Interview with Donny Fein

to our first game yes so we have we have with us today uh a special guest actually waiting up in in uh chemist in Israel I know what time it is over there because uh that's my land you know but uh yeah but it's it's almost two o'clock in the morning we have Donnie fine with us nadani was born in Brooklyn raised in Staten Island with us mid Aliyah in 2009 a regular guy and this is what we're talking about like the regular but irregular guys you know who is like like any of us and he started something in 2017 called Mitzvah opportunity which started on a small WhatsApp group and grew to hundreds of people and multiple groups and Donnie on these little WhatsApp groups we're going to speak to him in a moment has raised almost 5 million shekels on these by the by WhatsApp groups for different you know for different needs inherit Israel against somebody I know him a very long time I grew up with him and here's an individual who took an opportunity um that was small if you will and made it in Monumental so Donnie it's so great to have you on that's great to be honor thank you for your thank you you guys are doing amazing work as well is that a real background no well it was it's a real picture that was picking yeah because if you're faking the background I mean I like the coastal one better but we'll take the new projects and run up HMS you know I could switch that to that one easily right now well Donnie thank you for being uh talk to us a little bit about this stuck uh idea that you did give us a little bit of that background all right so I'll tell you where it started it start really started 25 years ago but I'll I'll go that far back basically in 2017 I was riding a bus back from Jerusalem I'm pretty sure I was at the hotel and uh I happen to have been on my uh on my phone and I was checking uh social media Facebook and uh some lady put on a local ramaph uh WhatsApp group or Facebook group uh that she's uh her and her family they don't have money for food for Shoppers and I'm not really sure what uh what struck me I don't I don't recall exactly what went through my mind at that moment but basically I uh I I reached out to the lady I said How could somebody not have food for Shabbos I myself was going through my own struggles at that time and I'm like this this just doesn't make sense somebody needs to help her I'm gonna I'm gonna step in and I reached out to her personally and I said if you could just send me somebody that can verify your situation I'll I could probably help you out with some money for for food for Shabbos and she sent me somebody uh she's actually living in Roma pajamas gimmel at the time and uh verify the case very quickly I'm pretty sure this was on a Thursday and uh Arab Shabbos I was able to bring her you know whatever it was a few hundred shekels I collected from my friends and that snowballed into something you know on a weekly basis I was looking out for more opportunities uh to to help out to have local families there's a lot of families that are struggling here in Israel unfortunately so after a short period of time again I wasn't really like conscious of what was going on because it was just uh it was just me kind of playing around helping people and uh I started a WhatsApp group called Sadako group with like five friends four or five friends and every Arab Shabbos that go around to their homes and collect money and bring it to a family and that snowballed into you know 5 10 15 friends before I know it had 50 people on a group and um you know been doing this for a couple years and then uh and then Corona started and I really saw a really like a big pain point in people people losing their jobs they just they just there's just no work I'm you know I myself was really was really struggling I looked up up at my wife at one point I had 50 people in the group and I said what if we had a hundred people on the group what could we do my wife looked at me she's like go for it so I I made a LinkedIn post um I'm pretty active on social media on a regular basis made a LinkedIn post and before I knew it I had 100 people and I was scribbling scribbling numbers down on a on a napkin on a piece of paper um you know adding things up making sure we reach the goals you know and we now we're ready we're starting to raise money for tell people fill in and a few other uh cases not just money for food for Shabbos but that That's the basis of it and that's really how the how the group started have you ever when you started this thing did you ever get a sense of what where it would go um or is it a I think this is sort of the critical piece to this was it a this is what's in front of me right now let me see who I can help in front of me so I honestly I honestly had no idea um where it could go I I didn't I didn't think that that far had now now literally six years later only now I'm starting to think what what can what can we do how can we grow this um I'm only first putting a website together now um I really didn't know what what was going on and then just you know I've been doing this it started where I would I would it got to a point where I'm just doing one or two raises a week one group next thing I know um Hillel fold did uh did a LinkedIn post uh about it I think it was about a year ago maybe a year and a half ago where he um he really he interviewed me we had breakfast together and when we were leaving he goes so I go where are you posting this he goes it's already up on social media by the time I got home from from breakfast 15 minute drive home I had about uh I had the the groups were exploding I had I took I basically took a week off from work to organize it I went from 100 150 to about 550 600 people literally overnight and uh we started uh we it really started getting serious that's when I was like you know I need to get organized if you see next to me I always have them at desk I have three screens on my desk one of them is basically devoted to the Mitzvah opportunity it's a whole long spreadsheet that I've been building for years and years we recently added a chat bot to the WhatsApp group to take a little to alleviate all the work from me and um it's just it's getting serious uh it's getting serious now you know Danny I'm listening I'm Lucy do you say this and I I'm hearing like what sounds to be a full-time job I'm creating this and I'm setting this up and I had a meeting with this you also have a realty company in Israel Elite Israel Realty you know there are people who are who shy away from these type of initiatives because they feel like it'll take up all their time they won't have time for work family yet it seems like you're speaking about at your full-time job how do you juggle how do you juggle all this so I'll be honest with you um it's it's not easy I I'm blessed thank God Hashem I thank God every day multiple times a day that I my I'm able to make a parnassa my my parnassa position is helping people helping Jews come to Israel find homes in Israel and then in Israel I can help people make sure people have money for food for utilities for medical anything um in in Israel so I really feel blessed and I find the time I'll be honest um I'm not a Giver by Nature uh but I'm very blessed and I've and I've learned to become a giver through this through this group and um and it's it's been inspiring me every day but uh what I've seen on a on a absolutely incredible level is the more I work on the group and it takes a tremendous amount of time on my part every week it really does like a full-time job the more I see success in this business yeah so yeah I agree with that yeah I I I don't I don't know how to explain it so they don't know you're doing a great job I'm taking care of hashem's children that's exactly taking care of me and we we thank you Donnie for being here and you you've explained it perfectly and we thank you for for what you're doing and what you stand for it's amazing there are people out there that are watching this that want you know to either get in touch with you or think of starting something along this nature what's the best way for them to uh besides the contact with us we can put them in touch with you is there an email address or an ad something or a DOT something that they can reach you at so number one you can always find me on LinkedIn I'm pretty active on LinkedIn or you can email Mitch m i t z v a h o p p gmail.com and uh and I'll be able to uh to field uh you know if somebody wants to join the group they can send me the contact information I can always add them to the group amazing thank you Donnie Donnie thank you thank you for all the work that you're doing thank you for inspiring us over here and you can finally go to sleep now I hope the orange juice and The kagish Keg won't keep you up which is um I love the fact that in many ways Donnie is a regular guy and he's saying that the work that I'm doing um is only allowing me to have more success right and that's a big problem that people have is people think that if I get involved in the community if I get involved in helping people it's going to pull away from my success that's a lot of what the show stands for is arise leads to success if Christ leads to their ability and many times it's the same way of thinking which is I have a limited amounts of time and I have a little amount of things that I got to do and they're they're living in a very physical way of seeing the world but when you move into a world of Hashem you do fresh children you do a little bit more has some figures that way for you to get as well