They’re exchanging green eyeshades for party hats down on Steuart Street. With all the dollars counted, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties announced that its annual campaign took in the highest amount in the organization’s 96-year history: more than $24.6 million.
That figure tops last year’s tally of $22.9 by nearly 10 percent.
A statement released by the federation said, “This total gives the federation the resources to help meet the needs of the Bay Area Jewish community and Jews around the world as never before.”
“This is a huge statement about the community’s confidence in our ability to make an impact,” said the JCF’s CEO, Tom Dine, who officially assumed his post last November. “Campaign 2006 reflects an increase of 10 percent over last year’s total — beating the national average reported by charities, including federations across the country. This momentum is particularly important and applicable at this current time of crisis in Israel.”
Newly elected federation board president John Pritzker adds, “It’s quite amazing. It reaffirms the notion that what federation does and how federation does it is a very valid model. This now allows us to do all that we thought we needed to do.”
That includes expanded projects in what the federation calls its five strategic areas of focus: caring for the vulnerable, poor and elderly; welcoming interfaith families into the community; strengthening and expanding Jewish education; fostering diverse voices in the Jewish community; and promoting Israel and worldwide Jewish peoplehood.
Those efforts to expand support to Israel have already begun. This past week, the federation donated $50,000 in emergency funds to pay for buses used to evacuate Israelis in the northern war zone.
How did the federation manage to raise so much money in the campaign? Pritzker attributes much of it to good old-fashioned elbow grease.
“There was better organizing and education of our solicitors,” he added. “The good news is we met our goal. The better news is that the spirit of [the campaign] felt much more upbeat and positive. And having Tom Dine in town sent a strong message. People are excited he’s here.”
Campaign chair Jim Koshland is justifiably pleased with the results, but he says there is more work to be done. “This allows us to do more initiatives,” he says, “and to make agencies aware there’s not going to be any cutbacks. But we have fewer donors at the bottom end and we need to do a better job at getting out our existing donors.”
That’s for the 2007 campaign to worry about. Right now, the federation leadership is happy with their results for 2006. “Having run the campaign a few years ago, I thought the [financial target] was very aggressive,” says Pritzker. “But you want to do something to make you stretch.”