As the political season heats up, “change” has become the new buzzword among presidential candidates vying for their parties’ nominations.
While they duke it out on the campaign trail, we at United Jewish Communities have quietly been working to transform the way the North American Jewish Federation system operates — cognizant of those areas in which we’ve been successful as well those where we must adapt and grow.
Our bedrock values — the principles of social justice and human rights that define the Jewish people — remain strong. Still, as the Jewish community changes, so, too, will we.
In 2007, UJC embarked on a major strategic market research initiative for the continental federation system, aimed at determining how federations can best position themselves as a consistent and compelling brand that resonates with an ever-more mobile and unaffiliated Jewish population.
We are gearing up to launch a full study that will represent a significant turning point for the federation system.
Work in the area of Jewish identity is focusing on initiatives to galvanize the community, especially the next generation, and ideas to inspire and re-energize the community to build and sustain itself well into the future.
Work will focus on the manner in which some of these approaches might be branded through a continental resource development effort.
New strategic plan
Indeed, this work is just one part of UJC’s new, overarching strategic plan, launched in June, the components of which are intended to revitalize our fundraising capacity.
The plan calls for establishing a new Center for Jewish Philanthropy; developing a strategic fundraising model for federations; attracting younger Jews and maintaining them among our donor ranks; deepening our ties with the federations; and identifying and supporting efforts aimed at enhancing Jewish identity.
UJC also is reorganizing internally in order to better accomplish our ambitious mission of helping Jews in need around the world.
We are restructuring in a way that allows us to work more efficiently and to integrate more effectively different areas: from enhancing community fundraising capacity to global operations affecting our work in Israel and elsewhere overseas.
We are also aiming to work more collaboratively and strategically with our main overseas partner organizations — the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee — for whom we provided major funding, more than $410 million in 2007 alone.
That said, UJC’s successes have been remarkable by any measurable standard. As demographer Gary Tobin recently noted, the UJC/Federation system is “the single largest fund-raising effort in American Jewish life — nothing else comes even close.”
We are incredibly proud of our long history of accomplishments and we intend to build on them.
Last year alone, the UJC/Federation system raised $2.4 billion to help Jewish people in need around the world. Last year our annual campaign climbed to $900 million, our endowment and planned giving portfolio exceeded $13 billion, supporting more than $1 billion in programs; and we continue to provide a huge array of emergency programs from New Orleans to Sderot in Israel.
We also provide a powerful voice for our federation system in our nation’s capital, where we again secured tens of millions of dollars in government aid for programs such as homeland security aid for high-risk nonprofits like federations, for naturally occurring retirement communities and for family caregiver support networks.
We have done so much over the years to help Jews in need around the world — but we are seeking to do even more. That may require some changes, but they’re exciting changes that most of us support.
Yes, change often presents challenges, and there are always those within every organization who resist change.
But we see transformation as a vital opportunity that will help our entire community better prepare for the future.
As we see it, the true mark of our success will lie not in a measure of how well our community has done — though we’re certainly proud of our accomplishments — but in our ability to be forward-looking, to make an honest appraisal of our current challenges and opportunities, and to adapt to the ever-fluid, shifting situation on the ground.
Indeed, as we venture forth into the 21st century, the future of world Jewry depends on our community’s ability to meet these challenges head-on.
Howard Rieger is president and CEO of United Jewish Communities.
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