People before equipment.
Several capital requests were redirected into programming or scholarships. Emergency response was the exception: the vehicle itself delivers the service.
Field work
Field record · June 2026
Morris and Sylvia Trachten Family Foundation · Israel giving
Judgment is built over time.
The written case is the beginning. The field is where the people, the request, and the evidence meet.
The field
Four days in the field. A full day across the table.
14
site visits
Negev + Gaza Envelope
Jerusalem
North + Golan
8
across the table in Tel Aviv
3
discoveries
Nothing here was scored from a distance.
One organization · over time
The recommendation changed when the evidence did.
Stage
What was seen
The recommendation
Found
Earlier field visit
An incubator taking reservists from military service into entrepreneurship.
No funding
Held
Pending first-year outcomes
Promising, early, and still unproven.
No funding
Measured
May 2026
First-year outcomes arrived and were independently covered.
Not yet
Recommended
June 2026
Met again. The evidence had changed.
A first grant
What changed through diligence
The organization can stay. The request can change.
A rapid-response vehicle request
The vehicle, right-sized and restricted.
An automated feeding system
A participant-scholarship pilot.
Programs beyond core competence
Its core scholarship work.
The verdicts
Different evidence. Different answers.
23 organizations reviewed · 18 recommendations
13
Recommended to fund
3
Recommended with changes
2
Held at zero
5 other outcomes
3 discoveries · 1 deferred · 1 already funded
What the record showed
The close calls turn on evidence.
Strong outcomes strengthened recommendations. Weak measurement led to conditions, changes, or a hold.
Earned income endures.
Organizations that build revenue alongside philanthropy show another path toward durability, and one sign they are built to outlast their donors.
The handoff
YAEL
The diligence informs
the recommendation.
The trustees
The trustees
decide.