February 07, 2008
As we at UJC face our budgeting process at the midpoint of the 2008 United Jewish Appeal (UJA) of MetroWest NJ Campaign, I’d like to reflect on the success of the past year. That success shows how bright the future is for the work we do in helping Jews around the world, because it shows how strong a commitment there is in the entire MetroWest Jewish community.
The strength of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ is measured not only by the help we provide wherever there are Jews in need. It is also measured by the support we receive from the community, both in gifts and in the personal involvement of community members — community members working with us, and with each other, to build our Jewish community.
By both standards, our fiscal year ending June 30, 2007, was a stellar year for UJC MetroWest, as well as for the entire UJC/North American federation system. Revenues for the UJC MetroWest fund-raising year exceeded expectations both in unrestricted giving through UJA and in endowment funds and other forms of planned giving through the Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest NJ.
UJC MetroWest’s 2007 UJA campaign raised a total of $29.6 million, with $23.9 million in unrestricted giving, and another $5.3 million for the Israel Emergency Campaign. With other revenue, including corporate sponsorship and government grants, total annual revenue exceeded $30.3 million.
Total revenue generated by the JCF was $27 million. Of that, almost $25.7 million came from new planned gifts and endowments with the balance of $1.3 million from fees. The JCF disbursed grants totaling $19 million to almost 1,000 charities, including $4.3 million from JCF-managed funds to the 2007 UJA Campaign and $5.1 million to UJC MetroWest agencies. JCF’s assets grew by $36.4 million to a total of $253.5 million.
These results are part of the larger picture of record-breaking fund-raising throughout the UJC/North American federation system, in which more than $2.4 billion was raised in the 2007 calendar year. It realized increases in its annual UJA campaign and saw sizable jumps in its endowment funding.
The annual UJA campaigns across North America together raised approximately $900 million. Beyond the campaigns, contributions to planned giving programs are expected to come to at least $1.3 billion in 2007. The various Jewish federations and Jewish community foundations around North America held endowment funds and other planned gifts in excess of $13 billion at the end of the year.
In addition, the federation system’s Israel Emergency Campaign, which was launched during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, has continued to draw gifts for Israel. In 2007, $90 million was donated to the IEC to help Israelis recover from the devastation of the war with Hizbullah, bringing total gifts to the fund to $360 million.
We are in the midst of a time in which many see a real challenge facing us: the need to attract gifts from an increasingly wealthy but increasingly unaffiliated Jewish population. But results like these demonstrate that in MetroWest and the North American federation system, strong and growing support for our work is coming to us from throughout the North American Jewish community.
That support is as strong in MetroWest as it is anywhere in the country. It has shown itself in 2007 in the success we’ve had with a host of new initiatives. These new programs are extending the community-building work of the UJC and adding breadth and depth to our efforts in developing Jewish continuity, building local leadership for the future, and maintaining the well-being of the more vulnerable members of our community. UJC is in a position to do more than ever before, and with the help of the MetroWest Jewish community, together we are getting it done.
Much of our success is as a result of a stronger emphasis on collaborative fund-raising between our annual campaign and supplemental and planned giving, which you will be hearing more about in the future.
In an upcoming op-ed, I will address some of the major initiatives recently undertaken as a result of the funds raised and with an eye toward building greater community-wide fund-raising initiatives to ensure a strong Jewish future for the MetroWest community.
For UJC MetroWest, as well as the entire UJC/North American federation system, it has been a year of strength. We have received the support of a Jewish community that celebrates not only us but also our mission and purpose, a community that celebrates and cherishes itself and every member in it. And that support is only continuing to grow.