From Our Volunteer Leaders: Jody Kaufman Loewenstein

   An Introduction to the National Federation/Agency Alliance

This past spring, I was asked to become the first chairperson of the new National Federation/Agency Alliance, now affectionately referred to as “The Alliance.”  After asking many questions and exercising due diligence, I agreed.  I told myself this project had immense potential and could ultimately involve all of our federations as well as engage our national agencies in a collaborative and forward thinking process.  In addition, it personally provided me with a unique opportunity to work with an exceptional and committed team of volunteer and professional leaders who would help to steer a cutting edge national initiative.  For good reason, you may ask what is The Alliance and how does it tie together federations and agencies?  Hopefully, at the end of this article, you will understand and wonder how you and your community can become engaged!

The Alliance was created at the beginning of 2007, with approval from the UJC Board of Trustees, and represents a significant redesign of the old National Funding Councils. Our committee is a collaboration of volunteer and professional representatives from federations contributing approximately $8 million through a central allocation pool to nine national agencies:  the Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies; the Foundation for Jewish Culture; the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society; Hillel: the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life;the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America; the Jewish Council for Public Affairs; the Jewish Education Service of North America; the JTA: Global News Service of the Jewish People; and NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Eurasia. These nine agencies engage in critical work to build capacity and support the work of the federations and our allocated agencies at the local level.  In addition, the agencies help to advance our mission on a national and international stage.  Alliance funding, in many cases, is the single largest source of income for these agencies, allowing them to keep their lights on and their doors open. 

Through the Alliance Leadership Committee, which reports to Kathy Manning, chair of the UJC Executive Committee, our federations are able to engage in ongoing evaluation and interaction with the national agencies, which is a significant change from past models.  As part of The Alliance process, a portion of the total allocation pool is retained and awarded to national agencies whose new initiative proposals best advance priorities agreed to by The Alliance member communities. This year, after extensive data gathering, polling, and deliberation, we selected three priority areas: Israel, Engaging the Next Generation with specific focuses on Jewish education/culture and leadership development, and aging/older adults. During the process, the nine agencies submitted 19 grant proposals totaling about $1.8 million. We awarded three $100,000 grants – to JCPA for its Israel Advocacy Initiative; to the JCCA for its GesherCity program; and to Hillel for the Israel Fellows program.  

The essence of The Alliance is to develop and advance relationships while creating synergy between this group of nine national agencies and the federations. We hope to begin to facilitate agency visibility in local communities and federations, while at the same time encouraging a greater UJC/Federation presence at important events and gatherings of these national agencies.  To further this effort, we plan to release a short publication at the upcoming Tennessee General Assembly.  The publication will speak to the important work of The Alliance and each of the national agencies.  It is our hope that continued funding will encourage close collaborations. We are also working to ensure the national agencies demonstrate suitable willingness to be branded as a recipient of Alliance and federation funding, and acknowledge the receipt of this financial support on letterhead, website, and publications. In addition, our allocation parameters stipulate compliance with the same fundraising guidelines established for local agencies affiliated with federations. The nine national agencies have agreed to these requirements.  

Currently, there are 37 federations participating in The Alliance, including:  Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Delaware, Denver, Detroit, Greenwich, Houston, Jacksonville, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, MetroWest, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Northeastern New York, Northern New Jersey, Ocean County, Orange County New York, Palm Beach, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, Sarasota-Manatee, San Francisco, Seattle, Southern Arizona, Springfield, St. Louis, Tidewater, and Washington, DC. 

The participating federations are inclusive of almost all the large U.S. federations, many of the large-intermediates, and about a dozen intermediate and small federations. We are working to increase these numbers and demonstrate the real value of the Alliance to participating communities. If your federation is not an Alliance member we would like to work with you and encourage your community to join The Alliance.  If you are interested in more information about The Alliance, please contact Stephan Kline, UJC’s Managing Director for National Agency Relations and Public Policy at Stephan.kline@ujc.org or 202.736.5864.

Jody Kaufman Loewenstein is a member of UJC’s Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee.  She also serves as National Women's Philanthropy UJC Washington Liaison.  Ms. Loewenstein currently serves as an officer and a member of the Executive Committee of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation (MJF), is the chair of Leadership Development, and serves on both the MJF Agency Relations and Israel and Overseas Committees.