Episode
Ep. 94 Building Community, Belonging, and Sustainable Support with Miryam Kabakov
- Podcast
- Money to Give
- Published
- Sep 3, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2726
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Summary
What happens when a deeply personal experience reveals a need shared by an entire community? In this episode of Money to Give, Rick Peck sits down with Miryam Kabakov, co-founder and executive director of Eshel, to explore how her own experience coming out in the Orthodox Jewish community inspired an organization dedicated to creating support, belonging, and greater inclusion for LGBTQ Orthodox individuals and their families. Miryam shares how Eshel has grown from its first retreat 15 years ago into a community offering peer support, retreats, family resources, education, and connections to welcoming religious leaders across North America. Throughout the episode, Miryam and Rick discuss the challenges of building and funding a nonprofit serving a highly specific community, including Eshel’s early struggle to find funders who understood its mission. Miryam explains how storytelling, relationship building, and demonstrating impact gradually helped the organization earn trust and attract support. They also explore the importance of funding the programs that are already working—not simply pursuing the next “shiny and new” idea—and why nonprofits must clearly communicate the true costs of delivering programs so donors can help make successful work sustainable. Whether you are a donor, nonprofit leader, fundraiser, philanthropic advisor, or someone interested in how personal experience can become a catalyst for meaningful change, this conversation offers a powerful reminder of what can happen when people feel seen, supported, and connected. Miryam’s journey demonstrates that lasting impact often begins by listening closely to a community, building trust one relationship at a time, and having the persistence to keep doing the work even before others fully understand its impor…