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TZEDAKAH CENTRAL Annual Giving Section
INSIDE:
30 Giving Something Tangible Local businesses aim to improve needy families’ holiday experiences
34 Easy Giving GenchoPetkov
Credit cards, online efforts aid charitable causes
36 A New Wave Of Philanthropy In Eastern Europe, homegrown giving and volunteerism is taking root
36 Leave A Legacy
Endowment gis keep on giving
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Giving Something Tangible
Local businesses aim to improve needy families’ holiday experiences By David Snyder
Ali Berney and the staff at Carbiz
are all too familiar with the negative stereotypes associated with the usedcar business. at’s why when Berney, finance manager at the Glen car dealership, contacted local charities to ask for their participation in the company’s newest giving initiative, she was prepared for a certain amount of skepticism. And that was the case earlier this fall when Carbiz reached out to several organizations and offered them the chance to be a part of its anksgiving turkey drive. “I think at first they were kind of taken aback because I was contacting them, reaching out to them, saying, ‘Hey, can you participate?’” Berney said. “They don’t expect a car dealership … contributing in this sort of way. It took a lot of convincing on my part to say, ‘Hey, we want to give you this. This is the real deal.’” eir plan was simple. For every vehicle sold between Nov. 1 and Nov. 19, Carbiz donated one turkey to the car buyer and allowed the customer to donate a second turkey to one of three local organizations: Bea Gaddy Family Centers Inc., e Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore or Catholic Charities of Baltimore. Customers were also given the option of giving their personal turkeys to charity as well. Berney said a good portion of car buyers elected to go that route. rough the first two weeks of the drive, Carbiz had amassed more than 75 turkeys destined for needy families.
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Many Carbiz customers decided to give up their turkeys and instead donate them to needy families.
“People say, ‘I have 10-15 dollars to a buy a turkey myself, let me donate this one to a good cause,’” Berney said. “They appreciate the opportunity to give something tangible rather than just money.”
Advance’s effort is an informal, grassroots initiative; employees are not required to donate. However, the company’s executives explain that when presented with the opportunity in a pressure-free environment, a
“It’s the value system that you are brought up with, you help those in need.”
— Jeff Elkin, Advance
The staff at Advance has taken a similar approach. Each year, the Cockeysville-based document management company partners with local organizations that pair Advance with a few needy families who are experiencing challenging circumstances during the holiday season. Like Carbiz, Advance aims to give material necessities rather than just money alone. Provided with the families’ information, including the children’s age and gender, the company accumulates suitable food, clothing and toys to improve their holiday experience.
Baltimore Jewish Times November 23, 2012
majority of the staff feels compelled to do its part. “Giving is a very personal thing, and it should come from the heart and the head,” Advance President Jeff Elkin said. “A good portion of our employees end up contributing.” With so many worthy nonprofits in the area, Elkin said that it’s a struggle each year to select which ones to aid. He said that when it comes to doing their part during the holidays, it’s never about publicity, but about doing the right thing to support the local community.
“It’s partly a Jewish thing. We’re brought up to give back. Obviously, we’re not a Jewish company, but being a Jewish-owned company, our value system is inherent in what we do,” Elkin said. “We’re a local company, we’re members of the community, and there’s a need there. It’s the value system that you are brought up with, you help those in need.” Charities across the city are grateful for the efforts of companies such as Carbiz and Advance. Bea Gaddy Family Centers Executive Director Cynthia Brooks said that because of Hurricane Sandy, donations aren’t as plentiful this year. As a result, any added assistance her organization receives is welcome. “At this time of the year, everybody has a spirit that comes over them,” Brooks said. “They want to help somebody, and it makes them feel good — especially when they help somebody they don’t know.” JT David Snyder is a JT staff reporter dsnyder@jewishtimes.com
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Tzedakah Central
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REMEMBER THE ONES YOU L VE Friends … Family … Baltimore The Baltimore Community Foundation has been helping people who love Baltimore David Stuck
for 40 years. You’d be surprised at the variety of creative ideas people have come up with, and the range of charitable plans we’ve helped them design and bring to life.
