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

