These are the services that set us apart... from new construction management, to furniture on the cutting edge of design, to the simple addition of the right accessory... our clients will be the first to tell you... the finished project speaks for itself. Topping The Charts Nationally, campaign drives in 1998 amassed record totals. JULIA GOLDMAN Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York T pings are looking up for North America's most broad-based Jewish fund- raising campaign. A final tally shows UJA Federations of North America's 1998 annual cam- paign brought in $763 million — up $26 million over 1997 — with 107 of ;Lhe system's 189 federated Jewish com- munities reporting significant increases in their individual campaigns. "Obviously, the prevailing wisdom that the campaign has not been healthy is quite wrong," said Carole Solomon, the United Jewish Appeal's national campaign chair. Solomon and other UJA officials --.ray the upswing will continue into the 1999 campaign. The annual campaign totals repre- sent money collected by local federa- tions for community agencies and projects and for the UJA, which pro- vides money for Jewish needs around the world through the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The most surprising success story at federations across the country may be the growing number of alternatives to campaign fund-raising that have evolved over the past two decades. Such alternatives include endowment and other donor-advised funds. "Different things turn on different people," said Robert Aronson, the executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit. "Over the years, I think we're going to be seeing slow growth in the annual campaign if we do it right. But we could see dramatic growth in endow- ment" and capital campaigns. "The dollars are there — it's a ques- tion of finding something that is right for the contributor in the area of Jewish life." Whereas general contributions to campaigns are pooled and allocated according to prearranged formulas and committee recommendations, new funding options for donors put more decision-making power in their hands. These new philanthropic outlets attract donors because they offer direct involvement in grant making, tax ben- efits and the opportunity for personal recognition. Their contributions, in turn, pro- vide federations with investment instruments for long-term income. Donald Kent, vice president for devel- opment and marketing for the Council of Jewish Federations, noted that federa- tions have accumulated more than $6 billion in assets from those funding sources during the last two decades. Contrary to some fund-raisers' fears that the annual campaign would have to compete with endowments and restricted funds, the funding streams are proving to be mutually beneficial, UJA officials say. In 1998, $230 mil- lion was contributed to permanent endowments, while $900 million poured in to over 7,000 donor-advised funds and foundations. During the same period, $540 mil- lion was contributed from endow- ments and foundations to specific pro- jects and charities, including some sec- ular charities. Of these grants, $140 million went directly into the annual campaign of the federations. In 1993, for example, the campaign dipped from $727 million to $715 mil- lion and then hovered at $718 million in 1994 and 1995, according to Michael Fischer, a vice president at UJA. He attributed the decline to donors concentrating their energies on sepa- rate fiind-raising drives from 1991 to 1994 in support of Operation Exodus, which helped Israel absorb hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union. Fischer said the campaign has been gaining momentum over the past three years, with an increase of $45 million overall between 1995 and 1998. Officials said the momentum con- tinued despite a brief period in which donations were adversely affected by donor concerns about religious plural- ism-related issues in Israel. Still, with an increase of 4.6 percent over last year, the 1998 campaign kept ahead of the inflation rate for the first time in more than a decade. Some local federation leaders attribute new enthusiasm to efforts by community campaigns to strengthen the local Jewish community through both programming and infrastructure. fl 11, 32506 Northwestern Hwy Farmington Hills, MI (248) 851-7540 '$* .......... DOOR MIRRORS Reflect Beauty & Dimension with .. •16 x 68 18 x 68 20 x 68 22 x 68 24 x 68 Decorative Beveled Mirrors With 1/2" Beveled Edges for Vanities, Doors and More! 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