What will your gift to Baltimore be? Explore the possibilities at
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www.bcf.org/sharethelove
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Easy Giving
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Credit cards, online efforts aid charitable causes By Ron Snyder
Stacie Mann Kronthal said people watching the news in recent weeks have had many reasons to be inspired to make a charitable donation. Whether it is to assist Americans impacted by Hurricane Sandy or helping Israelis under siege from the most recent violence in the Gaza Strip, people want to find ways to help, but they want to do it in the easiest way possible, Kronthal said. In the 21st century, that can take place with the swipe of credit card, a simple text or a click of the mouse. Charitable giving through digital channels is quickly becoming the most popular way people choose to help, said Kronthal, vice president of partnerships for the Bethesda-based Networkf or Good.org. Founded in 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Network for Good has helped collect more than $700 million for more than 80,000 nonprofit organizations through online giving and other digital programs. is includes assisting charitable groups like
the Jewish Federations of North America along with businesses such as Capital One, which allows its card holders to donate cash or credit card reward points to more than 1.2 million U.S. charities. “This is a digital world we live in today,” Kronthal said. “When people are sitting around the Shabbat table talking about causes to support, they are looking for convenient ways of doing it. Today, more than ever, that means using a credit card or smartphone rather than reaching for a checkbook or dropping off a donation to someone standing outside a store or at an intersection.” JFNA spokesman Joe Berkofsky said his organization has tried to be on the forefront when it comes to donations through digital platforms, and that approach seems to be working. In 2011, JFNA raised $11.5 million through 24,000 online transactions. is compares to $9.5 million through about 8,000 online transactions in 2009. In addition, Berkofsky said, JFNA
is starting to see its donations via texting increase as well. He pointed out that in just the first few days of launching its Israel Terror Relief Fund, JFNA raised about $3,000 through 30 text-to-pledge donations. “E-philanthropy through online donations, credit card transactions and texting is a burgeoning part of our work today,” Berkofsky said. “It has become an even more powerful tool during times of crises like we are seeing today. The Jewish community has always been very responsive during such times, and now it’s easier than ever to do so.” Also becoming increasingly popular are affinity credit cards, where people can donate to various causes every time they make a purchase. For those seeking to support charitable causes in Israel, there is the HAS (Heritage Affinity Services) Visa card. Launched in 2005, card holders can support up to five Israel-related charitable organizations within the HAS 24-member network. is includes
Ron Snyder is a JT staff reporter rsnyder@jewishtimes.com
What if there was one day when the entire country gave back? Would the impact be greater? The founders of #GivingTuesday think so. #GivingTuesday began its life as a simple idea: Take a day and give thanks. “We have two for getting deals,” it states on the movement’s website, giv ingtu esday.or g. “Wouldn’t it be great to have a day for giving back?” A lot of people liked the idea. New York’s 92nd Street Y has been
the catalyst and incubator for #GivingTuesday, bringing the expertise of 139 years of community management to the project and providing #GivingTuesday a home. The United Nations Foundation joined as partners, bringing its strategic and communications clout to the project. Then, a team of influencers offered their ideas, contacts and wisdom to help shape and improve the concept. Today, a powerful list of corporations and nonprofits have agreed to be founding partners, helping spread
the word and committing to their own #GivingTuesday initiatives. So this year, on Nov. 27, you too will have a chance to give. In Maryland, there are well over a dozen #GivingTuesday projects, including one through The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. According to the #GivingTuesday website, the federation is bringing together its campaign fundraisers and its hands-on volunteers for a phonea-thon to reach hundreds of its donors.
It is also offering a service learning project to aid service recipients and advance local media coverage to promote this new national day of giving. Every new and increased gift will also be matched by a generous MileOne Automotive Challenge Grant. For more information, visit associated.org/get involv ed. To find all Maryland #GivingTuesday projects, visit the program’s website, click on the “Partners” tab and sort by state. — Maayan Jaffe
#Giving Tuesday
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Baltimore Jewish Times November 23, 2012
hospitals, emergency services, children’s organizations and social service agencies. “This card is an easy way for Jewish communities to support Israel,” said HAS Advantage co-founder Zev Doubler in a statement. “You can spend money on your HAS Advantage Card every day while benefiting Israel’s economy.” Capital One has a similar program designed to assist smaller nonprofits. Card Lab Connect allows an organization to set up its own affinity card, where users have a portion of their charges go toward a charity. This includes 2 percent on gas/grocery, up to 10 percent "preferred merchant” purchases, 1 percent on everything else and a $50 first purchase bonus per approved application. “It’s really a simple approach for small nonprofits to help raise funds for their cause,” Capital One spokeswoman Pam Girardo said. JT
