The Jewish Federation of Louisville is depending heavily on a grant to drive interest in this year’s 2017-18 Annual Campaign – specifically, a three-year $30,000 matching grant from the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence.
If successful, as it has been in the past, the grant will encourage many donors to up their pledges, commit to their new levels for three years, and free Federation staff and volunteers to expand the donor base.
“They are very effective,” Vice-President of Philanthropy Stacy Gordon-Funk said of the so-called “step-up grant,” which was awarded in October.
Intended to stimulate giving among women and major donors, the step-up grant allows the federation to match half the increase made by any qualified contributor, so long as that person commits to the new level of giving for three years.
For example, if a donor at the $1,000 level agrees to contribute $1,800, the Federation can use the grant to match $400 as long as the donor agrees to contribute at the higher level for three years.
Gordon-Funk announced the grant during a recent interview on the status of the campaign. She said she was pleased with, and deeply appreciative for, the level of giving so far and with the programming designed to generate interest among eclectic groups within the community.
She noted, though, that there’s still a long way to go.
“A significant number of funds need to be raised,” she said.
The federation has set $2 million-plus as its goal for the campaign. It expects to get much closer to that goal during its Super Sunday phonathon in late January.
The federation supports legacy organizations, such as The J and Jewish Family & Career Services, and, through those agencies, seniors, young people, and individuals struggling with food insecurity, looking for work and other issues.
The federation, through the JDC, also subsidizes Jewish communities abroad, including Holocaust survivors living on the edge in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.