I
n late March, the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit announced
the development of its COVID-19
Emergency Campaign. The campaign has
now hit its goal of $7.5 million.
The campaign was instituted to secure
funds to ensure JFMD’
s agencies and other
organizations could continue to provide
services to the community during the coro-
navirus pandemic.
At the same time, JFMD also
started the COVID-19 Task
Force, chaired by Matt Lester,
incoming Federation president,
and Dennis Bernard, incom-
ing United Jewish Foundation
president. The task force over-
sees the campaign, manages
the allocation of the money
received, and works with the
agencies and organizations to
determine best practices.
“The campaign has been
an amazing success. We have
raised approximately $7.5
million and the vast majority
of that is from about 21 donors and was
received in the first three to four weeks of
the announcement,
” Lester told the JN. “We
are not actively soliciting and haven’
t been
for a few weeks now but there are some
donations that continue to come in.
”
One of the donors was the Max M. and
Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, which
announced on April 15 that it was donating
$1.6 million to leaders throughout Metro
Detroit who were helping with immediate
needs presented by COVID-19, including
JFMD.
Before the campaign kicked off,
Federation was helping its own agencies
and non-Federation agencies to receive PPP
(Paycheck Protection Program) loans from
the federal government totaling $17.5 mil-
lion so they could sustain themselves during
the beginning of the pandemic.
Federation agencies include the Jewish
Community Center, Tamarack Camps,
Hillel Day School, Frankel Jewish Academy,
Jewish Senior Life, JVS and more. Non-
Federation agencies include organizations
like JARC and Kadima.
Once the money started coming in,
JFMD said it immediately went to person-
al protective equipment (PPE) for senior
housing and human service agencies. It then
went to technology so some of the Jewish
day schools could begin the transition to
virtual learning.
“It also went to food organizations,
including Yad Ezra, Meals on Wheels and
more. A lot of money also went to support
community mental health funding, such as
Jewish Senior Life (JSL),
” Bernard said. “It
went for medical issues for the community;
it went to support, for instance, hero pay at
JARC homes and Kadima homes, or JVS cli-
ents in the community who had people with
developmental disabilities so they could
keep them employed.
”
JFMD says it has spent less than $1 mil-
lion of the money raised so far. It wants to
ensure the funding can be extended for the
long haul and is available for the foreseeable
future.
“One of the subcommittees under the
Emergency Task Force was agency assis-
tance. The first priority for agency assistance
was to make sure all of our agencies, not just
Federation agencies, but all of our Jewish
agencies in town were able to receive the
help they needed,
” Bernard said. “We don’
t
know how long this is going to last, so we
have to make sure to stretch out our com-
munity resources.
”
To determine how much money the agen-
cies received, the allocation committee on
the task force, made up of some of the peo-
ple from foundations who provided fund-
ing, federation officers and led by Steven
Ingber, chief operating officer at JFMD, put
together a questionnaire for organizations
requesting money to fill out.
The questionnaire included a dollar
amount request, the reason it was needed,
what it was going toward as well as what
other sources of funding had been requested
and how the organization was cutting costs.
“Just about everyone who has been through
this vetting process has been funded,
”
Bernard said.
The agency assistance committee and
Federation also began instituting daily
phone calls with 24 agencies throughout the
community to begin to work together on
sharing best practices, making sure every-
one had enough PPE and was acting as one
community.
“This community came together in its
entirety, not just the 16 agencies or organi-
zations under the Jewish Federation,
” Lester
said. “The entire Jewish community mobi-
lized under the lead of our Federation.
”
While there is no hard stop date for the
campaign, the task force is making sure that
the 2021 Annual Campaign, which kicks off
in the fall, will not be undermined. Once the
campaign reached $7.5 million, Federation
stopped the formal asks for donations.
“We do not believe that this will have
any effect on our annual campaign simply
because many of the donors for the emer-
gency campaign are our largest donors,
some of whom are our foundations, who are
positioned well to respond to this type of
crisis,
” Lester said.
The annual campaign, according to Ted
Cohen, chief marketing officer at JFMD, “is
and will always be the backbone of commu-
nity welfare, and it will be even more so the
case going forward. Giving to the annual
campaign will achieve the same purpose, if
not more.
”
Lester foresees challenges ahead because
of the pandemic and its aftermath.
“It remains to be seen how successful we
are in meeting the challenges that come
over the next coming weeks, months and
maybe even years,
” Lester said. “We need to
continue to be incredibly collaborative, and
that may be the signature word that defines
this effort.
”
Community
Collaboration
Federation raises $7.5 million through
COVID-19 emergency campaign.
CORRIE COLF STAFF WRITER
Jews in the D
26 | JUNE 11 • 2020
Dennis
Bernard
Federation
Building
Matt Lester
JFMD