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A New Wave Of Philanthropy
By Cnaan Liphshiz
In Eastern Europe, homegrown giving and volunteerism is taking root Wearing an elegant dress and name tag, Dasha Fedoseeva flitted among the tables during a recent Jewish community dinner in Moscow. Fedoseeva wasn’t just a guest. She was part of a team of young Jewish volunteers whose goal was to mingle and charm older guests into increasing their donations to local Jewish charities. Organized by the Russian Jewish Congress, the gala dinner and auction raised $85,000. In 2011, the congress allocated $385,000 to a Jewish orphanage in Moscow. All the money was raised locally in fundraising drives. e raising of substantial funds locally is a sign of something that was almost unthinkable just a few years ago in former Soviet bloc countries. For years, the Jewish communities there subsisted on Western help for welfare and community building. But as these communities grow up, they are becoming increasingly self-reliant — something that’s evident both in the growing culture of local volunteerism and homegrown philanthropy. “We see more volunteering by young Jews and more donations, which are aspects of the same trend of giving,” said Matvey Chlenov, deputy director of the Russian Jewish Congress. “In the 1990s there was a feeling we were struggling to survive in the post-communist upheaval. Now we have more time and money, and ... are looking for a way to do positive things for the community.” Chlenov says this applies not only to Jews, but also to Russian society. In Ukraine, a $70 million Jewish community center in Dnepropetrovsk, due to be dedicated this month, was
funded entirely by local philanthropists. Elsewhere in Ukraine, JCCs are encouraging activism and philanthropy among young Jews while accustoming older members to paying fees. In Poland, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee recently received its first significant donation from a local philanthropist. Promoters of Jewish life in Eastern Europe say getting people to donate time and money is difficult in the former Soviet bloc, where bitter memories of “forced volunteering” remain and there is deep-rooted skepticism in the idea of sacrificing for the common good. “Former Soviet countries have little culture of giving or volunteering, and I know exactly why,” said Karina Sokolowska, director of the Poland office of the JDC. “Growing up in communist Poland, I remember attending ‘compulsory-voluntary action’ every month. We would go somewhere and do what they told us. It profoundly affects your attitude to community work.” Mariya Zarud, 22, of Odessa, encountered this barrier, too. Zarud, the regional coordinator for the JDC-funded Metzuda program for developing Jewish leadership, said she had to plead with her parents to convince them that her unpaid role in the Jewish community was a good thing. “Initially, it was pretty tough. I had to make them see I wasn’t wasting my time,” Zarud said of her teen years, when she first became involved with JDC programs. While her parents’ generation looks askance at volunteering, young Jews recognize that it is up to them — not just
Ilya Dolgopolsky
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Tzedakah Central
Among the volunteers at a recent auction and gala fundraiser at Moscow's Radisson Royal Hotel were Natan Shuminov (left) and Kirill Samokhvalov. The money went to benefit a Jewish orphanage.
international Jewish aid groups — to build their communities, she says. In Odessa, the Beit Grand Jewish Community Center, which was dedicated in 2010 thanks to American Jewish donations, collects fees for all activities, according to Ira Zborovskaya of the local JDC office. “Even if it’s only symbolic, everyone has to chip in and pay,” he said. In Soviet times “charging fees for cultural activities was unthinkable — it was all free,” said Kira Verkhovskaya, director of Odessa’s other JCC, Migdal. Fees are also collected as a matter of policy there, but most of the budget comes from subsidies from Jews in the West. “Some older people are not happy when they are asked to pay,” she said. Both Migdal and Beit Grand have programs that encourage young Jews to contribute time and effort. Beit Grand also operates a luxury Jewish kindergarten for 40 children whose well-off parents pay a monthly fee of $500 — approximately double the average national monthly salary. e kindergarten is so popular that it has a long waiting list. e annual income of $240,000 from fees helps cover other programs, including charitable activities. Still, the culture of giving is far less
widespread than in the West, experts say. Russia has a Jewish population of 265,000, according to a 2010 official census, and the World Jewish Congress says it estimates the number is at least 330,000. Despite the community’s size, local philanthropy comes mostly from a thin layer of “oligarchs or super-rich Jews,” Chlenov said. “What we are missing is a trusted brand for small donations from middleclass donors, like what the Jewish federation system does in the U.S.,” he said. Attempts to raise donations from that sector yielded some results, according to Chlenov, but never beyond a total of $150,000 per campaign. In Ukraine, Eduard Dolinsky, director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, says the Jewish middle class still isn’t opening its wallet. “Since the mid-’90s, we are seeing the same 10 to 15 very rich Jews funding charity,” he said. e donor pool is “sadly not expanding.” is means that with a Jewish population of 360,000 to 400,000 and many thousands of welfare cases, Ukrainian Jewry would “face a humanitarian disaster” if it weren’t for American money, Dolinsky added. JT Cnaan Liphshiz writes for the JTA Wire Service.
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Tzedakah Central
Leave A Legacy Endowment gifts keep on giving
By Maayan Jaffe
Michael Friedman of The Associated says an endowment gift “can go on forever.”
