Successful final push enables JCC to pay off mortgage

The Marin Jewish Community Center in San Rafael recently paid off its mortgage in full with a little help from some friends.

A three-to-one challenge grant from the Bernard Osher Jewish Philanthropies Foundation and the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation gave the JCC the push it needed to effectively burn its $1,178,424 mortgage.

Building on earlier contributions of $365,000, a total of $1,265,785 was raised with assistance from 10 major community donors contacted by the foundation. As a three-to-one challenge grant, for every single dollar the donors contributed, the foundation contributed three.

The additional $87,361, raised in excess funds, was contributed to the JCC's campus partner, the Brandeis Hillel Day School, to help pay off its remaining mortgage. The day school now has a balance of around $160,000.

Ron Mogel, executive director of the JCC, said that the lifted burden of mortgage payments will help to "better enhance the programs and scholarships" offered by the center. It will also ensure "a healthy future" for the JCC as well as the more than 7,500 members who use its meeting rooms, gym, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, theater, nursery school, senior lounge, café and more.

According to Mark Reisbaum, director of grants at the JCF's Jewish Community Endowment Fund, the JCC was formerly paying $230,000 a year in mortgage payments. Those would have continued for at least another seven years.

"Now that money can be applied towards benefiting the whole of the community," said Reisbaum.

Exact program and scholarship areas to be targeted by the newly liberated funds, as well as a possible symbolic burning-of-the-mortgage ceremony, will be discussed when the Marin JCC board meets later this month, said Mogel.

Eliminating the mortgage has been a long time in the making for the JCC, which was first established in 1947 and opened at its current site on 200 N. San Pedro Road in 1991.

Ten years ago "it was not a strong economic time," according to Reisbaum. The $14 million site, which includes the JCC, the day school and Congregation Rodef Sholom, "cost more than [organizers] had budgeted for it, and they had to use debt to open."

Rodef Sholom paid off its portion of the mortgage in the late 1990s, but the JCC and the day school had not. Previous attempts to raise enough money fell short, so the foundation decided to jump in and help, starting with the JCC.

However, a challenge grant issued to the JCC a few years ago by the foundation could not be matched successfully, "so the money was not made available," said Reisbaum.

This time the foundation did things a bit differently.

For instance, challenge grants typically double the money raised. This one tripled it.

Also, rather than holding a broad fund-raising campaign, the foundation appealed directly to only a small group of philanthropists and donors with a $400,000 challenge.

"We wanted to find people who could help this effort without taking anything away from other important needs of the community," Reisbaum explained.

He did not release the names of the donors but said their contributions ranged from $10,000 to $100,000.

Joel Renbaum, president of the JCC board, expressed his thanks to the foundation and its donors, calling the burning of the center's mortgage a new beginning for the center and the Marin community.

"It marks the completion of probably a 15-year process, beginning with our conceptualization of the JCC and ending with having it paid for," he said. "We can now refocus...on the future and furthering our services."