The Impact Forum, co-founded by Adam and Gila Milstein, Raises $1.1 Million at Miami Dinner as Philanthropic Movement Expands Nationally

When 175 philanthropists gathered in Miami Beach on March 19, 2026, for the latest Impact Forum dinner, the evening bore little resemblance to the small monthly lunches where the initiative began nearly a decade ago. Co-founded by Adam and Gila Milstein in Los Angeles in 2017, the forum has evolved from a local experiment in coordinated giving into a national platform that has now expanded to Dallas and Miami—raising over $1.1 million in a single evening at its latest gathering.

The format is deliberately unconventional. There are no silent auctions, no rubber-chicken galas, no celebrity appearances designed to distract from the substance. Instead, vetted nonprofit leaders present their missions directly to a room full of donors who ask hard questions about strategy, scalability, and measurable outcomes. Comedian, actor, and writer Elon Gold served as the Miami event’s emcee, but the evening’s real energy came from the organizational presentations and the conversations they sparked.

Four nonprofits took the stage. The Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), presented its role as the central organizing force behind all major pro-Israel campus organizations—coordinating strategy, deploying political tools, and empowering students to push back against the anti-Israel radicalization that has accelerated since October 7, 2023. In the current campus environment, where Jewish students report feeling physically and socially threatened, ICC’s work has moved from important to urgent.

Coleven, shared its approach to disrupting the financial networks that fuel terrorism and hate. While most counter-extremism efforts target visible symptoms—protests, social media content, propaganda—Coleven goes after the money. It’s the kind of root-cause thinking that appeals to Milstein’s business instincts: cut off the funding and the entire operation weakens.

TalkIsrael Academy, presented a different kind of weapon: training hundreds of social media content creators to build authentic personal brands that showcase Israel’s everyday life—people, food, music, art, innovation—for Gen Z audiences. Instead of fighting negative narratives with defensive arguments, TalkIsrael builds positive ones. It’s a content strategy rather than a communications strategy, and it’s resonating with younger audiences who distrust institutional messaging.

The IDF Widows and Orphans Organization, the sole entity recognized by the Israeli government to support the families of fallen soldiers, , and security personnel, brought the evening’s most personal dimension. Their presentation connected the abstract geopolitics of Middle Eastern security to the lived reality of families who have lost everything—and the concrete opportunity for philanthropists to make a tangible difference in those lives.

The $1.1 million raised represents the forum’s financial impact, but Milstein has always argued the real value lies elsewhere. The connections formed between donors, the introductions between funders and organizations that would never have crossed paths through traditional channels, the conversations that continue long after the dinner ends—these are what compound over time. It’s the Philanthropic Synergy principle in action.

For Milstein, the Miami event’s most significant signal wasn’t the dollar amount but the demographics. The room included a growing contingent of younger philanthropists—a trend that has accelerated since October 7. “Donors and community leaders are gathering not just to show solidarity but to take meaningful action,” Milstein has observed. The Impact Forum was designed to channel exactly that kind of energy into strategic impact, and its national expansion suggests the demand for this model is only growing.