2022 Annual Report
| Published: November 21, 2022
Here is the list of the fifteen things we “prophesized” in December 2021 that we would achieve by December 2022, and how we measured up:
| 1 | Work on upgrading the audio and visual aspects of our courses. | This has been assigned lower priority due to the other projects we focused on |
| 2 | Continue to publish and upgrade our newsletter. | We continued to publish weekly, we might change to daily to raise our website views and clicks |
| 3 | Host quarterly Zoom events. | We ended up doing two Zoom events this year instead of four. Shavuot Symposium and Nations Ninth of Av/Bridgebuilders |
| 4 | Continue supporting the Institute of Midrashic Studies of the New Testament. | We successfully raised over $30,000 this year for this project and awarded about $20,000 in fellowship grants for over four articles submitted to journals, of which one will be published in 2023. Dr. Pitcher, the Academic Director, has written a quarterly report. |
| 5 | Do “Jewish Outreach,” through live lectures and Zoom, to encourage Jewish teachers to join Root Source. | Waiting for more Christian Outreach |
| 6 | Recruit more new teachers. We aspire to have 100 teachers by December 2022. | Waiting for more Christian Outreach |
| 7 | Work towards localization of Root Source for communities in Africa, China, India, and more. | Published 40 Days in Korean and will work on other books and other materials, including in Chinese. Also met with Armando Rusty from Panama so plan to move forward in Spanish and Portuguese |
| 8 | Hire a Christian Outreach marketing manager, towards expanding Root Source’s reach worldwide tenfold. | Through Light Up The Church, we retained Avery Ratz, an expert internet marketer. We succeeded in adding over 2000 subscribers to our Root Source newsletter. We will see how this develops. |
| 9 | Hire a Development Officer, to focus on individual donors and foundations. | We started working with Arnie Draiman, a seasoned Israeli-American philanthropy consultant. We will see how this develops. |
| 10 | Host next year’s Bridgebuilders program. | Done! Quite successfully, with Nations Ninth of Av. |
| 11 | Expand the Root Source Conversations podcast project, interviewing fascinating people from all over the world. | Going slow on this, but letting God lead:-) Was interviewed on Radical Lifestyle podcast, and we hopefully will learn from them and get into their model. |
| 12 | Engage with like-minded activists and organizations to launch joint educational ventures. | Nations 9th of Av – Root Source Gala was one such venture, hopefully, Light Up The Church will bring many other partners. |
| 13 | Publish four new titles on Root Source Press, including the LIST 2020 (and the LIST 2021!) and Ten From The Nations, which are already in the very last stages of production. | We published five (!) books: Bridgebuilders, Master of Return, Passover Symposium, 40 Days in Korean, and The LIST 2020 (abbreviated titles). Rivkah Adler, the author of Ten From The Nations, decided not to publish the second edition with us |
| 14 | Create gumroad widgets for our courses. | Waiting for more Christian Outreach |
| 15 | Probably welcome another grandchild or two into the family:-). | Welcome Three! Roni Leah (April), Dvir Pinchas (November), and Tohar Liba (November) |
| 16 | Accomplish other things I haven’t thought of yet;-). |
Besides the above, we accomplished the following:
| 1 | Guidestar Silver Seal | We completed the requirements to be listed as a holder of the Guidestar (Candid) silver seal of transparency, a distinction achieved by less than 1% of all USA nonprofit organizations. |
| 2 | Kristallnacht Light Up The Church | We launched this important program, culminating on November 9. We reached hundreds of Christian churches, businesses, and homes, including adding 2000 names to our email list and envision turning it into an annual date on the worldwide Christian calendar https://lightupthechurch.org/ |
| 3 | Nations Ninth of Av Gala | Our first hybrid (live and online) event ever, and our first in-person event in Israel since before Covid and possibly since the Root Source Launch in 2015! https://givebutter.com/RSGala2022 and featured in All Israel News |
| 4 | Root Source Annual Bridgebuilders Prize | We awarded this prize (it was sort of a proto-prize) to Rabbi Yehudah Glick and Sharon Sanders of Christian Friends of Israel within the framework of the Nations Ninth of Av – Root Source Gala. Hopefully next year it will be bigger, more developed and clear, and better promoted. |
