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July 14, 2000/11 Tammuz 5760, Vol. 52, No.44
Federation sets goals
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
Clarifying goals. Fine tuning a vision. Putting a plan into action.
A committee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix is setting a course of action to address long-term needs of the federation's annual fund-raising effort.
"We have been so engrossed in getting the yearly campaign funds in, there were overarching concerns not attended to," said chairwoman Berry Sweet.
Local, national, and international agencies depend on the Valley federation's United Jewish Campaign to help fund programs and services.
In the most recent fiscal year, some 4,000 families contributed $5.3 million to UJC, some 65 percent of which went to local agencies and organizations, with 35 percent directed to national and international agencies providing services to Jews in Israel, Russia, Ethiopia and other nations.
About 15 percent of Valley Jewish residents currently make campaign contributions, said Jonathan Kaufman, federation campaign director. The federation's mission in part is to target the remaining 85 percent.
During winter and spring 1999, volunteer Steve Geringer led a federation task force that became the Strategic Campaign Planning Committee. The committee's overarching goal is to "run on a track alongside the annual campaign and take on long-term issues," Geringer said.
In the past, each campaign would start over with the same problems faced in previous years, he explained.
Sweet said the committee has determined a handful of long-term goals: outreach/new gifts, donor retention, human resource development, major gifts and marketing.
Appointed chairpeople and subcommittees are Aileen Osofsky and Gary Grove for outreach/new gifts; Shari Kanefsky, major gifts; Sandy Rife, human resource development; Thelma Gross and Rana Schwartz, donor retention; and Natalie Lang, marketing.
Sweet sees the subcommittees working together "holistically," but places an emphasis on outreach/new gifts.
"Outreach and financial commitments are birds of a feather," she said.
A segment of the greater Phoenix Jewish population knows about the federation and understands the services it provides, she said. The long-term goal is to connect with those who are not aware and show that "we are fulfilling the covenant to mend and repair the world."
To cultivate new donors, the outreach effort will target residents in the northeast Valley, Sweet said.
"We can't be everywhere," she said. "It is prudent to begin and take one area and ... do our best."
According to Kaufman, the majority of new Jewish households are in North Phoenix and Scottsdale.
"We are developing a template to apply to other areas of the Valley," he explained.
Sweet said programs will be held in the people's homes and in apartment complex clubhouses. In addition, the subcommittee might create a "storefront satellite," so that people know "someone is there, and there is someone to call."
The Strategic Campaign Planning Committee will submit a report to campaign leadership and the federation board in late August, said Art Paikowsky, federation executive vice president. The board is expected to authorize a multi-year plan and budget, he said.
Committee leaders hope to begin in the fall to plan events, based upon study initiatives.
Asked how the federation has involved the greater community in the strategic planning process, Geringer said, "The issue is to get work done - and when we have something to announce, announce it."
"When we begin to implement the goals, we will reach out and be sure the greater community knows what is going on," Sweet said.
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