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Jewish Federation of St. Louis 2015 Report to the Community

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Jewish Federation of St. Louis 2015 Report to the Community JEWISH FEDERATION OF ST. LOUIS 2015 REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY BUILDING COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS TABLE OF CONTENTS From Our Leadership ___________________________________________________1 Consolidated Statement of Activity ___________________________________________4 Distributions and Allocations _______________________________________5 Campaign Contributors ________________________________________________________7 Giving Societies _________________________________________________10 Endowments ____________________________________________________13 Jewish Federation of St. Louis Board _______________________________17 Staff ___________________________________________________________________18 PATRICIA F. CROUGHAN FrOm Our LEAdErShip Board Chair This annual report of Jewish Federation of St. Louis details the accomplishments and recognizes the thousands of individuals and families who have invested in our community in 2014. If we were to choose two words to describe the past year, it would be building community. Building Community –investing, enhancing, expanding and connecting –has defined our focus and work for over 100 years, and will continue to do so in the decades ahead. Over the past few years, Jewish Federation of St. Louis has responded to our changing needs to become a community development organization whose mission, to preserve and enhance Jewish life in St. Louis and around the world, continues to inspire unparalleled giving. ANDREW REHFELD Central to this mission are two signature achievements of the last year: our 2014 President and CEO Community Study and the completion of the integration of the Central Agency for Jewish Education (CAJE) into the work of Jewish Federation of St. Louis. The 2014 Community Study, funded by Harvey and Terry Hieken, along with additional support from the Lubin-Green Foundation, the Morton J. and Morton D. May Fund of the Greater St. Louis Community Foundation and two anonymous donors, provided the first statistical portrait of the St. Louis Jewish community since 1995, critical for our community planning and needs assessment work. Through the study, we discovered that the number of Jewish individuals in our community is stable or growing slightly, and reflecting the growth in intermarriage, the number of non-Jewish individuals within Jewish households has grown significantly. There are now about 90,000 individuals who are part of the Jewish community, either because they are Jewish themselves or because they are living in a household with a Jewish adult. We also discovered that there are far more Jews living at or near the poverty line, and more isolated seniors. And we learned that our younger members appear to be settling east of Lindbergh, something that may or may not continue as they mature and start their own families. Jewish Federation of St. Louis is now completing the final review of the study with the aim of creating initiatives that can address these facts and fill the gaps based on our needs. The second key achievement was the integration of CAJE within Jewish Federation of St. Louis. Approved by the Board in the summer of 2014, the integration was completed by the leadership of CAJE and the hard work of our professional staffs earlier in 2015. The integration is already allowing our community to leverage our collective resources to provide even more dynamic opportunities in the area of Jewish engagement and learning. There are plans in place to use our combined strengths to develop a center for Jewish learning that will continue to provide educational support to our congregations and day schools, and also expand learning opportunities through strategic partnerships with area universities and off- campus groups. In addition to these two key achievements, here is just a sample of the work that we were able to achieve, organized by our six strategic priorities: Ensure the Jewish Identity and Engagement of Future Generations PJ Library, one of the most innovative non-institutional Jewish engagement programs developed in the last two decades, has grown to over 1,300 active St. Louis subscribers today, almost double our subscription rate from the last three years alone. Create a Vibrant, Embracing, Local Jewish community Through a series of strategic program grants, we have started new graduate student initiatives, innovation grants and significantly expanded our summer internship program to help inspire a new generation to begin their professional lives in St. Louis. Also, our Concierge program launched a new “CHAI St. Louis” program to welcome new members to our community. 