Jewish National Fund director Joel Leibowitz seeks “partners, not philanthropists” in a campaign for donors that is doing well in tough economic times.
Photo by Robert Wiener
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May 28, 2009
After a day of successful fund-raising at the Jewish National Fund’s annual golf tournament, zone director Joel Leibowitz was smiling.
“We had an incredible turnout,” he said May 19 at his office in Florham Park. “We did very well in spite of the economic downturn.”
Leibowitz heads up the JNF region that covers New Jersey and western Pennsylvania.
At its yearly golf outing, some 128 supporters paid $425 apiece to spend a day at the Shackamaxon Golf and Country Club in Scotch Plains, followed by dinner and an auction.
It was a piece of unexpected good news in a generally dismal philanthropic climate, where Jewish and non-Jewish nonprofits are debating whether staples like golf tourneys and testimonial dinners are worth the trouble.
“We raised about $75,000,” Leibowitz said. “It was just about the same as last year. Nationally our campaign is off a bit, but here in New Jersey it is a little bit up from last year.”
Not that JNF is immune to the downturn.
“We feel it like the rest of the world,” said Leibowitz. “We have a job freeze. We are watching the bottom line. We have been asked to cut back our expenses by 20 percent. We’ve restricted travel by our staff and cancelled our annual staff conference.
“But overall, as compared to other organizations both Jewish and non-Jewish, we have not had layoffs. I’m proud of that. We’re doing something right.”
JNF — best known for planting trees in Israel and the “little blue boxes” that allowed Jews to contribute loose change toward purchasing terrain in the Holy Land — now supports both environmental and development projects in Israel.
“Blueprint Negev” is one of its latest pushes, an ambitious design to create a set of suburbs in the desert surrounding Beersheva.
“We are trying to make it attractive for Israelis who live in the center of the country to move there by creating housing, creating jobs, and working with the government on transportation issues.
“The Americans who get involved feel like they are helping to develop the land of Israel,” said Leibowitz.
A new railroad is now under construction to link Beersheva with Tel Aviv in a 20- to 30-minute ride. The intent is to lure Israelis from Israel’s center to the underdeveloped south.
At the Jewish National Fund Northeast Zone ninth annual Golf Classic, at Shackamaxon Country Club, are, from left, Mike Peterson, tournament chair Saul Leighton, Andy Brown, and Heywood Girion.
Photo courtesy JNF
“Five years after beginning the campaign, we’ve created five new communities with a few thousand people, and Beersheva is like a spoke in that wheel. But ultimately we’d like to have 500,000 people living there,” Leibowitz said.
Leibowitz thinks a donor base of relatively modest gifts helps JNF in tough times.
“The majority of our gifts are in the one-to-five-to-10-to-15-thousand-dollar category. I’m not saying those people are not hurting, but it’s easier to go to someone and ask for $5,000 than $50,000 or $100,000,” he said.
Leibowitz is also proud of strong rankings from Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau, which track nonprofits.
JNF also dodged the Bernard Madoff scandal, unlike some Jewish agencies that had unknowingly invested in Madoff’s bogus investment pool.
“We had no money with Madoff at all,” Leibowitz said. “Some donors have told me they did have some money with Madoff, but none of those whom I talked to personally cut their pledges here. If they had been giving us $500,000 a year they might have cut. But if they were giving us $5,000 they were not going to cut.”
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