Donor-side advisory
Every decision should answer to the mandate.
YAEL helps families define a mandate, source and assess organizations, build a recommended portfolio, and follow what happens next.
Start with what the family is trying to accomplish.
Define the priorities, scale, and horizon. Map the giving already in place against them. The mandate becomes the standard for what comes next.
A written mandate, in the family's own words.
Find the work that fits.
Source credible organizations and leaders that fit the mandate, including established institutions, emerging work, and opportunities beyond the family's existing channels.
Organizations sourced.
Meet the organization. Examine the request.
Meet the people responsible. Assess the organization and the request separately, often on site and in Hebrew.
- Leadership
- Governance
- Financial health
- Evidence
- Capacity
- The ask
Organizations and requests assessed separately.
Build a portfolio of decisions.
Each request resolves into one of four judgments.
Fund
As presented
Change the request
Right-sized or redirected
Fund with conditions
Promising is not proven
Hold
Wait / Not yet
A recommended portfolio.
How the individual decisions fit together, and why.
The family decides.
Return to the work.
A grant is one decision inside a longer relationship. YAEL follows what the support accomplished, what remains uncertain, and what should continue, increase, change, or end.
- A written field report after each cycle
- What was seen, what was recommended, and what remains open.
- Continued attention
- What changed, what did not, and what should happen next.
The method
The method grew out of years of donor-side grantmaking through the Morris and Sylvia Trachten Family Foundation, where Pesach Zeve serves as a trustee.
Independence
YAEL is paid by the family, never by the organizations it evaluates.
The advice answers to the family.