Turning a Proven Israeli Success Into a Global Draw
Educating for Excellence (E4E) has spent nearly two decades building one of Israel’s most successful long-term educational and social-mobility programs. With 54 Excellence Centers across 25 municipalities and 12,800 active participants, their impact inside Israel is undeniable. But when it came to engaging U.S. donors, the story wasn’t landing. E4E brought me in to understand why — and to build a strategic, donor-aligned messaging foundation that their team and U.S. volunteers could use to open new fundraising doors.
CHALLENGE
E4E’s programs and results were strong, but the U.S. philanthropic audience wasn’t connecting with the story.
Their team wanted to understand:
Why messaging that worked well in Israel wasn’t translating overseas
Why U.S. donors weren’t immediately seeing the long-term value of E4E’s model
How to communicate the organization’s strength, scale, and vision in a way that resonated with U.S. supporters
PROCESS
Through extensive market research, including structured interviews with existing donors, supporters, and stakeholders — I identified the messaging gap: U.S. donors were perceiving E4E’s cause as local and small-scale, which made it a bad fit for international philanthropic investment .
Based on these findings, I proposed to reframe E4E as an investment in Israel’s human capital and long-term strength, not a distant poverty story.
In order to implement this new messaging, I developed a streamlined framework for E4E staff and allies to use at donor meetings and events, including a practical workflow for moving prospects from first contact to direct engagement with E4E in Israel
In support of this new strategy, I produced a flagship vision film to help U.S. volunteers open donor conversations
RESULTS
Gave E4E a clear, donor-aligned narrative for the U.S. market
Equipped staff and volunteers with practical tools to spark conversations and build interest
Established a focused outreach workflow that could be used immediately
Delivered a film to communicate the new messaging and open fundraising doors
