The Negev Foundation: Our Story

In 1990, Clevelander and former grocery executive Richard J. Bogomolny and former communal service executive Sam Hoenig convened an informal group of philanthropists and entrepreneurs called the Arid Lands Development Foundation. Their mission: to develop Israel’s southern half, the Negev Desert, into a region able to support self-sufficient communities. The Foundation’s initial fundraising efforts focused on high-tech methods of farming the desert.

Incorporated in 1992 as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, The Negev Foundation was founded with a mission to facilitate economic opportunities through agribusiness and the transfer of desert agro-technology initiatives to other water-deficient areas worldwide.

In the new millennium, The Negev Foundation is spearheading the development of Israel’s southern region in partnership with a dynamic blend of farmers, philanthropists, inventors, investors, academicians, policy makers, and elected officials. This team’s combined talents have provided immeasurable support for technological and human innovations, sponsoring and promoting sustainable desert development and quality of life projects including education, health, culture, and social well-being throughout the Negev.

Since its inception, The Negev Foundation has provided millions of dollars in support of Negev development.

The Negev Foundation: Our Method

The Negev Foundation’s “secret formula” for success is a blend of for-profit investment and entrepreneurship on the one hand, and philanthropic contribution on the other.

We bring together the private farmers and full-scale commercial growers, independent research stations and world-renowned universities, venture capitalists and adventurous philanthropists.

Many of our partners are based in the Negev or elsewhere in Israel, and others in countries across the globe; this variety of perspectives has brought about many creative solutions and breakthrough innovations.

The Negev Foundation’s bywords are self-sufficiency and security. The goal is to use this profit/non-profit blend to create self-sustaining entities— and, ultimately, whole communities— in the Negev region. Already, this region is producing the technology to help other arid lands achieve self-sufficiency of their own.

The Foundation functions as a unique form of investment banker, focused on a 21st century Zionist endeavor, unencumbered by partisan politics or political agenda.

Click to see our Staff, Board and Trustees, and Philanthropic Partners