often know before we do.

Long before the conversation begins, we are already carrying the need for a result.

It feels heavy because we are looking to the other person for the outcome.

Most of us know that feeling.

When we're no longer carrying it, the conversation changes.

We become more present.

We start to understand a little better what matters to the other person.

The conversation starts to feel different.

Less like getting something and more like offering something.

When a mosad Torah asks for support, it is not only asking for support.

It is offering an opportunity.

The opportunity to build Torah and strengthen Klal Yisrael.

Who are your most valuable donors?

The answer feels obvious.

The people who give the most. The names attached to the larger numbers. The people who have carried meaningful pieces of the mosad over the years.

For a long time, that was often enough.

But today, some of the most important value has become easier to miss.

The issue is not that you don’t have big donors. It is that you may be measuring value only by the size of the gift.

Many leaders still look at donors through a lens that worked well for a long time. The larger the gift, the more attention the relationship naturally received.

But some people end up giving much more than their own gift.

They bring other people with them.

And some of the largest gifts do not.

This becomes very visible during campaigns.

The largest part of a campaign often does not come from its largest donor. Instead, one connected person brings others with him.

I have often seen one donor end up driving 10% to 25% of an entire campaign.

Not because of his own gift.

Because of what moved through him.

And not everything valuable announces itself early.

What looked small was not actually small.

It was a beginning.

You usually only see it clearly looking backward.

Attention naturally stays where results have usually come from.

Which means leaders sometimes keep looking...Read More

When Hiring Doesn't Help

Sun, 24 May 2026 06:06:16 -0700

At some point, almost every growing mosad reaches this moment.

“I can’t keep carrying all of this myself.”

There are donors waiting for follow-up, conversations that never seem to move forward, and bigger opportunities that never receive the attention they deserve.

The next thought often feels obvious:

“We need to hire a fundraiser.”

But something still does not settle.

The current approach cannot continue. Yet bringing in another person does not fully feel like the answer.

You cannot hand off work that still lives in people.

A new fundraiser often walks into a role where too much still depends on what other people know.

Sometimes they inherit a list of names. Sometimes a CRM they do not know. Sometimes very little at all.

And now they are expected to figure things out while raising money at the same time.

The frustration often sounds something like this:

“We hired someone to raise money. Why does it feel like we are still trying to figure out fundraising?”

On the fundraiser’s side, it often sounds more like:

“I feel like I’m trying to figure out a system that mostly exists in other people’s heads.”

Because the fundraising...Read More

Just For Today

Sun, 17 May 2026 07:12:13 -0700

You finally sit down to reach out to new donors.

You already know who you want to call.

Then someone walks into your office. A talmid issue. A parent situation. Something in the mosad that can’t wait.

So the list gets closed.

Not permanently. Just for today.

Prospecting doesn’t stop because leaders don’t believe in it. It stops because it never feels urgent enough to act on.

No leader plans to stop building the future of the mosad.

But the future almost never arrives with urgency attached to it.

What arrives with urgency is the parent who needs a call back. The situation in the mosad that suddenly needs attention. The donor issue that cannot wait until tomorrow.

And quietly, the future gets pushed aside.

Nothing feels broken while it’s happening. The mosad is still running. Donors are still giving. The immediate pressures are still being handled.

But underneath that, something else is happening.

Fewer new relationships begin.

Fewer conversations slowly become tomorrow’s support.

And because it happens gradually, it is easy to miss.

Usually, you only feel it later.

When...Read More

Beginnings Look Like Failure

Sun, 10 May 2026 06:24:02 -0700

You open the list of new prospects. Five names.

You look at it for a moment. No meetings yet. No real conversations. Nothing that feels like it is going anywhere.

You close the list.

This is not working.

It feels small. Too small to hold your attention for long.

And that feeling makes sense.

There are current donors to speak to. There are calls that need to be returned. There are conversations already closer to becoming something.

This list does not feel like that.

It felt right when you started. Now it feels like nothing real is coming from it.

So your attention starts to move somewhere else.

Not dramatically. Not as a decision. Just naturally.

Because nothing seems to be happening.

But this is not failure.

It is the beginning.