By Amy Hyman

Every year, Shalom Austin allocates approximately 10% of its unrestricted Annual Campaign along with an endowment distribution from the Jewish Community Innovation Fund at the Shalom Austin Jewish Foundation to community partners. After 50% is set aside for a day school allocation to fund financial assistance for Aleph Bet (Chabad) and Austin Jewish Academy, a request for grants is opened to the community which are then reviewed and decided by the Shalom Austin Grants Committee.

This past year, the committee co-chairs were Barb Altman and Ilana Nesher; committee members included Bruce Corman, Christina Gorczynski, Joel Granoff, Lynne Kurtz-Citrin, Steve Meyers, Adam Meltzer, Alex Robinson, Carly Sansom and Tori Smith.

During the presentation nights that were held on Zoom due to COVID, all partner organizations were asked to participate in a networking session and all grantee representatives were invited to stay and listen to all grant requests, rather than only attending for their own time allotment.

Intentions for this were networking, transparency, and smaller or new applicants “learning” from larger or more experienced applicants. Shalom Austin is committed to serving in a convening role for the community, fostering relationships and a collaborative spirit amongst other partner organizations and synagogues.

The 2023 cycle announcements are scheduled to be released in late 2022. For more information on the grants process in general, contact Amy Hyman at [email protected] or (512) 735-8078.