November, 2008

We are pleased to welcome you to the United Jewish Communities Jewish Day School Financial Resource Digital Toolkit, which is a collection of initiatives that various communities have undertaken regarding financial resource development for all aspects of Jewish day school education. This resource stems from UJC’s strong commitment to Jewish education and is a product of a partnership we are proud to have developed between UJC, PEJE and JESNA.

UJC’s first project in partnership with PEJE and JESNA was a day school consult in November of 2007 at UJC’s General Assembly in Nashville, TN.  The consult featured program models in nine communities that have developed financing vehicles for day school education above and beyond annual federation allocations.  The goal was to encourage communities across the country to learn about ways of replicating these successful models locally.  Through the consult, it became clear that there was a need for a central location to examine these types of funding models.  In response UJC created this online resource.
 
The toolkit will be a repository of community models as well as other innovative ideas that can be of use in considering day school financing.  The initiatives submitted allow communities to learn from successful models as well as those that have encountered difficulty or have been singularly successful in order to benefit from the full experience in the field

The toolkit should be used in conjunction with consultation from UJC to maximize understanding and implementation of any of the initiatives presented.  Any model will need to be adapted for your community's needs and UJC can assist you in this process.  For more information regarding the toolkit, UJC’s day school strategy or to submit a funding initiative from your community, please contact Andrea Fram Plotkin at andrea.fram@jewishfederations.org or 212-284-6930.   

As the cost of day school education continues to rise, and we all strive to develop and maintain high quality Jewish education, we hope that this toolkit will inspire local federations to be the catalyst to collaborate with BJEs, day schools, donors, community foundations and other community partners to develop models for affordable, competitive and sustainable Jewish day school education.  

Sincerely,

United Jewish Communties

The Jewish Day School Funding Digital Toolkit allows you to view funding initiatives under several different categories.  Each community model is listed under the community column and then is listed, as appropriate, under the various categories in which the progam fits.  Any supporting documents for a program can be found in the community listing column. 

*Categories Include:
    Community
    Total Number of Schools in the Community
    Funding Mechanism
    Goal of the Initiative
    Other Ideas
   
*see below for expanded detail