To ensure a vibrant Jewish future, The Jewish Federations of North America engages the younger generation through programs that encourage leadership, philanthropy, connection to Israel and the Jewish people and fosters important networking opportunities. The Jewish Federations of North America is also looking toward the future with a new name and logo, new positioning for the Federation movement and a special focus on donor mobility to connect with current and potential donors.

As part of an ongoing effort to create a stronger, more consistent Federation brand and market positioning — and thereby attract greater recognition and potential support — United Jewish Communities changed its name in 2009 to The Jewish Federations of North America. The new name builds on familiarity with local Jewish Federations, aligns with 90 percent of local Federation names, and reflects the best branding practices of other large federated nonprofits

The new logo of The Jewish Federations of North America – with a circular design and menorah – is a strong, innovative mark, rooted in Jewish tradition, signaling our centrality and stature, while remaining inviting and optimistic. Local Jewish Federations have embraced the need for greater consistency and many have volunteered to adopt the visual identity locally. The logo is being customized for use by our 400 Network Communities. More than 40 Federations are adopting the new logo in the coming months.

Some Federations with strong local brand equity and recognition are also using an endorser application of the logo, which signals that a Federation is a member of The Jewish Federations of North America, communicating the importance of being part of the Federation movement and creating a common branding touch-point. The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore piloted the endorser logo.

The Jewish Federations of North America is helping to more effectively position the work of the Federation movement by bringing our story to an ever-wider audience through enhanced PR and communications practices. The continental organization communicates regularly to Federations and other key stakeholders through e-mail newsletters, many tailored and targeted to distinct interests, which attract high readership rates compared to similar nonprofits. The Jewish Federations of North America, like many Federations, also increasingly uses social-media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs as communications vehicles.

Meanwhile, The Jewish Federations of North America in 2009 extended its reach into a broad spectrum of media platforms as a way to reach ever-wider audiences and raise greater public awareness. The continental organization’s effort to rescue the Jews of Yemen, for example, was featured in The Wall Street Journal and the BBC, while other media outlets covering the organizations’ work included The New York Times, The New York Daily News, CNN, C-Span and The Washington Post. Nearly 100 media outlets covered the 2009 GA, far exceeding the number at recent GAs.

Jewish Community Heroes Campaign

The Jewish Community Heroes campaign, a collaboration of The Jewish Federations of North America and 60 local Federations and national Jewish agencies, became an exceptionally successful new program in 2009.

Combining cutting-edge social-networking tools with e-mail outreach and press coverage to stoke participation, Heroes gave support and recognition to leaders in community service and volunteerism, and drew well over a half-million online votes. During the 2009 GA, the Jewish Community Hero of the Year, Ari Teman of JCorps, was announced and received a grant for his volunteerism initiative. The Heroes program surpassed its goals by raising awareness of the vital Federation role in service initiatives, and by generating a valuable 40,000-member strong e-mail contact list that has been geographically segmented and provided to local Federations to help expand their lists of online advocates and donors. The 2010 iteration of this event will make further inroads in building a new audience for Federations.

National Young Leadership

The Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership (NYL) group is a network of socially conscious Jews in their 20s, 30s and early 40s. Local Federations’ young leadership divisions offer abundant opportunities to get involved, whether visiting seniors, collecting medicine or other vital supplies for Jews overseas, or meeting with political leaders to advocate for social services. Federations also offer leadership development programs that prepare young Jews to play a vital role in the Jewish community.

The National Young Leadership Cabinet of 350 men and women ages 30 to 45 represents The Jewish Federations of North America’s most committed young leaders from across North America. The NYL Cabinet develops and provides leadership to meet Jewish needs worldwide.

Despite the economic downturn, the NYL Cabinet Campaign raised over $1.6 million from 187 gifts at the NYL Cabinet Retreat for the 2010 Annual Campaign -- a 12.1 percent gift-for-gift increase over the previous year. In addition, NYL Cabinet raised over $77,000 for the Ethiopian National Project.

Young Leadership and Cabinet professionals from 14 communities attended the annual NYL Cabinet Retreat to enhance their leadership development skills, network and learn. They also raised more than $15,600, a nearly 18 percent gift-for-gift increase from 2008. Participants learned from scholar-in-residence Rabbi Joseph Telushkin and used Tom Rath’s "Strengthsfinder 2.0" to assess their skills.

About 600 young professionals from across North America drew new inspiration to help repair the world and build Jewish community during the National Young Leadership Conference in New Orleans, March 15-17. The conference convened young professionals from 60 communities to work on a day-long project to renovate an abandoned parochial school into a community center in one of the areas hit hardest during Hurricane Katrina.

The next National Young Leadership Conference, set for March 14-16 in Boston, will offer young leaders the skills, resources and inspiration to better lead their respective Young Leadership divisions.

In a year when many communities were unable to offer subsidies or other incentives, 194 participants from 17 communities joined the National Young Leadership Summer Mission to Israel for a nine-day exploration of Israel and the work of The Jewish Federations of North America. The mission raised $188,898, a 164 percent gift-for-gift increase over the previous year. Though the minimum required gift for the mission was $500, the average gift was $961 -- a fantastic result given that 61 percent of participants had never donated to Federation.

More than 30 participants attended the Cabinet Study Missions to Sarajevo and Budapest in the spring. Participants learned about a JDC-supported summer camp that helps local Bosnian-Jewish children build their Jewish identity. This year, the Sarajevo community could not afford to send children to this camp, so mission participants generated the funding to pay for six children to attend.

