APRIL 22 • 2021 | 13
back to philanthropy, return-
ing to Skillman after four
years of practicing law. It was
then that Raines combined her
legal and philanthropic skills
and greatly helped Skillman,
whose focus was on children
and families in Detroit, to
grow.
By 2001, a job as executive
director at the Jewish Fund
became available, and Raines
jumped at it. Her motivation
for the move was to build her
professional skills by leading
a foundation while working
with some of the top lay lead-
ership in the Jewish commu-
nity.
“It was nice to work in the
Jewish community profes-
sionally and to work with and
be surrounded by people that
understood that side of me,”
Raines said. “There was a
comfort there.”
Raines helped refine fund-
ing strategies and strength-
ened the Jewish Fund’s reach
beyond the Jewish community
through personal and institu-
tional relationships, improved
communication strategy and
diversification of the board of
directors.
It was during her time at the
Jewish Fund that Raines got
recognition by Crain’s Detroit
Business as one of Metro
Detroit’s Most Influential
Women.
The Jewish Fund was an
effective place to build more
skills and relationships for
Raines and, though not the
main mission of the organi-
zation, working on relations
between the Jewish communi-
ty and Detroit was a connec-
tion she kept within her core
values.
ENHANCING SKILLS
After seven years with the
fund, Raines left to focus on a
primary passion that’s always
followed her: Detroit itself. A
job opportunity opened at the
Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb
Family Foundation, which was
brand new in 2008.
Raines was the founda-
tion’s first full-time employee
and helped build its mission,
vision, values, grants process
and overall growth.
“It was a really incredible
experience, and the skills I
developed there that brought
me to where I am today. I
learned how to build an orga-
nization’s operations and actu-
ally be the one to administer
that,” Raines said. “That’s why
at New Detroit, I can help with
the internal operations as well
as the mission and vision.”
Raines served as vice pres-
ident of programs and execu-
tive vice president of programs
at the Erb Foundation, helping
to adjust the program and
operations as the foundation’s
endowment tripled from $100
million to $300 million.
With part of its mission
focusing on water quality and
other environmental issues,
the foundation allowed Raines
to bring environmental justice
to the forefront, “recognizing
that people of color are dis-
proportionately impacted by
environmental pollution and
other kinds of environmental
issues, just like everything
else,” Raines said.
During all this, Raines was
a president at the Isaac Agree
Downtown Synagogue (she is
still on the board).
While president, Raines
hired an executive director
and a rabbi, which the syn-
agogue hadn’t had in many
years. As president, she was
able to get foundation grants,
building the budget and build-
ing the staff.
“It was an important place
to spend my time because it
brought together that Jewish
side of me and the Detroit side
of me,” Raines said. “It was
one place where the two could
come together, and I could
take a leadership position and
advance both of those inter-
ests.”
JOINING NEW DETROIT
After 12 years at the Erb
Family Foundation, an oppor-
tunity to join New Detroit
came about, but Raines initial-
ly wasn’t sure about the leap.
“When I saw this opportu-
nity, I said, ‘
As a white person,
is this something I should do?’
I called someone on the board,
and they said absolutely, we
need to increase our diversity,”
continued on page 14
“IT WAS NICE TO WORK IN
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
PROFESSIONALLY AND TO WORK
WITH AND BE SURROUNDED BY
PEOPLE THAT UNDERSTOOD
THAT SIDE OF ME. THERE WAS
A COMFORT THERE.”
— JODEE RAINES
JERRY ZOLYMSKY
Jodee Raines outside
the New Detroit Inc.
offices in Detroit’s
New Center area