I Love Israel’s Seed Capital Crowdfunding Campaign

(1) Summary

(2) ILI’s mini-documentary: “Israel: The World’s Most Amazing Micro-Nation”

(3) What has been accomplished so far

(4) I Love Israel’s top short-term priorities

(5) How ILoveIsrael will account for how the funds raised through this campaign are spent

(6) ILoveIsrael’s founder

(7) How to donate to I Love Israel

(1) Summary

ILoveIsrael.me is a new website that presents evidence-based information about what makes Israel such a remarkable, inspiring nation.

The purpose of this campaign is to crowdfund the seed capital necessary to begin turning I Love Israel from a one-person passion project, into a professionally-staffed, fully-funded 501(c)3 nonprofit. ILI was registered as a Virginia non-stock corporation in June 2021, and in July 2021, submitted its 501(c)3 application (1023-EZ) to the IRS, for recognition as a nonprofit charity. According to IRS rules, now that these two thresholds have been met, all financial contributions that ILI receives over the next 27 months (October 2023) will become tax-deductible, once it is approved as a 501(c)3.

ILI seeks to raise at least $200,000, for the following purposes:

(1) To retain the legal and accounting counsel needed to help I Love Israel become an approved 501(c)3, and ensure that it operates from day one according to the highest standards of ethics, accountability and transparency

(2) To fund I Love Israel’s founder to work for an estimated six months to:

(a) Research and develop a comprehensive business plan for its start-up and long-term operations

(b) To work with ILI’s law firm and accounting firms to ensure its operations and finances are as transparent and accountable as practicable, from day one

(c) Recruit and direct a digital marketing firm, to help promote this fundraiser

(d) Research, identify and recruit ILI’s top executives, advisers, key allies and prospective donors

See detailed information on ILI’s first top priorities in Section (4).

Legal notice:

“I Love Israel, Inc. is seeking donations to support our educational and charitable activities, and to help us achieve Internal Revenue Service recognition as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charity. We anticipate, but cannot guarantee, that the IRS will approve our application. Once our application is approved, any contributions made to I Love Israel, Inc. (even contributions made before such approval is received) will be tax-deductible under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.”

(2) ILI’s mini-documentary: “Israel: The World’s Most Amazing Micro-Nation”

If one micro-nation comprised barely 1/10th of 1% of the world’s population, yet year after year developed breakthroughs in practically all facets of human wellness, safety and longevity, and created more eco-friendly ways for humans to exist on Earth, how could practically none of the remaining 99.9% of people be are aware of its virtues?

Worse, how could we get to a point where, in NYC alone, more violent hate crimes are perpetrated against those whose ancestry is traced to this micro-nation, than all other minorities — combined?

This short documentary presents:

    • The evidence that supports these contentions
    • Criteria for a knowledge tool that is needed, right now, to help begin turning this situation around
    • ILoveIsrael.me as a website that has been conceived of, designed and built to meet these criteria

(3) What has been accomplished thus far

As of this date, September 7, 2021, the following tasks have been completed. All of this work was performed or funded by I Love Israel’s founder, Jon Sutz (see Section 6).

    • Website created: This is “Version 1.0” of ILoveIsrael.me, produced by a site development novice (ILI’s founder). Once ILI has the money to hire a website design consultant who understands the technology, the space in which we operate, and
    • Logo created
    • Mini-documentary produced: See Section (2)
    • General vision statement: See from the 7:30 mark and beyond in the ILI mini-documentary in (2).
    • I Love Israel’s application for 501(c)3 recognition has been submitted to the IRS
    • I Love Israel’s bank accounts have been established
    • Social media accounts created: OnFacebook and Twitter, for now. Once ILI has the money, we will retain a digital marketing firm that will, in part, advise on how we should utilize social media.
    • Major inroads in building relationships with non-conventional influencers: By nature, specific information on these relationships is confidential. But for now, this much can be said publicly: ILI’s founder has formed early relationships with prominent, motivated Israel supporters in the entertainment, technology and financial sectors.  These individuals — some who are public figures, others little-unknown — have indicated that if everything about this crowdfunding campaign is of high enough quality (particularly ILI’s website, pitch, and mini-documentary), they will donate, and help to promote it among their peers, and some, publicly.
    • Recruited two experts who are interested in hosting ILI’s initial podcast interviews with people who can share interesting stories and insights about what makes Israel such an amazing nation: The first two experts who have expressed interest in hosting these podcasts are profiled here.
    • Early ideas generated for how to turn a network of volunteers into an army of effective “media warriors”: Although confidential, the general framework is presented in the last part of the ILI documentary in (2).