2 Educate and Advocate for a strong Israel and Safe Jewish World Working in collaborative partnership with our agencies and synagogues, Jewish Federation of St. Louis launched a new SH’MA: Listen! Speaker’s Series that has attracted hundreds of people to numerous talks to learn about Israel and other pressing topics of concern to the Jewish community. And, our work with our overseas partners continues our commitment to strengthening a democratic civil society in Israel through innovative grants to foster pluralism in addition to meeting core social service needs. Finally, in addition to our support of Birthright, we continue to expand missions to Israel, sending groups of young rabbis, interfaith couples and the eighth cohort of The Rubin Israel Experience. Build a Human Service Safety Net to Identify, Monitor and Care for the Most Vulnerable and Isolated Jews Our Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) celebrated its 10th year providing award-winning support for hundreds of seniors to “age in place” by providing home care services and community and educational programs. Recruit, Train and Develop Exceptional Human Resources Thanks to the generosity of Ron and Pam Rubin and The Rubin Family Foundation, the Wexner Heritage Fellow’s program began. This national program identified 20 St. Louisans who have committed to two years of intensive leadership training focused on developing their understanding and engagement with Jewish teaching and learning. Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ Millstone Institute continues to receive national attention for its focus on community leadership training, including selection in the Slingshot Fund Guide. Slingshot recognizes innovation in Jewish life across the country and Millstone Institute has been included in the Midwest edition for the first time. Strengthen and Optimize the Community’s Infrastructure After the horrible shootings in Kansas City in the spring of 2014, Jewish Federation of St. Louis undertook emergency planning for our community. We identified key areas of weakness and worked with our congregations and agencies to perform security reviews. Earlier this summer we invested in RAVE, a community-wide emergency communications system that allows us to provide centralized text, email and phone notifications throughout our community, wherever there is a need. These are just a sampling of the work that we have done this year to strengthen our Jewish community and make the St. Louis region a place of meaning, decency and justice for all who call it home. Oh, and one other thing: we are still raising the resources we need to support the critical work our agencies and collaborative partners are doing! Indeed, the community development work of Jewish Federation of St. Louis and our agencies inspired thousands of donors to give significantly to support a vibrant Jewish community. Though the challenges of fundraising continue to be faced by many non-profits, particularly traditional Jewish organizations, our community development approach is beginning to inspire. Our Annual Campaign raised over $9.2 million, allowing us to allocate over $8.5 million to the community. We are seeing important signs of improvement for the future. Last year, our major donor group has grown significantly for the first time since 2010. In 2014, we achieved the second year-over-year increase in the total amount given by donors under 45 years old. It has been almost 20 years since Jewish Federation of St. Louis has had two consecutive years of increased giving among donors in this cohort. This two-year increase represents our most significant forward indicator of future long-term growth of our organization. Jewish Federation of St. Louis is in the business of building our Jewish community. We are grateful for the thousands of St. Louisans who invest in us, and through us, to ensure the continued vibrancy of our community. Thanks to everyone –our donors, our volunteers and our professional staff –who, collectively, build our community. Patricia Croughan Andrew Rehfeld Board Chair President & CEO CONSOLidATEd STATEmENT OF ACTiviTy (Period Ended December 31, 2014) ____ ___U_n__r_e__s_t_r_i_c_t_e__d __________ ___________r_e_s_t_r__ic__t_e_d ___________ General Board-controlled Operating endowments total temporarily Permanently total Revenues, gains, and other support: Pledges: Annual Campaign –Undesignated Pledges received in the current year $8,833,446 – $8,833,446 ––$8,833,446 Pledges received in the prior year 449,486 – 449,486 (449,486) –– Pledges restricted for subsequent year –––455,103 – 455,103 Total Annual Campaign –Undesignated 9,282,932 – 9,282,932 5,617 – 9,288,549 Annual Campaign –Designated –––204,100 – 204,100 Total Annual Campaign 9,282,932 – 9,282,932 209,71 – 9,492,649 Other Campaigns 597,560 – 597,560 ––597,560 Friends of the Holocaust Museum Campaign 190,390 – 190,390 ––190,390 Friends of the Saul Brodsky Library Campaign 32,632 – 32,632 ––32,632 Less amounts derived from
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