Now and forever.
at is the message Nancy Kohn Rabin, chair of e Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, delivered about the importance of making a legacy gift. “If we want to sustain our Jewish community, there is no question people have to endow their gis,” Rabin said. “e Talmud says, ‘Just as my ancestors planted for me, so I will plant for my children.’ Children here means more than my personal children, it means the Jewish community.” How does it work? What is a legacy gift? According to Michael Friedman, senior vice president of Planned Giving & Endowment at The Associated, a legacy gift is any gift a person leaves to an heir or to a charity that is intended to have a lasting impact. An endowment is a type of legacy gift. “The easiest way to describe an endowment is [that it’s] a gift that keeps on giving. The gift is invested 44
and then an amount is spent each year from the endowment to support the program, project or organization that the donor has designated,” said Friedman. “Managed properly, the gift — and more importantly, the services and benefits — can go on forever.” The Associated is seeing that statement in action. The federation manages $650 million in endowment and foundation assets that support the programs and services of its agencies. Also included in that total are the assets of virtually every synagogue and day school in Baltimore that has an endowment, as well as several other federations’ endowment assets. Through its Consolidated Investment Fund and a lay committee that oversees it, it has outperformed every Jewish federation in North America and has performed better than the top 10 percent of all endowment funds managed by any nonprofit. That’s good news for an organization like The Associated. Last year,
Baltimore Jewish Times November 23, 2012
20 percent of the organization’s annual campaign, said Friedman, was paid from philanthropic funds and supporting foundation grants. Moreover, more than $4 million in revenue is realized from other unrestricted and designated endowments for Associated programs and agencies. “That’s $4 million in additional revenue over and above what we raise for the annual campaign,” he said. At Beth Tfiloh, Ricka Neuman chairs the synagogue/school’s endowment efforts. She said she decided to work with the program in order to ensure “a strong and enduring Beth Tfiloh.” Neuman cited the recent 2010 Greater Baltimore Jewish Community Study as underscoring the importance of legacy gis. She said that as young people grow more disconnected and give less to solely Jewish causes, “these funds will be needed 20-30 years down the road — this is how [BT] is going to be able to provide for its community.” Neuman has made her own legacy
gift in her father’s name. “At some point, four or five years ago, I was sitting in a meeting and the importance of kiddushes after service was talked about — the importance of people being able to stand around and talk, catch up and really just give a sense of community [to the shul],” said Neuman. “I ended up talking to
U.S. Giving Trends
In 2011, where did the money come from? Where did it go? Total charitable giving: $298 billion (up about $12 billion from 2010) Total giving by private, community and operating foundations: $41.7 billion Donations by corporations and corporate foundations: $14.6 billion Bequests: $24.4 billion (an increase of 9 percent from 2010) Source: Giving USA
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Make A Gift For The Future Ways to leave a legacy
Make a Bequest in Your Will: A simple bequest in your will designated to a charity is the most common technique for leaving your legacy.
Use Life Insu ran ce: A gift of a life insurance policy is particularly appealing for younger individuals because of its reasonable cost and tax benefit. When charity is the owner and beneficiary of the policy, the premium payments that you make are tax deductible. If you have an older policy that you no longer need for your family’s protection, you may be able to contribute that policy and realize a tax benefit. Name a Charity as the Beneficiary o f You r IRA o r Retirement Plan : Your IRA or retirement plan can be subject to high estate and income taxes, leaving precious few dollars for your heirs. When planning your
legacy for charity, always consider using these assets first. The more you can save on your tax bill, the more that your heirs will stand to inherit from you. E s t a b l i s h a C h a r i t ab l e I n c o m e Plan: A charitable remainder trust or charitable gift annuity provides you or a loved one with needed current income while providing a legacy for charity after your lifetime. Important tax benefits and possible increased income are available. Create Your Legacy Today With an Outright Gift of Cash, Stock or Other Property: Take advantage of immediate income tax benefits, and create your legacy during your lifetime. Your favorite charity will work with you to identify the most tax-efficient way to establish your legacy right away.
Growing to Serve you Better through a Continuum of Care The Herman & Walter Samuelson Children’s Hospital at Sinai
Opened March, 2012 Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital New Households & Town Center on the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Campus
Source: The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore
my family, and we started a kiddush fund — and we committed to endow it so that there can be kiddushes for as long as there needs to be kiddushes.” Neuman said that when she approaches a potential donor, she asks him or her, “What do you want your legacy to be? ... Is there something you are passionate about?” There are many ways that one can leave a legacy gift, and people are jumping on the bandwagon. At BT, more than 75 people have committed to legacy gifts. “Endowment gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Many we know about in advance. Some we do not,”
said Friedman. Friedman told a story from when he first started at The Associated: “I got a call from a lawyer telling me to come to the cemetery that aernoon for the funeral of a 101-year-old woman who was leaving her estate to e Associated. She never gave more than $100 a year to us when she was alive. Imagine my surprise when we learned she was leaving us $2 million. Now, each and every year we draw more than $100,000 to help continue to innovate and sustain our community.” JT Maayan Jaffe is JT managing editor mjaffe@jewishtimes.com
Opened January, 2012 To make an end-of-year gift to support quality health care for you, your family and your community
give online at www.lifebridgehealth.org/giving or call the LifeBridge Health Department of Development at 410-601-4438. Your gift will strengthen hospital programs, enhance medical technologies, assist in attracting the best clinical staff and help maintain a healing environment. jewishtimes.com
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