UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK OF NEW UJA-FEDERATION UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK LEADERSHIP President Executive Committee At Large Alisa R. Doctoroff* Amy A. B. Bressman* The world’s largest local Michael Olshan* Chair of the Board Marcia Riklis* Linda Mirels* philanthropy, UJA-Federation David A. Sterling* Executive Vice President Pamela P. Wexler* REPORT OF & CEO of New York cares for John S. Ruskay Special Advisor to the President David Valger Chair, Caring Commission Jews everywhere and New Jeffrey A. Schoenfeld* Senior Vice President Financial Resource Development Yorkers of all backgrounds, STRATEGIC Chair, Commission on Mark D. Medin Jewish Identity and Renewal Sara E. Nathan* Senior Vice President connects people to their Strategic Planning & Chair, Commission on Organizational Resources Jewish communities, and the Jewish People Alisa Rubin Kurshan DIRECTIONS Alisa F. Levin* Senior Vice President responds to crises — in Chair, Jewish Communal Agency Relations Network Commission Roberta Marcus Leiner Fredric W. Yerman* New York, in Israel, and Chief Financial Officer General Chair, AND GRANTS Irvin A. Rosenthal 2014 Campaign around the world. STRATEGIC DIRECTIONS AND GRANTS DIRECTIONS STRATEGIC Jeffrey M. Stern* General Counsel Chief Compliance Officer Campaign Chairs & Secretary Wayne K. Goldstein* Ellen R. Zimmerman 2014 – 15 Cindy R. Golub* Executive Vice Presidents Emeriti William L. Mack Ernest W. Michel Treasurer Stephen D. Solender John A Herrmann, Jr.* *Executive Committee member Main Office Regional Offices New York Long Island 130 East 59th Street 6900 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 302 New York, NY 10022 Syosset, NY 11791 212.980.1000 516.677.1800 Overseas Office Westchester Israel 701 Westchester Avenue Suite 203E 48 King George Street White Plains, NY 10604 Jerusalem, Israel 91071 914.761.5100 011.972.2.620.2053 Northern Westchester 27 Radio Circle Drive 2014 – 15 Mt. Kisco, NY 10549 914.666.9650 ujafedny.org facebook.com/ujafedny twitter.com/ujafedny 2536 Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 3 Jewish Communal Network Commission (JCNC) Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 6 Commission Membership List ...................................................................................................... 8 Fiscal 2015 Grants ........................................................................................................................ 12 Fiscal 2014 Grants Awarded Since July 1, 2013 ....................................................................... 19 Caring Commission (Caring) Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 22 Commission Membership List .................................................................................................... 24 Fiscal 2015 Grants ........................................................................................................................ 27 Fiscal 2014 Grants Awarded Since July 1, 2013 ....................................................................... 38 Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal (COJIR) Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 46 Commission Membership List .................................................................................................... 48 Fiscal 2015 Grants ........................................................................................................................ 51 Fiscal 2014 Grants Awarded Since July 1, 2013 ....................................................................... 54 Commission on the Jewish People (COJP) Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 59 Commission Membership List .................................................................................................... 62 Fiscal 2015 Grants ........................................................................................................................ 66 Fiscal 2014 Grants Awarded Since July 1, 2013 ....................................................................... 71 SYNERGY Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 79 SYNERGY Membership List ..................................................................................................... 80 Fiscal 2015 Grants and Other Commitments .......................................................................... 81 Fiscal 2014 Grants and Other Commitments Since July 1, 2013 .......................................... 82 Fiscal 2015 Grants by Agency ................................................................................................. 83 Fiscal 2014 Grants Awarded Since July 1, 2013 (outside the Commissions process) ................................................................................... 109 Named Endowment and Spending Funds ...................................................................... 116 Special Thanks ......................................................................................................................... 120 Introduction The possibility of change is embedded in our tradition. Each year during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we are reminded of the possibility of teshuva. Our classical prophets instructed our people that they could abandon habitual ways and create new patterns and institutions that would embody justice, fairness, and compassion. In this book, you will find a list of UJA-Federation of New York grants for the 2014-15 fiscal year as well as those awarded for the current fiscal year since publication of the Report of Strategic Directions and Grants for 2013-14. Each grant represents a belief that we can do better, that we can build stronger, more engaged, and more cohesive Jewish communities. The sum of these grants expresses our belief that our creativity, courage, and resources can change institutions and communities. May the efforts reflected in this book advance us further on our journey toward redemption. This has been a year of significant strategic review on the planning and allocations side of our organization. Beginning in 1999, we have planned and allocated through three mission-based commissions (Caring Commission, Commission on the Jewish People, Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal), the Jewish Communal Network Commission, and, since 2009, SYNERGY (UJA-Federation and synagogues together). Fourteen years later, UJA-Federation engaged the Bridgespan Group (a leading consulting firm serving not- for-profit organizations) to assist us in an in-depth review of our allocations and grant making process. After six months of intensive data gathering, we created three working groups that focused on issues critical to ensuring that we use our resources most effectively. The three working groups dealt with these key topics: Allocations: Establishing organization wide priorities to guide the work of the commissions and the development of signature initiatives; Performance Measurement and Evaluation: Enhancing performance measurement and evaluation to better assess the efficacy of our grants and to allow us to compare grants to one another; and Core Operating Support: Providing a methodology for distributing core operating support that responds to ongoing change in our community and in our network agencies, and that provides a basis beyond history for allocating unrestricted funds. Initial recommendations from the allocations working group that could be implemented immediately were used on a pilot basis in this year’s appropriations process and are reflected in the grants that you will find in this report. An implementation committee is being established to oversee the full implementation of all three working groups’ recommendations, which will impact our planning for years to come. Allocations Each year, priorities are informed by our vision of creating “caring, inspired, and interconnected communities” and where UJA-Federation can have the greatest impact. In prior years, strategic priorities were developed at the commission level and were reflected in the presentations made by the commissions to the Allocations Steering Committee (ASC)* in the initial phase of the allocations process. But while the priorities were consistent with our mission, that mission has turned out to be too broad to be helpful in focusing our resources on the most important priorities from an organizationwide perspective. This year, we added a Priorities Cabinet (composed of the ASC plus a former commission chair and a former campaign chair) to develop organizationwide priorities. The commissions made recommendations for priorities to the cabinet, which then guided the group to collaborate, provide input, receive feedback, and advance thinking on priorities. At the end of this work, the Priorities Cabinet adopted priorities (detailed below) and suggested areas for the development of new initiatives. When the commissions came to the ASC with specific funding *Under UJA-Federation’s bylaws, the ASC consists of the president, chair of the board, treasurer, executive vice president & CEO, and immediate past president, who serves