(4) I Love Israel’s top short-term priorities

In order of priority, the following are the objectives that will be pursued with whatever money is raised from this campaign:

(1) To financially enable ILI’s founder to devote an estimated six months to doing its start-up work

ILI was founded by Jon Sutz, a multimedia designer, writer & creative consultant, based in the USA. Learn about Jon, and some of his previous work to help defend and champion Israel, here. Jon devoted two years to develop ILoveIsrael.me to its present, initial state (“Version 1.0”), its mini-documentary, and is currently its sole, uncompensated employee.

The first priority of this fundraiser will be to pay* Jon to perform the following work, over an estimated six months (*Jon’s rate of pay will be determined by the funds raised, and once a board of directors is established, but will hopefully start with at least $7,000 to enable him to get started):

(a) Recruit two (2) additional board members (for a total of 3, including Jon). This will enable all expenditures paid for with funds raised by this campaign to be formally reviewed and approved. Ideally these persons will be retired professionals, ideally with knowledge of nonprofit management, who (a) recognize, and want to help reverse, how badly Israel is losing the information war; and (b) want to do more than merely defend Israel — they want to morally champion her, publicly, and passionately.

(b) Research and develop a comprehensive business plan for ILI’s long-term operations. Although Jon has acclaimed experience in consulting on and co-developing business plans for commercial enterprises, creating one for ILI will be a very different, far more complex endeavor, that will require intensive research, and collaboration with subject matter experts.

(c) Research, identify and recruit ILI’s top executives, advisers, and key allies

(d) Direct ILI’s law and accounting firms to ensure its objectives are met (described below)

(2) Retain a law firm: To provide ongoing counsel regarding nonprofit management and best practices, and represent ILI to the IRS, to help obtain its 501(c)3 designation ASAP, and to any other government agencies

(3) Retain an accounting firm: To provide counsel on quality software to track ILI’s income and expenses, produce tax returns, and prepare periodic use-of-proceeds statements for donors.

(4) Retain a digital marketing firm: The first priority here is to design and implement means by which to help promote the Campaign to those most likely to have interest in it — or issues such as “social justice,” “peace,” Middle East issues, etc., on social media and beyond. Part of this expenditure will be to buy social media advertising to introduce broader audiences to our mission and unique offerings.

The next priority in this realm will be to help ILI to create materials that will specifically target philanthropists who are innovation- and achievement-oriented, and thus, most likely to recognize ILI’s potential to help make measurable progress in creating more accurate perceptions of Israel.

(5) Produce the initial series of ILI-branded audio interviews: As noted in (3), the two Israel experts who have expressed interest in hosting these podcasts are profiled here.

ILI has set an initial budget of $200,000 to accomplish these objectives.  To raise these funds, ILI has established a crowdfunding campaign, at:

www.GoFundMe.com/I-Love-Israel

What if ILI doesn’t raise the full $200,000 it seeks?

Whatever money we raise will be applied to the above priorities, in sequence. The more money we raise, the more we can do to propel forth all of these objectives, and set the stage for ILI to become a serious influencer in the information war over Israel, as quickly as possible.

What if ILI raises more than the full $200,000 it seeks?

In this case, we will pursue the following:

(1) Retain a website design consultant: While the informational architecture of ILI is established, the way it is packaged is not optimized for 2021 website standards, is not.   The reason for this is that this, “Version 1.0” of the site, was created by Jon, a novice user of the most popular development platform, WordPress. We need to recruit a website design consultant who, in addition to supporting our work, possesses the technical and artistic expertise to construct the look, feel and structure of the site, to enable maximum ease-of-engagement across platforms, languages and cultures.

A good guide to the most acclaimed websites is The Webby Awards, the website industry’s equivalent of The Oscars. See the 2021 Charitable/Nonprofit Winners here.  One website that earned an honorable mention (down-page) is The Malala Fund — which is in the league of what Jon envisions for ILoveIsrael.me.

