Jewish Federation of Cincinnati

David Harris

Create Your Jewish Legacy, the Cincinnati Jewish community’s initiative to gather legacy gift commitments to improve its financial future, is now at the end of its third year. With the leadership of Deb Steinbuch, Manager of Planned Giving, Endowments, and Create Your Jewish Legacy at the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, the 12 teams in cohort 1(at work for three years), and the 11 teams from cohort 2 (at work for one year), have raised an estimated $76 million in legacy gift commitments for Cincinnati’s Jewish community. That is a “truly impressive amount,” said Steinbuch. “And the teams have done amazing work: for example, Cincinnati’s first group of CYJL teams were the most successful of forty Jewish legacy programs nationwide.”  

In these interviews, I asked two of the especially successful teams, Beth Adam from Cohort 1 and Sha’arei Torah from Cohort 2, for their lessons learned.

Meet Paul Korn from cohort 1.  He is on the CYJL team from Congregation Beth Adam; he is also a former president and board member there.

Danielle Minson:  How did Beth Adam get involved in CYJL?

 

Paul Korn:  We were approached by Federation four years ago, and we decided as an organization to take this on as a project. We had tried for 10 or 15 years to establish a legacy giving program—I was also on the finance committee—but had never been able to get the momentum going. CYJL provided us the framework.

We embraced it as not just a temporary project, we decided this was a worthwhile long-term project, to incorporate into our congregation as a normal process.  Which should be the goal of every organization that participates. In 10, 20, 30-plus years we are talking about financial stability for the organization. That was very meaningful for us.

Minson: Were you successful?

Korn: As an organization we were quite successful, we have a very dedicated membership. I believe we got 56 LOIs [letters of intent to leave a gift] in the first years of the program, which means 20 to 25 percent of our membership has participated in CYJL. Based on the size of our congregation, about 280 members, we felt that was phenomenal.

Minson: How did that happen?

When you are passionate about something and speak passionately about it, people are more likely to respond in a positive way. And our team members are passionate.

Minson: What else have you learned?

One of the things I learned from my team members is that three-quarters of the battle in securing gifts is being able to ask. We have developed a culture of asking. We prioritize based on our expectation of success. I think that helped establish the success we’ve had. We expose CYJL in the congregation in many different ways, so theoretically when we make the call it’s not a new concept.

Minson: Any good stories to share?

I did a presentation at our annual meeting in year one, and three members came up to me after the meeting and one of them filled out an LOI right [letter of intent to leave a gift] right then and there. There are people who want to do this, and just need the proper circumstances.

Minson: Thank you so much. Any last words about CYJL?

The CYJL program as a community program really is strengthening the long-term financial viability of the Jewish community in Cincinnati. It’s great for the individual organizations and it’s also great for the community as a whole.


Meet Ben Schneider from cohort 2. He is on the CYJL team from Congregation Sha’arei Torah (CST); he is also the Vice President there. This is Sha’arei Torah’s first year as a participant in CYJL.

Danielle Minson: How has Sha’arei Torah been affected by CYJL?  

Ben Schneider: We have had tremendous success with the program, securing the most commitments of any organization in Cohort 2. It is another example of how committed the members of CST are to our organization and our community. In our first year we have created awareness among our community about the meaning of legacy giving and we continue to educate. We are also in the process of examining what it means to have an endowment and how our organization wants to position itself in terms of receiving gifts, use of endowment funds and other similar issues.

Minson: Is there a story, say from a potential donor, you can share?  

Schneider: I would just say that all our members are great stories. CST is a small community of less than 100 families that has, in less than 10 years, started a brand new, thriving organization, hired an extraordinary individual as its rabbi, purchased property and built a building. All this was done with our same small yet mighty community, most of whom have (and continue to) contributed to our building campaign and to our annual campaign. Now that we have embarked on the legacy campaign, it is no surprise that our members have stepped up again.

Minson:  What are some lessons learned that account for your success? 

I think success in this program comes from three ingredients. First is the importance of strong and positive relationships across all members of our community. Second is

clear communication to the members of our community about what the board of CST is doing, why the board is doing it, and the importance of investing in legacy giving. Finally, once the first two ingredients are there, then the third ingredient comes into play, which is simply asking.

Minson:  Thank you Ben. Last words? 

CST has committed, well informed group members. We strive to strengthen relationships across our membership. These bonds along with good stewardship by the board create a level of trust throughout our community that goes a long way when our committee sits down with members to educate them about legacy giving and then ultimately when we move to the ask—sometimes we don’t even need to ask because our members just know what to do and make a gift before the ask can be made. These principles can, in my opinion, be applied to anything the board needs to do or ask because the three ingredients are a recipe for success.

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Create Your Jewish Legacy is funded in part by the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati. Strengthening Jewish Cincinnati.

Have you thought of giving back to the Jewish community? Please contact the CYJL team leaders,  visit our website, or contact Deb Steinbuch at 513-985-1593 or dsteinbuch@jfedcin.org.

The Jewish Federation of Cincinnati: We look at the whole picture, taking into account the diverse needs of the entire community. Together we can do almost anything.

Thanks to you and the help of The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, people like Paul Korn and Ben Schneider are able to help their congregations be financially secure in the future.