Jewish education is well provided for in large urban communities, with established schools, experienced staff and reliable funding. In smaller and remote ones it is far more precarious, with thin infrastructure and limited money. Closing that gap is the central focus of Yael Poliavich, a philanthropist and entrepreneur who co-founded the Yael Foundation in 2020. Built to serve Jewish and general education in communities of every size, the foundation has grown consistently since then, working alongside local schools and educators rather than replacing them. Today it supports 143 formal and informal educational programs and reaches around 22,500 students across 45 countries.
From finance to philanthropy
Yael Poliavich was born in 1982 in Kyrgyzstan, where education was a defining value at home. Her mother taught music at the M. Abdraev Republican Secondary Special Boarding Music School in Bishkek, and that early environment shaped how Yael Poliavich would later think about learning and community. Between 1999 and 2004 she studied at the Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic, graduating with a degree in Economics, Finance and Credit.
Yael Poliavich built on that education in a long finance career. Until 2021, she worked as a finance professional across business operations, financial planning and organizational management. The discipline of budgeting, decision-making and long-term planning carried directly into her philanthropic work, where large educational projects depend on the same structured approach. The move into full-time philanthropy gave Yael Poliavich a practical framework for building institutions intended to last.
How the Foundation works
The Yael Foundation was established in 2020 to help Jewish children access quality education regardless of where they live or their family’s circumstances. Rather than imposing a single model, the foundation backs organizations already working within their own communities and helps them grow stronger – schools, kindergartens, Sunday schools and after-school programs. Yael Poliavich has built the foundation to support committed local efforts rather than to direct them.
The same principle guides how the foundation works within each country. Rather than running schools from the outside, Yael Poliavich partners with local organizations that already hold the trust of their communities and share the foundation’s commitment to quality education. These partners provide the local leadership, while the foundation contributes funding, resources and access to experienced educators who help design and strengthen programs. The result is a model that adapts to each setting rather than applying one template everywhere, so that improvements reflect the language, culture and specific needs of communities they are meant to serve.
A few practical priorities guide the work: modernizing school infrastructure, training teachers and developing school leadership, opening places to families who cannot easily afford tuition, and helping partner institutions plan for long-term financial stability. What matters to Yael Poliavich is permanence rather than pace: schools strong enough that families keep choosing them year after year.
Impact in numbers
Today, the Yael Foundation supports 143 formal and informal educational programmes across 45 countries, reaching approximately 22,500 students. The foundation organizes this work in three broad tiers: smaller grants awarded on a regular or ad hoc basis, medium-sized funded programs run with local partners, and a growing number of schools that the foundation builds and operates directly. That structure is deliberately selective, turning down a large share of the applications it receives – an approach that keeps resources focused on institutions able to sustain high standards over time.
Programs and recognition
Beyond direct school funding, Yael Poliavich supports a set of recurring programs. Each year, the Yael Awards brings educators together for several days of talks, workshops and planning, then finishes with a ceremony recognizing the schools and educators behind the strongest programs.The foundation launched an International Jewish School Leadership Exchange to connect principals and administrators across countries, and introduced its Start-Up Classrooms initiative, designed to make Jewish schools a first choice for families. Programs focused on innovation and academic standards round out the foundation’s programming.
The foundation also brings educators together directly. Its annual summit gathers more than two hundred principals and community leaders from dozens of countries for several days of workshops, lectures and shared planning. For Yael Poliavich, these gatherings serve a wider goal: a network of schools and leaders that learn from one another rather than operate in isolation.
A long-term approach
What connects these efforts is a consistent view of how change happens. To Yael Poliavich, supporting teachers is one of the most direct ways to improve outcomes for students, because strong institutions depend on capable people as much as on buildings and budgets. Her approach to strategic philanthropy emphasizes accountability, long-term thinking and cooperation between organizations in different countries – the same priorities that defined her earlier career in finance.
The work of Yael Poliavich and the Yael Foundation is measured less in single announcements than in the ongoing expansion of programs across 45 countries and the roughly 22,500 students they now reach. On that record, the priorities Yael Poliavich set in 2020 continue to guide a growing international effort.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Through the Yael Foundation, Yael Poliavich supports educational leadership, school development, and Jewish education programs serving communities across 45 countries. Cover Photo Credit: Yael Foundation
