A Year of Extraordinary Giving
It is no secret that Jewish day schools have been the object of negative press. The enterprise, they say, is unsustainable. Tuition is too high, enrollment is too low. According to most indicators, the country is still far from economic recovery. But you wouldn’t know it from the many examples of highly successful fundraising efforts at Jewish day schools throughout North America last year. While increased financial support is not the entire solution to this very real challenge, it is one strong indicator that there’s plenty of hope for the future of day schools.
This is a story of extraordinary giving. The schools profiled here are but a small handful of examples that illustrate a positive trend. Together, the efforts of these schools represent more than $27 million dollars in philanthropic support from key communal leaders and donors.
From campaigns kick-started by generous matching gifts to broadened donor bases to 100% participation of boards, parents, and staff in annual funds, 2011 turned out to be a year of extraordinary growth and innovation—with a promise of extraordinary sustainability.
And in This Corner… The Challengers!
“The more you raise, the more people want to invest in your school,” says Rabbi Yehudah Potok, head of school at Oakland Hebrew Day School. His school received an anonymous challenge gift of $1 million toward a $2 million campaign for traditional financial aid and the school’s new “kulanu” initiative for scholarships for students from middle-income families. The donor gave OHDS until December 31, 2011, to raise its share, but with the excitement and momentum generated by the challenge, the job was done by August.
Oakland Hebrew’s dual drive toward affordability for families and long-term financial sustainability for the school captured many people’s imagination. “We had 100% parent participation,” Potok says. Many grandparents also gave, and the school received its first donations from alumni. The anonymous donor’s additional $100,000 challenge gift to match contributions from first-time donors helped build support for OHDS beyond its immediate community.
“Regardless of the 100% participation, there was definitely more buy-in into the culture of giving,” Potok says. “We got everyone involved in the effort,” adds board member Elissa Kittner.
“It’s a classic tool of fundraising,” says Adina Kanefield, development director at the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital, of challenge gifts. “They are amazing. They’re a fantastic tool to seek partners, and we used ours as the centerpiece for a broader, more comprehensive campaign to advance the school on multiple fronts.” Her school received an anonymous $3 million challenge gift to launch both a second campus and efforts to increase scholarships.
At the Jewish Community Day School (JCDS) in Boston, donors were so inspired that they helped the school complete its drive to raise $2 million three weeks ahead of time to meet a $1 million challenge gift from the Krupp family. Unlike at other schools where scholarships or new campuses were the motivation, at JCDS donors (including a record 97% of the parent body) gave to reduce the school’s debt on a 2008 building purchase. “The idea was to reduce our debt service so that we could invest back into the facility, the staff, and the academic program,” says Terri Grogan, JCDS’s development director. “Day schools need to be financially healthy.”
“It’s hard to raise money in a down economy,” admits JCDS board president Alex Sagan. “So it was important to frame it in terms of financial stability toward strengthening the school’s program.” He credits his school’s successful fundraising last year to outstanding teamwork between professional staff and volunteers. And in an unexpected way, the tough economic climate also helped. “Almost everyone these days understands that there’s a limit to how much debt a school can carry,” Sagan remarked.
Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn used matching gifts in a somewhat different way. For the first time, it secured challenge gifts for its annual fund campaign from individuals outside the school’s immediate community. “We used these gifts as leverage for raising matching funds from our internal core group, and also to ask our pace setters to move up a notch with their gifts,” development director Angie Lieber says.
The approach has worked amazingly well, with Hannah Senesh poised to surpass its annual fund goals by June. Echoing others’ concerns about the current economy, Lieber notes about those who served as challenge donors: “People are concerned about their investments. This is a way for them to give and know their money is working.”
At SAR High School in Riverdale, New York, the challenge gift came from the parents of a graduating senior. They offered to match the contributions of all other families from the graduating class toward the school’s annual campaign—and they would match them at a staggering 200% if all senior families participated. Indeed, all 94 of the senior families contributed, and a total of over $400,000 was raised from that class alone. Development director Heidi Greenbaum credits the senior class gift success not only to the matching challenge, but also to increased participation: more families than last year leaped on board early on to invite and inspire others.