(2) Send Jon to interview Dr. Thomas Sowell, if it can be arranged: Dr. Thomas Sowell is an acclaimed economist and writer, with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (bio here) in CA, He is also a fierce Israel supporter, and published op-eds on Israel’s virtues, and her efforts to defend her people, at Jewish World Review and other widely-read newspapers & websites for many years (samples 1, 2, 3), Dr. Sowell is also famous within freedom-advocating circles for always judging any one thing or person in the context of, “As compared to what?” In the context of what ILI is trying to accomplish, being able to interview this legendary intellectual would be a significant, enlightening achievement.

(3) Retain a VR consultant: The problems facing Israel in the information war that has been declared on it are so numerous, and have gone unchallenged in popular culture for so long that they have taken deep root, means that merely “catching up to” the the proficiency of those who spread lies about Israel, is not enough. ILI will seek and develop new means by which to leapfrog past the present means of approaching this war, and one key “weapon” we will seek to develop early on, is virtual reality.

If you are not familiar with virtual reality, and how it’s being applied in fields as diverse as journalism, skills training and eldercare, please see this page:

VR in journalism, advocacy, education & training : by Jon Sutz

The purpose of retaining this consultant will be to assess ILI’s vision, and provide insights into the resources and costs that will be required to produce several proof-of-concept knowledge tools.

(5) How I Love Israel will account for how the funds raised through this campaign are spent

As noted in Section (4), the first funding priority for proceeds of this campaign will be to retain legal and accounting counsel help us set up basic nonprofit management systems, and the ideal means by which to provide donors with the highest degree of transparency that is advisable, during ILI’s first six months.

Assuming ILI secures adequate general funding in response to its business plan and outreach, we will then work out with our legal and accounting counsel the systems by which donors large and small with as much accounting as advisable, regarding:

    • How the money they gave us was spent
    • The results we are achieving

It is anticipated that use-of-proceed reports will be available to donors on a quarterly basis, unless otherwise advised.

Due to the controversial (more precisely, lie-filled) environment in which ILI will operate, however, additional considerations may limit what internal documentation ILI can and will release to donors (which will invariably end up in the public domain). In conjunction with ILI’s law and accounting firms, we will work to strike a reasonable balance between accountability and security.

(6) I Love Israel’s founder

“What is most urgently needed, regarding Israel, is completely new means by which to not just ‘defend’ her from the endless lies that are hurled at her, but to morally champion her — passionately, proudly, and with rock-solid evidence — directed at general audiences, but especially to the young. This is the only approach, I am convinced, that has a chance of reversing the destruction to which present trends are leading. Anyone who sees the need for, and merit in what I am proposing, is someone with whom I will consider working, to help advance this objective.”
– Jon Sutz

Jon Sutz is an accomplished multimedia creative consultant, graphic designer, writer, author, information architect and strategist, based in Charlottesville, VA. Learn more about Jon here . One of his specialties is converting complex data into easy-to-understand visual formats, a skill he’s applied extensively in the realms of advertising, corporate communications, and high-value/complex litigation. See examples of this work here.

Since 2008, Jon has been working to help defend Israel, particularly against media bias & incitement. This work includes several acclaimed documentary videos, detailed investigative reports, and more. See some of this work here.

While Jon is highly competent at research, design, writing and strategy development — he has never created a nonprofit, and has no experience leading an organization.

To fulfill its potential, I Love Israel will need a team of seasoned and upcoming executives, who thrive on innovation, and are proud, passionate Israel supporters. One of Jon’s top priorities, during his six-month contract, will be to identify and reach out to such prospective leaders and executives, so that once ILI’s business plan is complete, and funding commitments are secured, they can be recruited to take the reins, and build ILI from the foundation Jon has developed.

Once ILI’s executive team is in place, Jon will be available to continue acting as a board member, or a creative consultant (ethically he cannot do both).  Learn about Jon at:

Jon Sutz, ILI founder 

(7) How to donate to I Love Israel

You can donate to I Love Israel via two methods:

  • At the GoFundMe page
  • Send a check to us directly, at I Love Israel, Inc., PO Box 6971, Charlottesville, VA 22906