| 5 | The LIST 2020 | This was published in August 2022 and copies were presented to attendees at the Nations’ Ninth of Av/Root Source Gala. |
| 6 | Korean 40 days (and full website in the future) | Our second book in a foreign language was published! The Korean version of 40 Days of Repentance. This book was published simultaneously in Korea, Israel, and worldwide on Amazon. We have started working with an Israeli Korean advisor and might do marketing to Korean American Christians towards next year. |
| 7 | Shavuot Symposium | We quickly planned and held this successful program https://givebutter.com/Shavuot2022 and are working on publishing the proceedings as we did with the 2021 program. |
| 8 | Passover Symposium Proceedings book | We published the proceedings as a book, gave a copy to each presenter, and offer it for sale on our online store. https://root-source.com/product/symposium-passover-2021/ |
| 9 | Master of Return | Our second novel was published, The Master of Return and the Eleventh Light. This book is available for sale. It reached the top 400 Amazon bestsellers in Jewish Literature & Fiction. We decided not to do a launch at this point. |
| 10 | Fundraising | Raised over $150,000 through Givebutter.com fundraising campaigns since January 2022 from over 100 friends of Root Source. THANK YOU ALL!!! |
| 11 | Legacy subscribers | Raised $8,750 through our legacy subscribers from 54 friends of Root Source. This is down from $22,000 from over 80 friends last year, because we are trying to move people over to our Givebutter platform from Paypal. |
| 12 | Foundations | In addition to grants from our friends at The Nathaniel Foundation, we were awarded a new grant from the Carson Myre Foundation and submitted two grant requests to the Jack Chester Foundation. |
| 13 | Continue to publish and upgrade our newsletter | We continue to publish our weekly newsletter. We are thinking about changing the format to daily (optional). |
| 14 | Store | We have upgraded our online store. As of this writing, you can buy twenty-seven (!) books and products, more than double the offerings since last year! |
| 15 | Online events | This year, 2022, we had two online events: the Shavuot Symposium and the Root Source-Nations’ Ninth of Av Gala. |
| 16 | Podcast and Documentary Guest | Our friends from First Century Foundations Ministries interviewed Gidon for their podcast and are featuring Gidon and Bob O’Dell in a documentary slated to be released next year. |
| 17 | Advisory Board | Worked with our active Advisory board of 20 close friends and expanded our Executive Board to include seven members (want to join? Contact me!). |
| 18 | Mazeltov! | Welcomed Gidon’s Fifth, Sixth, and SEVENTH grandchildren to the world, and celebrated #1‘s fourth birthday, #2‘s third birthday, #3‘s second birthday, and #4‘s first birthday! |
What are our plans for 2023?
With God’s help, we will:
| 1 | Hire a Development Officer, to focus on individual donors and foundations. |
| 2 | Hire a Christian Outreach marketing manager, towards expanding Root Source’s reach worldwide tenfold. |
| 3 | Host next year’s Bridgebuilders program. |
| 4 | Continue supporting the Institute of Midrashic Studies of the New Testament. |
| 5 | Publish four new titles on Root Source Press, including the LIST 2021 (and the LIST 2022!) which are already in the very last stages of production. |
| 6 | Continue to publish and upgrade our newsletter. |
| 7 | Host quarterly Zoom events. |
| 8 | Do “Jewish Outreach,” through live lectures and Zoom, to encourage Jewish teachers to join Root Source. |
| 9 | Pending the success of our Christian Outreach efforts, we aspire to have 100 teachers by December 2023. |
| 10 | Work towards localization of Root Source for communities in Africa, China, India, and more. |
| 11 | Expand the Root Source Conversations podcast project, interviewing fascinating people from all over the world. |
| 12 | Market The LIST series to libraries. |
| 13 | Work on upgrading the audio and visual aspects of our courses. |
| 14 | Engage with like-minded activists and organizations to launch joint educational ventures. |
| 15 | Create gumroad widgets for our courses. |
| 16 | Probably welcome another grandchild or two into the family:-). |
| 17 | Accomplish other things I haven’t thought of yet;-). |
Please be in touch with me or one of our staff or volunteer advisory board members to explore how you can help us achieve our vision and goals even better this year.