National Young Leadership also launched a vibrant new Web site, NextGenJews.org, d to inform, inspire, and connect young, socially conscious Jews. With bold graphics and lively text, NextGenJews.org shows that young Jews can connect with peers and make a difference through Federation.

Young Jews are proud to be Jewish, eager to serve their communities, and are contributing their financial resources to a range of meaningful and worthy charities. National Young Leadership works with local Federations to ensure that Jewish young professionals know that their Federations provide services opportunities, use donor money wisely, and need their energy and leadership to ensure the future of the Jewish people here, in Israel, and around the world.

–Joanne Moore
Co-Chair, National Young Leadership

Emerging Philanthropists

The Jewish Federations of North America helps emerging philanthropists get more deeply involved in the Federation movement. Programs include Lunch with a Legend, Jewish Leadership Forum, Fisher Flight and boutique missions.

Lunch with a Legend features learning and networking with business leaders and leading Jewish philanthropists. The annual Jewish Leadership Forum in Aspen was an intensive three-day retreat in an idyllic setting, with provocative speakers such as Newark, N.J. Mayor Corey Booker. Ninety participants joined the 2009 JLF to create a philanthropic mission and vision, and the 2010 conference will take place in Park City, Utah.

Fisher Flight, a partnership of The Jewish Federations of North America and the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, brings Fisher Fellows on global missions and domestic seminars over eight months. A dozen Fisher Fellows from across North America traveled to Israel in October to learn about the impact of Federation, philanthropy and leadership. The fellows continue to explore these themes throughout the year. The boutique missions program allows a small group of leaders to explore Federation programs in far-flung locations.

Donor Mobility

Since the 1970s, North American Jews have shown increasing patterns of mobility, with many Jews moving from the East and Midwest to the South and Southwest. These population shifts have made a profound impact on American Jewish organizational life. Many communities have lost significant numbers of donors, and Federations are losing track of some donors when they move from one community to another.

Responding to these challenges, The Jewish Federations of North America worked with Federations to retain and grow their donor base through the New Move Program and a Jewish Population Mobility Study. These initiatives are helping communities understand how mobility affects philanthropic decisions and are tracking current and potential donors as well.

Jewish Population Mobility Study

"Moving: The Impact of Geographic Mobility on the Jewish Community", examines how mobility is connected to a wide range of Jewish behaviors and attitudes. The report found that connections to Federations — in terms of donations, familiarity and contact — are threatened when people move. Donations to other Jewish causes are also affected, as are memberships and connections to synagogues and other Jewish institutions. In contrast, other aspects of Jewish life — ritual observance, connections with Israel, raising children to be Jewish — are affected less or not at all.

The study was a collaborative project of The Jewish Federations of North America, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, and the North American Jewish Data Bank. The Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation provided lead funding for the project. Generous funding was also provided by the Albert and Audrey Ratner Foundation.

The findings highlight the challenges facing the Jewish communal world — Federations, other Jewish philanthropic causes, synagogues and schools — in addressing how to engage Jews on the move. A series of focus groups reviewed the findings and helped the researchers develop strategic and policy recommendations for Federations. The findings can be viewed at www.jewishfederations.org/onthemove

New Move Program

The Jewish Federations of North America’s New Move Program intends to stabilize the Federation movement’s donor base and reverse the current attrition rate. The program, launched in mid-2008, is aimed at reaching former donors who have moved from their original Federation to a new community. This high-potential segment has been engaged by the Federation movement and could be contacted again through direct mail, email or telemarketing.

After the successful pilot was launched last year, the program was rolled out to the entire Federation movement in 2009. Sixty-nine Federations participated in the rollout, with 37,885 constituents identified as having moved to a new Federation territory. These constituents were distributed to participating Federations, many of whom established new contacts.

New Moves will continue once every year so that Federations can share information about donors who have moved from one territory to another. Even if donor mobility continues to erode the total number of Federation movement donors, this program will help maintain critical constituent relationships.

Donor Management System

The Jewish Federations of North America is launching a state-of-the-art, Web-based donor management system hosted by Blackbaud software. The Blackbaud system features the best technology available and is scalable to add on new features. By extending this program for all Federations, the cost will be far lower than for individual communities.

The database can be tailored to specific needs of Federation fundraising and constituent relationship management and allows Federations to manage data independently. Features include a secure Web platform accessible from any location; the ability for donors to update their profiles, and pay open pledges; the ability to integrate with social networking sites; the ability to create viral "Friends asking Friends" campaigns supporting existing efforts and generating new support; and integration with marketing and e-mail; the ability to process event registration, and many other features. This new system will be integrated with FedWeb, The Jewish Federation of North America’s successful content management platform that 120 Federations now use.

The Jewish Federations of North America will partner with Federations to create best practices, assist with custom reporting, train Federation staff and provide technical support on this new platform. Five pilot Federations — Baltimore, Washington, Cleveland, MetroWest, N.J. and St. Louis – are participating in an initial launch. The first Federation is expected to go on-line by the end of calendar year 2010, while the other pilot Federations will go live in the first quarter of 2011.

Birthright Israel

Birthright Israel celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. In the past decade, the program has provided over 250,000 young adults the opportunity to experience Israel for the first time with their peers. The Federation movement has been a partner of Birthright Israel since 1999 and, in that time, has contributed over $100 million to the program.

Brandeis University recently released research findings that detail the overwhelming effectiveness of the Birthright Israel program over time. Birthright Israel helps forge an increased connection to Israel, stronger sense of Jewish peoplehood and greater interest in creating Jewish families. The Jewish Federations of North America is committed to supporting Birthright Israel to provide an Israel experience to every Jewish young adult who wishes to participate.