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Planned Giving and Endowments

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Endowment donors: Ensuring the future of the Jewish community

Endowment donors seek to preserve Jewish values over the years while  assuring the long-term financial health of the federation system. Thanks to their generosity, local federations' endow-ment programs have experienced tremen-dous growth.

UJC's Planned Giving & Endowments department provides critical support for these growing programs, offering in-house expertise on legal and technical matters, continuing education, overseas endowments, mar-keting, and other aspects of running a successful endow-ment program. The PG&E staff provides assistance on site and through extensive telephone and email contacts, plus an expansive online library of resources, searchable and accessible by all endowment profes-sionals. 

Frances Irwin and 122 other young girls were left at Auschwitz when the Germans abandoned it, before the Allied soldiers arrived. Frightened, starving, and cold, they didn't know where to go or what to do. After a few days, they were rescued: "A truck pulled up, and two Jewish people got out. They brought us packages and said that we shouldn't worry because the American Jewish community would take care of us," Frances recalled.
     With help from the JDC and HIAS, Frances survived, married, and came to America, where she and her husband found work. As soon as she could afford to, she made her first contribution to UJA-Federation: $18. As a former beneficiary, Frances was and is determined to leave a legacy of caring and responsibility to her family, while also helping to secure the future of the Jewish people.
    For 40 years, Frances has donated her time and money to a broad range of UJA-Federation programs. From making solicitation phone calls to recruiting countless other volunteers to directly helping many recipients, she has truly kept her word that she would "give back to the community" as much as she could. Now, Frances has set up a charitable gift annuity, to perpetuate the work she believes in and to express her profound gratitude for the help she and her family received from the American Jewish community at the end of World War II.

Local endow-ment programs benefit from PG&E's marketing templates and sample materials from federations across North America.

The department also organizes education programs and networking opportunities for endowment directors, professionals, and lay leaders, including, in 2001, the Endowment Professionals Institute in Memphis, two Continuing Professional Education courses in Scottsdale, and an endowment track at the General Assembly.

In 2001, total federation system endowment assets grew to an extraordinary $8 billion. These funds generated $927 million in grants in 2001. Endowment donors—like Helen Zelkowitz of Columbus, Ohio, who spent 45 years managing a community radio station, and transferred a significant interest in the station to a charitable remainder trust and established a permanent endowment—help ensure the future of the Jewish community. They make it possible for the North American Jewish Federation system to meet the needs of Jews around the world.

Annual Report table of contents:

Mobilizing Our Jewish Values | Annual Campaign | 9/11 Fund | Israel Emergency Campaign  Missions | Israel Overseas: Argentina | Planned Giving and Endowments | Renaissance and Renewal Alliance | Human Services And Social Policy | FedWeb |  How UJC Works