Aiming to tailor fund-raising to the "philanthropic passion" of its current and potential givers, United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey has become the latest federation to adopt a national "collaborative" fund-raising model.

Launched in June by United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization for Jewish federations in North America, the model acknowledges the centrality of the annual general campaigns.

It emphasizes, however, offering "a suite of additional giving opportunities to maximize financial resource development and build the Jewish communal future," according to a national UJC release.

As part of this collaborative effort, the national organization launched Your Center for Jewish Philanthropy to promote the initiative. It emphasizes planned giving and endowments to supplement the federations' annual campaigns, which have been largely flat or in decline in recent years.

The center will encourage federations to focus on various income streams, including foundations, government grants, capital campaigns, charitable remainder trusts, designated gifts, corporate sponsorships, venture funds, and emergency campaigns.

"Our goal is to provide the MetroWest community with sophisticated support and a wide range of giving opportunities to fulfill their philanthropic dreams," said Max Kleinman, UJC MetroWest executive vice president.

"We will be working more closely together both internally and with agencies to present to donors the broadest possible menu of giving," said Jeffrey Korbman, UJC MetroWest campaign director. "Just because a family has plateaued in its UJA giving does not mean they have plateaued in all their Jewish giving."

UJC MetroWest becomes one of 11 communities to adopt the new model after a campaign year in which it raised $24 million through its UJA appeal and $5.8 million through the Israel Emergency Campaign. Korbman said the 2006-07 campaign was "a very strong year," and close enough to its projected goals that there would be no budgetary impact on beneficiary organizations, which include local Jewish agencies, schools, and programs. The number reflects a pattern of growth over the past five to six years of between 1 and 3 percent. Adjusted for inflation, however, Korbman acknowledged that the campaign has been "flat."

UJC MetroWest president Kenneth R. Heyman of Short Hills announced the "collaborative" effort in an op-ed in last week's NJJN, saying the federation was "rededicating itself as your center for Jewish philanthropy."

"It is a rededication of our commitment to use all our resources and know-how to make every philanthropist's personal goals attainable, to bring to fruition every philanthropist's passion to help the causes that are closest to their hearts," wrote Heyman.

The new model will involve working with families to identify their particular area of interest. The focus, Korbman said, will be on giving within the MetroWest community and its beneficiary agencies; UJC MetroWest leaders, he said, are "interested in broadening our donor base and giving to this Jewish community." However, he added, "we're savvy enough to know that the ‘way in' may not be only the UJA campaign or our beneficiary agencies or our partner communities in Israel," so other inroads will be explored.

Whatever a particular family's interest, Korbman said, UJC MetroWest will first determine if a beneficiary agency is already working on something connected with that interest; if not, campaign workers will seek to team with other organizations or agencies. How far afield fund-raisers will go is an open question.

"We have no active cases yet, so we can't yet say if we'll be spread too thin as a result," said Korbman.

The Center for Jewish Philanthropy approach also emphasizes a bright spot in giving to local Jewish federations: the growth of planned giving and endowments.

The Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest concluded its 2006-07 campaign year with assets totaling $253 million, significantly surpassing its goal of $238 million. JCF began the 2006-07 year with assets of $217 million.

"Our goal was to raise our assets by 10 percent," said JCF executive director Anat Becker.

Becker attributed the growth both to the effect of market gains of the original assets and to their impact on the assets of donors. She also said the growth was due to special tax provisions regarding IRA charity rollovers that expire in December.

JCF goals for the 2007-08 year include again increasing assets by 10 percent, or $25 million. "We're most excited about the collaborative efforts this year," said Becker.

National UJC is working with 11 pilot communities and plans to expand to 25 communities within three years. New York philanthropist Morris Offit will serve as national chair of the effort.

"My role is not only to position UJC and the federation movement continentally, but to help build bridges with mega-donors, or people of extraordinary means who may not have been as involved with Jewish giving," Offit said in a statement. "Our goal is to bring people to a better understanding of the incredible value and impact of the Jewish federation system across the Jewish world."

Korbman said that the model now changes business-as-usual for UJC MetroWest, in some cases changing the focus from annual gifts to longer-term development — perhaps over the course of 18-24 months — of prospective gifts and givers.

"The tricky part is that while this is going on, we still need to run a strong annual campaign," said Korbman.

The goal for the annual UJA campaign for 2007-08 will be $25 million. But while the overall goal, including the new collaborative model, has yet to be determined, Korbman said, "We are hoping to surpass $30 million through the collaboration effort."