OUR COMMUNITY

56 | JULY 14 • 2022 

T

he largest wealth trans-
fer in history is expect-
ed to take place over 
the next two decades, when 
close to $70 trillion is estimat-
ed to be inherited as the Silent 
(1928-1945) and Baby Boomer 
(1946-1964) generations pass 
away. 
In an effort to future-proof 
their respective communities, 
the Jewish communities of 
Ann Arbor and Windsor 
have recently joined LIFE & 
LEGACY, an initiative of the 
Massachusetts-based Harold 
Grinspoon Foundation, which 
trains and incentivizes Jewish 
organizations to inculcate a 

culture of afterlife giving and, 
in turn, grow their communal 
endowments for the long term.
“Younger generations may 
not have the same resources as 
their parents and grandparents 
due to rising student debt and 
other financial constraints,” 
says Arlene Schiff, national 
director of LIFE & LEGACY. 
“If we are to protect Jewish 
communities today, we need 
to capture some of the wealth 
Baby Boomers have to support 
organizations they value and to 
ensure they continue to exist.” 
LIFE & LEGACY offers 
a multi-year curriculum to 
750 Jewish organizations 

throughout North America, 
and provides expert-led 
training for community 
volunteers, equipping them 
with the tools to speak to 
their peers about leaving part 
of their estate to local Jewish 
charities upon their passing. 
Since its inception in 
2012, LIFE & LEGACY has 
cultivated 24,000 donors, who 
have made more than 34,000 
afterlife legacy commitments 
to Jewish organizations at a 
value exceeding $1.3 billion. To 
date, $150 million has already 
been placed in organizational 
endowments.
Despite being smaller 
communities, both Ann Arbor 
and Windsor successfully 
recruited almost all their 
local Jewish organizations 
to participate in LIFE & 
LEGACY, alongside a 
dedicated team of volunteers 
from each entity. 
“This culture change is 
what attracted me to the 
program,” says Eileen Freed, 
executive director of the 
Jewish Federation of Greater 
Ann Arbor. “It is the whole 
idea of really developing a 

culture of legacy 
giving within 
each organization 
and across the 
community.” As 
Ann Arbor joined 
the program at 
the height of 
the pandemic in 2020, its 
volunteers conducted virtual 
legacy conversations with 
community members about 
their afterlife philanthropic 
goals, resulting in 11 local 
Jewish organizations receiving 
a total of 382 letters of intent 
from 227 donors to date — 
and they have just started.
While both the Canadian 
Jewish communities of 
Windsor and London were 
too small to qualify for LIFE 
& LEGACY on their own, 
they were accepted into the 
program as one combined 
entity. 
“This partnership made a 
lot of sense because we are 
experiencing the same shift 
in demographic trends,” 
says Richie Kamen, director 
of development at the 
Windsor Jewish 
Federation. “We 
are working to 
secure the future 
of valued Jewish 
organizations 
before it is too 
late.”
Freed says, “What we 
learned through LIFE & 
LEGACY is that this is not just 
for the biggest donors. This 
is for everybody, including 
loyal donors who may have 
more wealth when they pass 
away than they do right now.
What I love about 
this initiative 
is that it allows 
everyone in our 
community to be 
a philanthropist.”
Attorney Mara 

Growing 
Generational 
Wealth

Ann Arbor and Windsor change their 
culture of afterlife giving through 
the LIFE & LEGACY Program.

Eileen 
Freed

Richie 
Kamen

DAN BROTMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Mara Kent