The Gifts of Storytime
Other schools have had highly successful annual fund campaigns by utilizing approaches that do not necessarily involve challenge gifts. Weizmann Day School in Pasadena, California, exceeded its annual goals already by early February, and has doubled the amount received from last year. “We are doing a better job at telling our story,” says Lisa Feldman, director of development. “This year, we had 100% board participation before we sent out letters to the parents and others in the community. We also focused our message on what the school does for our kids and families, rather than on the need for scholarships.”
“I credit a cultural shift throughout our leadership—one that approaches development joyfully instead of gingerly,” Weizmann board president Galit Feinreich says. “We are starting to better realize that through transparency and directness, inviting community members to invest in our school and our mission provides supporters with a mutually beneficial opportunity to perform the mitzvah of tzedakah and invest in Jewish continuity.”
Artful Ambassadors
At Kellman Brown Academy in Voorhees, New Jersey, the focus on faculty has paid off big this year. For the first time, teachers serve on the school’s development committee, and development director Vivian Barnett gave the same budget presentation at a teacher in-service day that she gave to the board. “The teachers told me they really got it,” Barnett recalls. “They appreciated being included in this way, and understood not only that their financial contribution mattered, but also that they could serve as examples and development ambassadors to parents and the community.”
The result of this approach has been a huge increase in teacher participation in the annual fund—from 26% last year to 96% this year. Parents, knowing how supportive the teachers have been, have increased their participation from 51% to 68%. “Parents are feeling that if the teachers can do it, then so can they. They want to support the teachers who support the school,” says Barnett.
At Robbins Hebrew Academy in Toronto, the key to its annual campaign this year is the school’s celebration of its 50th anniversary. With a launch of a $50,000 gift from a supporter (as well as another gift of the same amount from the same supporter for the school’s endowment), the school is using the milestone to reach out much deeper and much further than in the past. The campaign is enjoying “overwhelming support” internally, according to head of school Claire Sumerlus. She referred to unprecedented board (98%) and staff (100%) participation, and plans to involve grandparents and alumni in creative new ways.
The giving spirit must be contagious at Robbins Academy. Development director Sheila Miller jokes about how a construction worker jack hammering outside her office window participated in the jubilee year campaign.
Feeling the Fire
Major gifts and bequests helped move the momentum at some schools in 2011. At Perelman Jewish Day School in Philadelphia, a cohort of new students from middle-income families is now attending thanks to a $250,000 gift from Steve and Sandy Cozen. “Day school education is just out of reach for many families,” notes development director Caren Barnet. The Cozen Scholars Program gave each of 10 students who entered kindergarten or first grade this year $5,000 toward tuition in 2011–12, and will extend to them the same amount for each of the next four years.
Golda Och Academy in West Orange raised over $1 million in its annual campaign, thanks in part to generous challenge gifts from supportive grandparents. But the biggest news at the school last year was a $17 million bequest from the late Eric F. Ross, a longtime friend and supporter who passed away at age 91 in 2010. “Mr. Ross’s generosity has paved the way for our school to move forward with exciting academic initiatives and enhanced Israel programming to support the needs of our students, now and in future,” says Dr. Joyce Raynor, head of school. “Most importantly, his bequest ensures continued funding for financial aid to students participating in our Israel travel programs, which he enthusiastically supported during his life.”
Times may be tough in general, but assumptions that development revenues for day school education have waned are not borne out by these examples of generous support. When Rabbi Potok of OHDS said that “a fire was lit under everybody … that generated energy across the community” in 2011, he could just as well have been speaking about any one of many Jewish day schools as about his own.
Hannah Senesh Community Day School, Jewish Community Day School, Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital, Kellman Brown Academy, Oakland Hebrew Day School, Robbins Hebrew Academy, SAR, and Weizmann Day School were recipients of $25,000 PEJE Challenge Awards.
BY RENEE GHERT-ZAND