Source: JTA Fundermentalist
The Fundermentalist reports that the Avi Chai Foundation, one of the largest Jewish foundations, is making preparations for cessation of all its operations in 2020 in North America, Israel and the former Soviet Union, aside from an endowment the foundation will leave to run its campus in Israel, Beit Avi Chai. The foundation is slated to spend down almost all of its estimated $600 million in assets over the next decade.
Foundation officials are working on formulating a plan to achieve a lasting, transformative impact on the education of future generations of Jews. Toward that end, Avi Chai is in the midst of some serious introspection about its final goals and how to spend its money in pursuit of them because its investments over the next 10 years will be its legacy.
The foundation's aim in the US has been the promotion of what foundation officials and officers call LRP -- literacy, religious purposefulness and peoplehood. To further these goals Avi Chai has focused primarily on backing day schools, as well as summer camps.
At this point, Avi Chai is spending considerable resources, establishing working groups focused on several areas, including affordability and leadership. The work groups are looking at how each of these areas affect Jewish day schools and camps, conducting research and convening conversations.
In the end, Avi Chai will settle on an area or two, then direct energy and money accordingly until it spends down.