Jewish Federations Try New Ways to Reach Out to Younger Donors

Leaders of North America’s Jewish federations are experimenting with an array of approaches to attract a new generation

of donors, including an advertising campaign featuring young celebrities, an effort to allow donors in their 30s and early 40s to play a hands-on role in determining how their gifts will be used, and running special events like “Kosher Poker.”

The goal is to transform the image of Jewish federations, which many American Jews see as organizations that were important to their parents and grandparents, but not necessarily an integral part of their lives today. Jewish federations primarily support social-service groups and Jewish education programs in the United States, Israel, and elsewhere.

While federation officials have long been concerned that young people were not as enthusiastic about supporting the organizations as older Americans, they were given more reason to worry by survey findings released in the past 18 months.

The National Jewish Population Survey, which is conducted once a decade, found that only 9 percent of people age 35 to 49 gave $100 or more to a local Jewish federation, and only 2 percent of those age 18 to 34 made gifts of that amount. What’s more, Jews said they were directing more of their gifts to other Jewish causes and to secular charities. For instance, people age 35 to 49 gave an average of $73 to local Jewish federations, $279 to other Jewish causes, and $481 to non-Jewish organizations.

Need for National Identity

Gail Hyman, senior vice president for communications at United Jewish Communities, which sponsored the study and represents 155 North American Jewish federations, says the survey also showed that many of the people the federations most want to attract are increasingly mobile: Many have second homes, some have children away at college, and many are moving every five years on average.

Those findings helped persuade the federations that they needed to build a national identity, rather than promotions that differed from city to city.

United Jewish Communities is in the process of unveiling the campaign, which relies on the slogan “Live generously: It does a world of good.”

This fall United Jewish Communities hired the Kaplan Thaler Group, a New York advertising agency, to create three 30-second commercials featuring young celebrities, including Marlee Matlin, Joshua Malina of The West Wing, and Greg Grunberg, who appears in the show Alias. The actors talk about what it means to live generously, and why it matters.

The ads, which also have print versions, feature a tzedakah box, which the campaign uses as an icon to remind people of the Jewish charitable tradition. Many Jewish youngsters are encouraged to drop dimes and nickels into such boxes every time they go to Sunday school. (Tzedakah is the Hebrew word for giving.)

Tradition of Collective Giving

Besides trying to convey a more modern image, Jewish federations have also been grappling with demands from younger donors who are increasingly asking for more say about how their donations are used.

While United Ways and other federated campaigns have responded to demands for donor control by allowing people to earmark their gifts for specific purposes, Jewish federations have been somewhat more cautious.

Many Jewish-federation leaders say they believe it is important to stick to the tradition of everyone putting money into a communal pot that is then distributed to the charities that deal with the most pressing needs. Many of them say they fear making changes that would alienate their older donors.

“In this world of unbridled individualism, donors want to support their own day school, synagogue, and cultural institution of choice,” says John Ruskay, chief executive of the Jewish federation in New York, which raised $167-million last year. “But if they only do that, then the capacity of the North American Jewish community to respond to the elderly in Brooklyn and Queens and Israel and Argentina and the former Soviet Union will be compromised.”

While many donors have asked the New York group to allow them to earmark gifts they make to the federation’s annual campaign for specific causes, the federation has resisted that. However, it is trying to come up with alternative ways to give donors opportunities for more involvement than writing a check.

For instance, four years ago, it started the Solelim (or pathfinders in Hebrew) Fund. The effort brings together a small number of wealthy Jews age 35 to 42, who each agree to contribute $50,000 a year for three years.

In total, Solelim participants have raised $2.55-million and have collectively decided which projects to support. They have selected 24 different programs in Israel and the United States.

The beneficiaries included a Jerusalem food pantry, a New York program that trains impoverished Jewish adults to become computer-network technicians, and another New York effort to help people who are taking care of terminally ill friends and relatives.

The Jewish federation considers Solelim so successful that it is starting another fund built on similar principles, and other federations are considering adopting the approach.

Changes in Geography

Beyond dealing with demands for greater control, Jewish federation leaders are also trying to deal with changes in donor geography. While states in the West are attracting a growing number of Jewish residents, giving there is not keeping pace. Just 6 percent of Jews in the West made contributions of $100 or more to their federations, according to the National Jewish Population Survey.

In Las Vegas, where approximately 600 Jewish people are moving into the city per month, the local federation has a full calendar of efforts to reach Jewish residents, including a family-friendly indoor festival to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day, which attracted almost 8,000 people last year; Vodka/Latke, an adult Hanukkah party; and Kosher Poker, a tournament that drew about 150 participants.

Meyer L. Bodoff, president of the Jewish federation in Las Vegas, says his group and others like it will need to continue to experiment with new ways to reach out to potential donors.

“The reality of the West and the reality of new generations means that we have to do our business a little differently,” he says. While younger donors may be harder to attract to the Jewish federations than their parents, he says, “that doesn’t mean younger donors won’t give. It’s just a question of finding new tools of reaching out to them.”