To make a financial contribution to the Root Source, please use this link: https://root-source.com/donate/ or contact me at gidon@root-source.com.
Shalom from Jerusalem,
Gidon Ariel
Executive Director, Root Source
THANK YOU TO OUR 142 GENEROUS SUPPORTERS IN 2022!
(Please Note: our management software and bookkeeping systems didn’t work so well this year:-) If you think you should be listed in a certain category and you are not, please contact us and we will make it good!)
Champion $25,000+
The Nathaniel Foundation
Anonymous Donor
Sustainer $10,000+
Carson Myre Foundation
Partner $1000+
Parthenia Antoine
Louise Clarke
Fidelity Charitable Donor Advised Fund
Cynthia Heaton
First Melissa
Jane L. Poole
Victoria Sarvadi
Ann Stacy
Steve Wearp
Ewe Lamb Supporter $500+
Sydney Hewitt
Joy Heylen
Julie Miranda
Marie Moniz
Ralph Peil
Laralyn RiverWind
Brad H. Young
Turtle Doves Supporter $250+
Sister Georjean Allenbach
BottomLine Equestrian LLC
Tony Burrow
Patricia Chan
Christine Darg
Frederick Elkins
Juanita Jordan
KingdomQuest Ministries
Anita Klassen
Jerome Kramer
Hsien E Lin
Marion Milstead
Robert O’Dell
Noel Orosa
Rosemary Schindler Garlow
Ruby Smith
Shan Cain
Elizabeth Werner
영식 손
Fine Flour Supporter $100+
Rose J Bechard
Paula Bergstrand
Douglas Bess
Alan Bingham
Fernando Carrilo Garcia
Keith Chilson
Rafael Colon Jr
Michael Cory
Michelle Cross
Revis Daggett
Katerina Danek
Elizabeth Darling
James Deyoung
Christine Eldridge
Drake Fenn
Linda Fontaine
Diane Fortin
David Futers
David L Gerry
Go Think, LLC
Jackie Hager
Barbara Hanner
Dale Hood
Denise Ishizu
Helen Jesze
Allan Johnson
Vincent T Jordan
Linda Keeling
Hartmut Kraft
Timothy McCurdy
Charles Medina
Laura Medley
Stevie Mick
Raymond H Montgomery
Irene Moser
Don Mueller
Cindy Offenstein
Patricia Owen
Geraldine Pinkston
Lawrence Pomeranc
Gary Preston
Antonella Radicioni
Richard Sanderson
Satheeja Santhi Velayudhan
Mark Sessions
Abbas Suhail
Brian Thomas
David Wolfer
Wier Wood
Grace & Truth Deliverance Church
Friend Under $100
Anonymous Donor
Janna Anthony
Garynda Arts
Genevieve Avraham
Doris Bartow
Christopher Blackburn
Robert Bleakney
Allison Bottke
Valarie Bulsiewicz
Shirley Burdick
Karen Carpenter
David Chia
Jennifer Chrisman
Myrna Clay
Meredith Cloy
Jan Cornish
Thomas L Cossette
Eleanor Covey
Lex Cullen
Judy Darby
Joseph David
Gale Drew
Richard Faul
Judy A Fitzpatrick
F Y Fong
Adrienne Fuller
James Gentry
Ellen Gray
Katie Gregg
Bruce Haase
Jean Holmes
Cindy Horbochuk
Connie Howard
Juliane Jackson
Donna M Jollay
Rory Kaye
Hae Kim
Celestine King
Valarie Kobrovsky
Clinton Lalum
Marcia Macy
Margaret Makewell
Peter Malpas
Donna Matts
Stephen McComas
Rhett McPherson
Thomas Moniz
Henry Monteith
Swarup Naik
Ernest Pendleton
Aundria Price
Ouida Randolph
William Schroeder
Bill Sellstrom
Christopher J. Smith
Sherwin Tonty
Ron Usry
Michael Vantine
Juliana Wagner
Mervin James Watson
Sylvia Williams