Contributing Editor
Focused Fundraising
Federation had no option but to recast its ever-important Annual Campaign.
A
mid Michigan's economic down-
swing, rough real estate market
and declining head count, the
Detroit Jewish community's chief plan-
ning and fundraising agency has unveiled
a multi-edged strategy to recalibrate how
it expands the revenue base built from the
Annual Campaign.
The philosophical changes are designed
to keep Jewish Detroit's financial timbers
strong.
The Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's new
strategic plan envisions both a
diversified revenue stream that
supplements the still-potent
Campaign and customized mar-
keting that expands support for
our community's major fundrais-
ing vehicle.
It will take time to gauge the
real impact, but the strategy's
early footprints have taken hold.
Federation projections for the 2012-
2013 Campaign year call for Israel and
overseas support via the Annual Campaign
and its supplemental Challenge Fund
being up nearly $250,000, largely because
of increased donor designations.
Local agencies generally will receive the
same draw as last year. Because of fluctua-
tions year to year in the Challenge Fund,
congregations will see $173,462 less from
the Challenge Fund, a loss partly offset by
a $76,462 increase from the Campaign.
The lost dollars will affect synagogue
school scholarships.
Campaign support for Jewish identity
building and continuity, including Jewish
advocacy and at-risk populations aid, will
rise $186,353 largely to aid Federation
young-adult programs and Jewish
Community Center camper scholarships.
The rise will partly offset a Challenge
Fund decrease of $232,258.
"The Annual Campaign is still primary
for us, and our overall priorities haven't
changed, but there are other buckets of
money we must go after," said Federation
President Douglas Bloom, who joined
other Federation leaders at a JN interview
at the Max M. Fisher Federation Building
in Bloomfield Township.
The discussion theme: Federation's
2012-2013 Budget & Allocation Report,
the annual exercise in allocating the
Campaign revenue pot. In the report,
the Planning and Allocations Steering
Committee, on behalf of Federation and its
banking and investment arm, the United
Jewish Foundation, stresses that while
Federation must work harder to secure
Jewish Detroit's future, the umbrella agen-
cy won't abandon needy Jews in Israel and
elsewhere around the world.
Shifting Financial Tides
America's turbulent economic waves of
2008-2009 as well as Jewish Detroit's
population loss spurred Federation to
rethink its Annual Campaign.
Essential pieces to moving
forward include extending
the Campaign's support base
to limit dependence on major
donors, prospecting for new
funding sources beyond
the Campaign and securing
Detroit Jewry's future through
increased legacy endowment
support.
"We pulled all this together
to deal with our economic
wakeup call," said Howard Neistein,
Federation's chief administrative officer.
Community collaborations are a big
part of Federation's push to consolidate
operations and programs with agencies,
synagogues and other communal organi-
zations to lower costs, spark efficiencies
and improve services. The 2012-2013
Budget & Allocations Report lists areas
now benefiting from increased centraliza-
tion: purchasing, marketing, information
technology, auditing. Health insurance
may join the list.
Like an investor looking beyond just
one stock, Federation is seeking revenue
growth from state funding, foundation
grants, directed gifts and private dona-
tions. Targeted giving has, for example,
helped fund Federation's Israel missions
for teens, aspiring young leaders and
future Campaign co-chairs. And $300,000
in outside funding has pushed the 2012-
2013 operating budget of NEXTGen
Detroit, a new Federation department, to
upwards of $500,000. The Shiffman Family
Day School Tuition Assistance Fund has
been a godsend for years, but isn't counted
in the Campaign tally.
Numbers That Talk
Since September 2011, Federation has cap-
tured more than $60 million in committed
gifts to its new Centennial Fund; the goal
is to raise $250 million in new endow-
ments to help ensure social services as we
age, help ensure Jewish identity building
for our young adults, and help maintain
"The Annual Campaign is still primary
for us, and our overall priorities
haven't changed, but there are other
buckets of money we must go after"
- Federation President Douglas Bloom
Israel and overseas support. The idea is
to sustain major donor support beyond
their lifetimes through the Perpetual
Annual Campaign Endowment (PACE), a
Federation legacy opportunity.
A key generator of new funding has
been community grant writer Debra
Wolson, who Metro Detroit's Jewish Fund
will pay for two years on behalf of the 18
Federation agencies. So far, the yield is
$440,000 from 16 grants specifically for
the social welfare agencies.
The 2012-2013 Annual Campaign
is projected to raise $29.4 million, up
$100,000 from last year and up $400,000
since 2010-2011, the fiscal year fol-
lowing Michigan's dark days. Despite
a population plunge from 96,000 in
1989 to 67,000 today, a 30 percent drop,
Detroit continues to rank among the
top-producing campaigns of any Jewish
federation in North America, a tribute to
the kind of special community we have.
Demographic challenges are steadfast,
however, with 25 percent of us age 65 and
older and just 4 percent in the crucial age
bracket of 25-34.
The number of Campaign donors is
expected to rise from a low of 9,347 in
2009-2010 to near 11,000 in 2012-2013
— a 18 percent spurt. New young donors
don't make up for the death of a big giver.
Focused on page 98
Dry Bones
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