Jewish Federation of Cincinnati

David Harris

The audience listens as Jay Price speaks about the landscape of philanthropy, and the Jewish Federation’s role, at the Jewish Professional Advisors Network’s breakfast and conversation.

March 7—Experts from across the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati shared insights at a breakfast and conversation on the “Landscape of Philanthropy,” organized by the Jewish Professional Advisors Network (JPAN), and held at the Mayerson JCC. JPAN, a diverse group of Jewish professionals working in the fields of law, financial planning, insurance, taxes, or accounting, is an affinity group of the Jewish Federation.

The chair of JPAN, Jody Brant, introduced the three speakers: the Jewish Federation’s Chief Development Officer, Danielle Minson; Jay Price, the Federation’s Vice President of Development; and John Silverman, the Federation’s Vice President of Planning & Allocations. A delicious spread, with lox, was served. Below are highlights from each talk:

Takeaways from the overview—Danielle Minson, Chief Development Officer, Jewish Federation:

1. “Every generation gives differently. In broad terms the older donors tend to trust organizations. Younger donors tend to focus on issues, on causes. We need both to make a vibrant community.”

2. “The next ten years is the expected window for $60 trillion in transfer of wealth in the US; we believe $4.5 trillion of that is in the Jewish community.”

3. “We believe in stakeholder-based philanthropy. We need people who are engaged, at whatever level.”

Takeaways from how the Federation raises money—Jay Price, Federation’s Vice President of Development:

1. “It’s interesting how we do the campaign now, we do it sequentially. Why? First Major Gifts, which is donors who give $10,000 plus. Second is Community Campaign, $1,000 to $9,999, and the final piece is the Friends Campaign, which is under $1,000, which is done through mailings and Super Sunday. A second part of raising money is supplemental (or directed) giving: for example, the Barbash Center and Heldman Family Food Pantry that serves lower-income people on campus of HUC. The third and final is planned giving and endowments, through Jewish Federation planned giving and Create Your Jewish Legacy. Cincinnati has surpassed every other city in this [of the cities LIFE & LEGACY supports]—last count we had 755 letters of intent. People are really working hard, to some degree they are also surprising themselves.”

2. “There was a gentleman, he was a college professor, a mechanical engineer. Danielle said that he wanted to meet with some folks from Federation. He brought in a brown bag lunchbecause he didn’t want Federation to buy him lunch. He gave at the $100 to $200 level for many years, he was a Silver Circle member. He passed away not long ago and left a bequest to Federation of $2 million. He was married but his wife had died. What are the learnings? Be nice to everyone [laughter]. Here it is: donation is more critical than amount.”

3. “There is tension between maintaining rich tradition and infrastructure, and being nimble and able to shift and move forward. I like this analogy: there are battleships and speed boats, and you need both. We are at this point where we think we need to be both.” 

Takeaways from how the Federation gives away money—John Silverman, Federation’s Vice President of Planning & Allocations

1. “Jay and Danielle raise money, and my group gives it away [laughter]. We fund 26 agencies; we have 90 volunteers, divided into three councils: Caring, Connecting, and Discovering.” What we do: first we allocate money; but two of the most important things we also do are leadership development, and agency assessment and evaluation. I love the process. It’s a phenomenal group of people. They want every dollar to have impact. When you donate, or your clients donate, you should rest assured that it’s not a group of five people in the back of a smoky room handing out checks. It is highly evaluative, it strives to cut out the fat, to be sure every agency is effective and working.”

2. “For example, take the SEED program, which is congregational education. We fund an education worker at each temple. For several years they would get a check, and each synagogue would match that. Then we thought of a requirement of the SEED workers:  you had to come meet each other. So every quarter, these 12 or 13 professionals talk about what they are doing with their SEED funds. You’ll see one person talking and you’ll see three others having an ‘aha’ moment—as in, ‘I should try this.’ That was a Planning & Allocations moment—we helped.”

3. “It’s about evaluating programs and seeing collaborative ideas: the key is agency review and innovation: we see gaps where agencies can grow. The Discovery Council decided there should be collaboration between the different agencies for internships; we decided there should be one portal; now there is—it talks about Workum, and Careers Cincinnati, and internships in Israel, together. Another example: JVS Career Services was focused on resume writing, coaching people through the job process. Allocations thought JVS should spend some time as a recruiter. They should be able to hire people for me as a Jewish business owner. We funded them along with the Federation. Now they are creating cash.”

To learn more about the Jewish Professional Advisors Network, please contact Debra Steinbuch, Planned Giving and Endowment Manager at the Jewish Federation, at 513-985-1593 or dsteinbuch@jfedcin.org.